Yellowstone or Bust: Day 2

(Sunday, August 23)
These photos are a mix from cameras and iphones- sorry they are all different sizes and quality!

Today we woke up early, went to breakfast with the fam, and hit the road. First stop was Twin Falls, Idaho. I wanted Joel and the kids to see the falls, plus we wanted to stock up at Costco. Somehow we ended up hanging out in Twin for over 2 hours. A wrong turn on the way to the falls, thawed meat leaking all over the cooler, potty breaks, gas stop . . . 2 hours goes quickly when there are 5 people to consider!

Finally we hit the road again. This time we were headed towards Craters of the Moon National Monument. It was nearing evening at this point, and beginning to drizzle. We were ready for adventure though! Our sweatshirts were buried in the trunk, under the bikes and bike rack. I dug the kids' out, but Joel and I had to make due with blankets we'd thrown in. Embarrassing! Also, M, G, and I were hiking in flip flops- dumb! I thought we'd just be following some paved trails though. Little did I know we'd be actually spelunking through a lava cave- no trail, no board walk, just crawling up and over lots of very big rocks. Carter kept checking on me, "You otay, Mama?" (I was.) It was fun and adventurous, and it was all we could do to keep Adventure Boy Garrett within our sights! He was LOVING it. At the end he said, "Man, that should have been a LOT longer." Meanwhile, when we acsended from the depths of the cave, we were in the middle of nowhere and had to crawl over the CRATERS OF THE MOON back to the actual trail. It was crazy- raining, flip flops, and 5 happy Gibsons.

Garrett was all about the caves. He was big on being the leader.


Maddy was awesome with her flip flops, dress, dual sweatshirts, and headlamp. She rocked the caves. At one point she shone her light on pigeons that were making noise above us. She said, "Oops, they're on a date!" and left them to have some privacy.

We made it out alive! No, seriously, we had to crawl out of that little hole at the end!

And then? Once we were out? We had to walk/crawl across THIS back to the trail. There were sticks we were supposed to follow so we wouldn't, you know, fall to our deaths or anything.

Why, yes, we totally ARE the Griswolds- spelunking in flip flops and without flashlights. Great planning!

After another much longer than anticipated detour, we hit the road again for points North. It was POURING rain by then. Driving was not fun, the rain was so hard that it was hard to see the lines on the road. We were pretty thrilled to get to our pad in West Yellowstone around 11:45 that night. We love where we are staying, and we all slept great that night.