We decided to leave after breakfast. The girls had fun eating breakfast every day with Elijah.
Kelly packed a cooler, we got the kids in the car seats, and off we went. Yellowstone, here we come! Two 14-month olds, one 10-month old, and 4 adults packed into a Toyota Sienna. Even though there were 3 car seats and 4 adults, the trip was really comfortable. Made me happy that we have the same van. From Helena, the North entrance of the park is about 3 hours away and its open year round. The West entrance (West Yellowstone) is also about 3 hours away. Paul had it planned that instead of driving to the North entrance and out the West, we would drive in the West entrance and out the North.
We stopped by and had some amazing cinnamon rolls for the ride. It's amazing when you have great company how fast 3 hours can seem. Below are some pictures on the way to the park:
West Yellowstone is this neat little town of hotels and shops. The town didn't seem too busy when we rolled in about noon. We head over to the entrance. The en trace is similar to a theme park entrance. It was pretty wide and you drove up to toll lanes/booths where you can pay to get in. It seemed kind of strange that there were no other cars around. We rolled past a little sign in the middle of the road. What I could read was something like "No commercial vehicles, beyond this point.... " Something to that effect. I didn't think twice about it. The only thing I noticed was that Paul pulled into a toll both that said "Closed" on top. And of course the only other vehicle that was there, pulled right behind us. We had to signal him to back up so we could also. When we backed-up, I saw that the three other toll booths also said "Closed." That's when I went "Hmmmmm." And then I thought of that sign. I recalled that the sign also said to "Use the North Entrance." I asked Kelly how far the North Entrance. She said it was HOURS away.
We tried to figure out the situation a little more. We pulled into a visitors center that was located next to the entrance. Paul got out to go ask some questions on how to get in. He came back and said the visitors entrance was locked. That's about when I knew that we probably weren't going to be seeing Yellowstone in our near future. Paul wanted to find somebody to ask about how to get in. We drove next door to this Bear/Wolf Discovery Center. Paul again got out to ask. I think by then, we all knew we just had a National Lampoon's Vacation "WallyWorld" moment. After about 5 minutes, I saw Paul walking back defeated. He got back into the van to tell us what we already knew, the West Entrance was closed and we had to use the North. It didn't take us long to figure out that there was no way that was going to happen. The North entrance is 3 hours away. It is also 3 hours away from home and we just drove 3 hours. There's no way the kids would be happy campers stuck in car seats that long.
Below is a picture of Katy and Madison while we wait for Paul to get the "Confirmation" that the entrance was closed.
So we decided to lick our wounds and take the trek back home. We did stop by McDonalds for lunch and we loitered in the Discovery Center for awhile so the kids could stretch their legs. Below is Melanie in a Teepee.
Below is Madison in the Teepee.
Paul and Elijah.
Kelly and Caveman Elijah.
Picture on the trek back home to Helena.
The kids happy to be out of their car seats. They are excited to see Maddy. 
Poor Paul. He was pretty broken up about the whole thing. Saying things like "You guys had this trip planned for 5 months and you came all the way from Chicago so I could take you 3 hours to see the "entrance" of Yellowstone." The truth was, we weren't upset at all. This trip was all about visiting with our friends which is what we were doing. We were having a great time just riding in the van seeing Montana's countryside. Yellowstone was just an added bonus. We poked fun at it, asking if there was a Moose so we could punch in the nose like in the movie Vacation. In hindsight, we should have driven back to the entrance and taken a group picture next to that darn sign that said "Use the North entrance."
To make light of the situation, I superimposed some of our Helena hiking pictures with some Yellowstone pictures I got from the internet. The actual Helena hiking pictures will be posted in the next post. Paul, we still love you!
Paul hiking next to a Yellowstone sign. Well not really.
Ooooo. Those hot spings can be scarry!
Family picture at Old Faithful.
No comments:
Post a Comment