It's so easy to take for granted that we live relatively close to this. Yellowstone National Park is just a few hours to our east. This weekend, my family finally made time to visit America's first national park and it did not disappoint. Here are some pics and a video from our experience.

Most sane people know that you can't see everything in Yellowstone in just a day. Fortunately, sanity has never been a prerequisite in our family, so we just made a quick day trip.

We entered Yellowstone through the southern entrance since we also wanted to see the Grand Tetons along the way. We knew we weren't going to see even half of Yellowstone, so we made a hit list of interests we would see on this trip.

Other than a few waterfall stops, our first big location was Old Faithful. We were blessed to arrive within about 10 minutes of an eruption.

The Grand Prismatic Spring was next. I have no idea what a Prismatic is, but I can tell it's hot. If you think wildlife crossing the roadways in Yellowstone are dangerous, watch out for the tourists crossing the road by this Spring. It's like a really scary version of Frogger with only one life.

The other sight in Yellowstone that we really wanted to see was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The falls there are amazing, but the hikes to get the really good views are intimidating.

It's hard to describe Yellowstone to someone that has never been there. It is so huge, you have to drive across large amounts of roadway to get from point-to-point. But, the awesomeness of what you see more than makes up for it.

My family will return someday, I hope. There are so many other parts of the park that we want to see and experience. Considering some of the stupidity that has been on display from tourists defacing Yellowstone, I just hope there is a park left for us - and the rest of the world - to visit and enjoy.

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