Ockey Family Adventures: Yellowstone Day 5

We stopped to see the wolves on our way out to Cooke City.

We really wanted to do some different things on this trip to Yellowstone. Since it is our eleventh visit to the park, that meant driving out to Cook City, which is the only entrance we’ve never visited. This was perfect for us, because it took us through Lamar Valley, and we got to see a lot more animals. In addition, though it is a record breaking attendance year, the northeast corner of the park is pretty quiet because of the closure near Tower.

We saw plenty of bears today. Our total rose to 14. We also spotted a fox running across the road. We made our usual stop at Slough Creek and saw the wolves sitting under a tree several thousand yards away. We saw hundreds of bison, too. Out near the northeast entrance, we even spotted mountain goats high up the cliffside, which is the only place we see them anymore.

We started the morning by seeing this mom and her cub.

This is the mountain goat mountain.

Can you see them up there?

They are so far away, but here is one all by himself.

We’d researched five waterfalls around Cook City, but with all the kids we had with us, we only managed to make it to one. It was a short, beautiful hike, and since it had been raining, the smells along the trail were like a rainforest. The kids enjoyed the waterfall, but they enjoyed it more when Bob drove his vehicle so quickly through the creek that he nearly soaked them as they stood watching!

Bridal Falls was a great waterfall.

We are so grateful for all of these family photos.

Another amazing Dad selfie!

We loved hiking with all of the cousins.

This was the kids's favorite part, though.

And somehow all of the cousins hike with Randy.

We didn’t spend long in Cooke City. We drove back into the park and hit our favorite hike at Trout Lake. We had to double park and prepare lunch until we could get the vehicles safely in stalls, but that didn’t take too long. We even waited out a small rainstorm, which seems to happen every time we are at Trout Lake. The hike was great. We spotted several small snakes, a few frogs, trout, of course, and a muskrat. We watched him swim along the edge of the lake for a while. Then we headed back down the hill.

Another cousin hike!

Trout Lake is gorgeous.

We are always happy in Yellowstone.

Down by the bank looking for frogs.

Yellowstone is our favorite.

We saw a few snakes.

And we all got a really good look at the muskrat.

It was fun to watch him.

We also spotted lots of frogs.

The most exciting stop of the day was at the bathroom in Lamar Valley. While several of us were using the surprisingly clean facilities, Mark went across the road to see what a small crowd was looking at. Luckily, it was a family of badgers. On all of our adventures and great sightings, our boys have never seen a badger. We were really excited to see three of them running around outside their den. This made the trip really memorable!

We spotted this coyote and tried to point him out to everyone, but somehow Melanie's car missed him.

He was right by the road!

Seeing badgers was so exciting because the boys have never seen one.

We ended up seeing three badgers by this hole.

Our next stop was Roosevelt. They have redone the entire area, so the parking lot is new. We wanted to try a short little hike called Lost Falls. It was only 0.2 miles each way, and when we arrived, the fall was mostly lost behind a tree, but it was a really pretty place.

Finally, we headed back across the park to Mammoth. We cooked hotdogs and pasta on the stove for dinner. Then the kids played in the grassy area. They enjoyed tag and No Bears are Out Tonight. Dad even taught them Mother May I? and the team version of Paper, Rock Scissors.

Dad is a rock climber/jumper.

Lost Falls was hidden behind trees, but it was an easy hike.

We spotted another bear on the way back to our cabins.

Making dinner in the park was super fun.

And playing games together made it even better.

After dinner, we had two more hikes we wanted to do, but both were really short. The first was the top of Undine Falls. We’ve seen this waterfall from the road, but we wanted to take the short hike to the brink. It was definitely worth it! Even Grandpa and Brittany made the trek, which was less than a half mile. Then we crossed the road and did our usual hike at Wraith Falls. It was definitely a waterfall day!