Day 3, we packed up at Many Glacier and headed south to Yellowstone. We stopped at the St. Mary Visitor Center to turn in Junior Ranger books and get their Glacier Junior Ranger badges. They have done the Junior Ranger program at every National Park we've been to since they were little and now have quite a collection of Junior Ranger badges! The program is an excellent one to help kids learn more about the park via games and looking for information the booklet calls attention to. Its also fun as a parent as there are often stories or bits of information in the books that aren't included in the placards, etc. (And when driving from place to place it cuts down the "when will we get there" because they have stuff to find, particularly when younger)
From there we headed south. The drive was around 8-9 hours. We had decided to fly into Missoula and then at the end of the trip out of Jackson to help minimize backtracking and to maximize time in the parks. We stopped twice for meals on the way down. We stopped in Choteau, MT at John Henry's Restaurant. The price was reasonable, and the food was very good. An added plus, they had the World Cup on, so my son could get a soccer fix. Neither Many Glacier Lodge nor the Old Faithful Snow Lodge that we were headed to had wifi or TVs, other than poor wifi in the lobbies. Side note, don't count on the wifi in either for much and cell phone coverage is almost non existent with some rare spotty coverage. Old Faithful Lodge area has some cellular coverage but it is in/out depending on where you are... mostly out. (I was happy about this for the break).
We continued on and entered the park in West Yellowstone after having dinner at the Buffalo Bar. We enjoyed our dinner there, but it wasn't my favorite of the trip. That may have been mostly due to being tired though.
We entered the park and since it was late evening, most traffic was headed OUT of the park, not in, so traffic was not bad. On the way in we stopped at the Fountain Paint Pots trail to get our first glimpse of geysers and stretch our legs a bit. It was a nice "sampler" mini hike since it had fumaroles, mudpots, geysers and hot springs...all four of the geothermal features in one short hike.
We continued on to Old Faithful Snow Lodge to check into our cabin where we'd stay for the next several nights...more on that on Day 4.
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