Yellowstone felt wonderfully wild and almost otherworldly. With its steaming geysers, colorful hot springs, bubbling mud pots and dramatic waterfalls, the landscape constantly reminded us that we were walking through a place unlike anywhere else. And then there was the wildlife.
We saw elk and bison throughout the trip, sometimes close enough to stop us in our tracks. One of my favorite moments was a quick, almost cinematic glimpse of a moose running across the road. It happened so fast that there was barely time to process what we had seen, but somehow that made it even more magical. In Yellowstone, nature doesn't wait for you to get the perfect picture.
You have to pay attention.
And perhaps that was part of the lesson.
Grand Teton brought a completely different kind of beauty. The mountains seemed to rise straight out of the landscape, reflected in impossibly clear, turquoise-blue waters surrounded by forests and wild spaces. There was something serene about it, even when we were hiking, exploring and keeping up with a six-year-old who often had considerably more energy than the adults.