Yellowstone Family Trip

As soon as the Summer break of 2013 started and Michael arrived back in California, the Shin family decided to take a long road trip to visit Yellowstone along with a lot of other well-known national parks along the way. Whether to go or not was a big dilemma for the family because it would be a week long trip with most of the time spent in the car. However, after deciding that this would provide a lot of family bonding time before Michael left for the military and for the family to have a memorable last family trip, everyone agreed to go. The first stop was Salt Lake City, Utah. 

 During the night of arrival, the family took a walk around the hotel to look around and see what life in Utah was like. They found this building, and decided to take a picture in front of it. 

 Here is the first hotel that we stayed at! It was called Hampton Inn and was one of the better inns that we stayed it. 

 Here is Utah's Community Center with Mom! 

 Dad and Michael are leaning against each other in front of the Community Center. 

 This was the first family picture that the Shin family took during the trip! We had hiked on a mini mountain and found that we could oversee the whole state including some faraway mountains. The person who happened to be there with us was a very good photographer, capturing even the numerous buildings in the background.

 We next ventured quietly into the city hall! It was very large and magnificent. However, we had to stay quiet because there seemed to be meetings happening in almost every door. 

 Mom and Dad decided to take a shot in front of the Supreme Court.

 This was a Native American statue that was in front of the city hall. Doesn't it seem like it's resting on Dad's hands?

 Dad and Jessica~

 There was a beautiful walkway in front of Utah's city hall! The weather was also really nice, making the trees and grass even more bright and green.

 After several hours of driving, the Shin family arrived at Yellowstone! As soon as we drove inside, we were very surprised to see numerous bison roaming around the grass. We were amazed and took several pictures at first....

 But later we discovered that there was actually an annoyingly large amount of bison in the national park. As we were retreating from the center of the park to go to our hotel, the bison also seemed to be going on, using the same road as us! The travel time of going back home took extra long because we had to wait for the bison to clear off of the road. 

 Second family picture!

 As we were walking up a mountain, we walked on a trail that seemed like a forest often seen in movies!

 Some beautiful scenery....

 This was a mini waterfall that was small yet stunning.

 We stopped in the middle of the road because the sky was so beautiful, and found that the wind was really strong!!! 

 On top of a beautiful mountain!

 Dad is ready for some exercise.

 This was one of the major canyons in Yellowstone. There were many colors on the side of the canyon too. 

 Another side of the large canyon...

 Dad in front of a geyser! 

 This was the second hotel that our family stayed at! It was very old fashioned and had many wolf and fox statues around the hotel. It was a little creepy...

 In front of one of the major geysers! 

 This was a tree that had fallen over! The roots were still all in place, so we decided to have some fun with the roots.

 At the geysers!

 The third hotel that we stayed at was a cabin. It was an interesting experience!

 Arches was most definitely the most beautiful places that we visited throughout the entire trip. It was a national park filled with large rocks that formed arches (hence the name) and many other unique shapes. Despite the hot and desert-like weather and environment, it was definitely a place that was worth the suffering.

Mom hiking up the "mountain"! 

 The three of us marching away from the rocks. Do you see the arch in the background?

 This was another national park, Zion National Park. There were many hiking trails along the way. It was also very hot in this national park, but the view was totally worth it.