4 Wheels 4 Girls

July 31 2011 we were driving alon a road were we could see some wild life. We saw some bufalo. And we saw hered of bofalo. I think there were a hundred million. So nsate and looked for a wile. We look in the benokel. There were alote of caves which are babbyes. Seeing all the bison made me feel happy.

See all the brown dots near the trees? Those are lots and lots of bison.

[Editor’s translation:]
July 31, 2011 we were driving along a road where we could see some wild life. We saw some buffalo. And we saw herd of buffalo. I think there were a hundred million. So we sat and looked for a while. We looked in the binoculars. There were a lot of calves which are babies. Seeing all the bison made me feel happy.

July 31. After driving for a long time we came to a stop. It was so hot. Daddy said we were going on a hike!!!!!! POOH!!!! When we got out my ankle hurt and we had to walk up hundreds of stories!!! We saw the terist [terraces] and they looked like waterfalls. I could not tell the difference. We left Greta and Stella and me and the rest of the family went to the top. When we got to the top it was so pretty. I saw elk and the hills and just everything. We would have to take breaks because my ankle still hurt. Now it was even hotter. We also saw I forgot to say this we saw animal scat and tracks. We went down and got Greta and Stella and went back. I was so grumpy because it was so hot. When we reached the RV I drank almost a whole bottle of water.

On top of the terraces at Yellowstone

july 31 me and daddy got out of the rv and we dide are junior ranger. We saw all the coleres in the cayen. The coleres were budufole. I saw a brown thing i thot it was a bufuloe. we were in yioming. i loved yeloston.

Wild flowers along Yellowstone River Canyon

[Editor’s translation:]
July 31, me and Daddy got out of the rv and we did our junior ranger packets. We saw all the colors [of the wildflowers] in the canyon. The colors were beautiful. I saw a brown thing, i thought it was a buffalo. We were in Wyoming. I loved yellowstone.

Working hard on the junior ranger book for Yellowstone

Yellowstone has its own little grand canyon.

On July 31st, after everyone went on the hike to go see the mud pots and Dragon’s Mouth Spring, they went on another hike while I went back to the camper to make guacamole. I had gotten the ingredients at Trader Joe’s a few days before, and I was itching to make it, so… I did! They were gone for about twenty minutes, so I had that time to get everything set up and get started before they got back and we would have to drive. So by the time they were back, I had mixed all the avocado and tomato up in a bowl, and I was cutting onion. Everyone said it smelled great. I have to admit, my guacamole is pretty good. I made up the recipe in sixth grade when I had to make something for Spanish Food Day. We started to drive, and before we got to Mammoth Hot Springs, I was done with my delicious masterpiece.

… Three hours later…

We got back from the visitor center, and we were all really hungry. The solution? Guac and chips! We pulled the guacamole out of the fridge and the chips out of the cabinet, and we dug in! It was super delicious. We ate it all in under an hour. It was a great, yummy day!!! 😉

My guacamole didn't last long

On the morning of July 31st, Dad, Stella, Ellie, Ana, and I went on a quick walk in Yellowstone. It was on a boardwalk, and the first thing we saw was a boiling mud pot. It stunk like rotten eggs from all the sulfur, and it was murky and gray. It was pretty cool.

On the Mud Volcano Trail at Yellowstone, near Dragon's Mouth Spring

Then we saw something AMAZINGLY cool. It was a hot spring called Dragon’s Mouth Spring. It was JUST like a dragon’s mouth; it bubbled and foamed, and it made this heavy breathing sound. It was red and blue and brown and orange, and there was a bunch of steam coming up from it. We stood and admired it for minutes, and we were all amazed at how alike it was to a real dragon’s mouth. Then we finally left the spring, and Dad, Stella, Ellie and Ana went on another short hike while I went back to the camper to made guacamole.

Dragon’s Mouth Spring was SO cool!!! 😉

In a sulfer steam cloud at the Churning Cauldron spring

July 30. We were driving along then we stopped there was a big buffalo in the road. I could hear its hoves going click click click click click clonck clonck clonck clonck clonck while he walked by. He looked like a big elphant with big horns and he had a long beard the looked like a goat. He was bigger than me and I wanted to marry him. And then I saw that there was a car behind him and he just walked like a king to his throne and taking his time. He was close very close and I could of reached out and kissed it but he would not like it though.

The bison don't seem to notice the cars too much in Yellowstone

[Editor’s note: Ellie helped out Luciana with the typing on this post.]

July 30th, we were driving through Yellowstone and we had just pulled off on the side of the road to see a wolf pack and a grizzly bear. But the thing that was next was what I liked the most.

The sun was just starting to go down and we were going to eat dinner when I saw a huge, chunky, brown thing walking down the middle of the road. Buffalo alert! We stopped and let it pass. It was so close that we could hear the clops of its hooves, and it was so close that when I tried to take a picture, I was too close so I had to move back. It was so close that I could’ve reached out the window and petted it! That was an awesome experience!

Bison!

After driving for what seemed like forever we saw a ton I mean a ton. There were like 50 people or more. Mommy told us to go and see what was going on. When we got out I heard a girl say there’s wolf’s with there baby’s. I ran and told Stella and Greta, Ana, and Daddy. Where they all asked?!? I don’t know! We all went trying to see them when he let us look though his telescope. Then I saw the baby. It was so so so cute. It was black and was lying in the grass. Ana keep saying hurry up Ellie!! After a few minutes I let her see in. Then Daddy let me see though binoculars. I kept trying to see them when they rested on a herd of bison. I told Daddy about it and then left to go see what the other people were looking at. A grizzly bear!!! When we got there it was gone so we went and started looking for kooky. We meet her and went to go start dinner. We were having Indian food!! Yummy!!!

We couldn't get a picture so I drew the wolves

On July 30th, we went on a hike to see some mud pots that were called Artist’s Paint Pots.

The hike was on a trail, and we walked about half a mile before we actually saw anything. But it was SO worth it. The first thing we saw was a small colorful mud pot. Mud pots are like ponds full of bubbling hot mud, heated by magma under the surface of the earth. The mud in the first mud pot was gray and bubbly, and it was really cool. Then we walked uphill for awhile until we had a great view of the mud pots below. We saw a few geysers, and then we came to something really super duper cool.

Hanging out near "flying hot mud"

There was a blocked-off path and then a sign that said: CAUTION: FLYING HOT MUD. Sure enough, there was a mud pot full of splashing gray mud. We stood there and watched it fly up in the air for, like, ever, and then we finally moved on down the hill after taking about a million pictures and shooting a video too. Down at the bottom of the hill, we saw more geysers and even more mud pots. When we got back To the camper, I was actually a little disappointed; I couldn’t get enough of the beauty! It was definitely a worthy hike! 😀

On July 30th, we visited the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park.

The walk to go see it was pretty short, and it was on a boardwalk above boiling water. We crossed a river, and then we walked for a bit over some hot, shallow water. I was surprised to learn that organisms actually live in that boiling heat. We saw a bunch of cool geysers on our way to the spring, and when we finally reached our destination, I was truly amazed. It was huge, way bigger than any hot spring I’d ever seen, and the totally awesome thing was that it was rainbow-colored! Each color of the rainbow was where a different organism lived in the water, and that’s what made the different colors. Isn’t that cool?! We stood and admired the spring for quite a long time, and we took LOTS of pictures. Finally, we took a last look at it, and then we walked back to the RV. The Grand Prismatic Spring really was grand! 😉

At the Grand Prismatic hot water spring in Yellowstone