I really liked that campground and would have liked to stay another day but we had a pretty brutal schedule coming up so once I was up I started repacking the van and getting everything together. The kids slept just under 12 hours before getting up to pee.
We ate breakfast packed up the last of our gear and moved on. Our first stop was right back to the lake for a canoe.
We rented one for an hour and paddled around the lake. It was really fun.
Then we turned in the canoe and made our way southeast through the rest of the park.
We started off with a little hike to learn about the volcanoes and eruptions that happened in the park and the destruction they caused. The kids thorugh this was kind of cool but not as cool as all the snow we found just after.
It was a warm day in most places but as we got higher into the mountains/volcanoes, snow became more and more common.
We pulled over and checked out several fun spots before finally getting to the Bumpass hell trail.
It was the longest hike of our vacation.
But I had explained to the kids that I really wanted to do it and they were troupers.
And I let them take breaks when we found good spots.
And eventually we made it.
The hike was uphill mostly for 2 miles then we went downhill pretty sharply into this crazy area and got to the boardwalk.
The boardwalk was there to keep us out of the hot springs, mud pots, gyzers and delicate crust that could give away and drop us into super hot water.
It was pretty cool
but very hot in the sun and once off the boardwalk we had a steep hike back up. We started the hike out.
And decided to have 1/2 a lunch break on the way up.
Once we reached the top of the hill it was all downhill to the car and we went pretty fast. Once at the car we had the 2nd 1/2 of our lunch.
The kids were beat so we drove to the visitor center and got ranger badges and then drove the 2 hours down to Reno, NV. Actually all day we had been excitedly talking how much we were looking forward to the hotel in Reno. Showers, clean laundry, food not from the camp-stove, fingernail clippers, ice, pool and the top of my list was internet and the top of the kids was tv.
It was actually not as relaxing as it sounds, we had just over 12hours in the hotel room and a lot to do. We started the laundry then got in the pool.
Then the kids showered and I picked up tacos.
Then I moved laundry and got more quarters and ice and uploaded pictures and eventually got the kids in bed soaked in the tub for a bit and then took a shower and went to bed.