Okay den, gangeez, this episode starts one major advencha for the White ‘ohana! U like know hakum? Well, I’m gonna show you in a minute. But first I need to say that we almost couldn’t go because of all the snow that had come in overnight, which would’ve been major disappointing. But Cousins checked road conditions for us and saw that the roads were clear, so here we go!

Whoo hoo!!! We’re going to Yellowstone National Park!

I give my friend Linda all the credit for this decision. When I told her we were going to holoholo ka‘a to Montana she said, “As long as you’re going to be so close, why not take a side trip to Yellowstone…it’d be a shame to miss it. You could just go in the west entrance, zip over to see Old Faithful, and then head home again.” (She knew our time was very limited.)

When the snow was coming down so hard, we had our doubts as to whether or not this part of the road trip would be possible, but now here we were, on our way! Neither one of us had ever been to Yellowstone before, not even when we lived in Idaho. Which was a shame. But now, here we are, heading South.

Cousins had told us that the most scenic way there would be through the Gallatin Valley, and that if the roads were clear it was a fantastic drive. Which is why we went to Livingston. Aha! Now you know! Because after Livingston, we turned South.

Not far out of town we saw this sign. Ho, I neva know Lurkah stay ova hea!

The signs verified that the roads were open. Instead of the west entrance, we were going down through the north one.

We’re heading south on Highway 89.

Cousins had told us what it would cost to get into the park; it seemed reasonable to us. Four of us for $25 was great! What four, you may ask. Well, Nolemana, me, Musubi and Kukui. See?

The Absaroka Mountain Range. Oh. My. Gosh. The mountains took my breath away! We’re at about 4500′ here.

Prepare yourselves for plenny more mountain photos! This is near the Pop Stand Grill in Paradise Valley, just south of Livingston.

The mountains! The mountains!! Nā kuahiwi! Las montañas!

I know this isn’t a great photo, but the Absaroka Mountain Range is still incredible.

We hadn’t known it till now, but we’d been driving next to the Yellowstone River all the way down!

It looked very cold, but beautiful.

The beautiful mountain range beckoned us on. I was so grateful that Cousins encouraged us to come this way!

Ahahahaha… ho, my videos stay so hamajang! This one you’ve now seen twice before, but this is where is really belongs. Really. Foa realz. Honest. I know I said that before. But this time I’m really right. Really. I going go hemo da odda ones.

To make up for my loloness (my friends from back home call me Mokilolo at times. This time I deserve it), here’s an incredible zoomed-in shot.

And another.

And yet another!

And here’s the Yellowstone River again.

And another mountain shot. You may now also pause to admire my hand-knit (by me) alpaca scarf.

Thank you! I love it too! Heh heh.

The Yellowstone River and the Absaroka Range. I can’t express how glad I was that Cousins suggested we come this way! (Wat? I wen say dat awreddy? U like I jass say “ditto”? Nah. Mo bettah dis way.)

We just kept taking photos of the river and the mountains. We were in awe!

Musubi wanted to see too… he kept trying to stretch his fuzzy head up to see better.

The river sparkled in the morning light.

Okay, Musubi… now we’ll take a photo of you gawking at the mountains! We still have a little snow near the windshield wipers. My new ones. Which are teflon coated and the best ones I’ve ever had.

I think we figured we’d take plenny photos so that we wouldn’t forget how incredibly beautiful everything was. This is the Absaroka Range.

I was really happy that the mountains were still covered with snow.

We looked for pīpī here but couldn’t see any. Sorry AFK!

None here, either, but try look da mountains!

Emigrant Peak is the middle one, I think. I think I need a geography lesson, actually. But I think that’s it. Not that I’m unsure or anything.

We came to the Emigrant Gulch Historical Marker; what a fascinating history of this area! I don’t know how accurate they are, but the images in my mind about what it must have been like back then fuel my imagination!

Yellowstone River.

I really want to learn the names of these peaks.

We see some hay, but where are the pīpī?

Sorry I cut off the far left side of this marker. But you get the general idea.

The river is now getting wider.

We got out of the car to take this photo. Nani, yeah?

It’s now about 1 p.m., and we were starting to get hungry. But still we drove slowly enough to take more photos of the amazing mountains.

And finally!! We saw pīpī!

That will end this leg of the journey. Pīpī resting in the shadow of the Absaroka Mountain Range. A bucolic scene, to say the least!