Into the Wild

It has certainly been a jam-packed summer so why stop now?  Our next adventure was to head out to Yellowstone.  We took this trip 2 years ago and the kids (well, Ty and Jake) have been dying to go back.  So for our big family trip we did indeed go back.  On our way up we stopped at Jackson Hole and walked a bit downtown and had lunch.  The kids even met Albert Einstein!

Of course we had to stop at the antler arches.  Tyler is trying to convince me to let him build one in his room.  Uhhhh, right.  They were pretty cool though....for Jackson.  Eric was a champ driving the truck hauling his dad's HUGE trailer house through the "quaint" streets of downtown.  "Quaint streets" and "trailer house rig" are two phrases that don't go together well.  But Eric was awesome.  If I had been driving...well, that's a different story.

The drive took much longer than expected.  We had to avoid some construction so went the long way.  But it did take us through Teton Pass which was beautiful.  Eric's country boy influence must be rubbing off on me because I actually told him that if I had an awesome ranch up there I could live there.  But those ranches are no doubt millions of dollars---otherwise he'd have pulled right into a realtor office and taken me up on my word.  By the end of the drive the kids were starting to go a little stir crazy.

The kids definitely did their share of whining, arguing, complaining, nit-picking, etc.  Sometimes I think they lay up at nights thinking about different things to argue about.  "You're breathing too loud!"  "You're hogging the window!"  "You're foot touched my leg!"  "Stop touching me!"  "You're looking at me!"  And every time they start in on it they always begin with, "MMMOOOOOMMMMM!  He's/she's  _________(fill in any kind of ridiculous complaint here)."  I kept my cool (mostly) and we finally made it.   Hallelujah!

Our first stop that day was Fishing Bridge, suitable since that's where we were camped.  Look at all the fish!  Actually the entire trip we saw NO fish at FISHING BRIDGE!  A few small little guppy fish is all.  Maybe they should change the name?

Eric and Joey trying to see some fish...none to be found.

We got up early (early early--5:00 early) the next day.  Got ready, had breakfast and set out on a wild animal hunt (sightseeing hunt, that is).   It was early but is was great because there was hardly anyone around.  We saw most of the cool stuff in Hayden Valley, but there were a lot of other places too.  I didn't really take many pictures of animals since I prefer pictures we are in.  But to sum up, we saw black bears, grizzly bear (who wasn't too far off and he walked to the river and swam across), several wolves (including a mom, dad and pup that crossed the street almost right in front of us), several elk with huge antlers, many osprey (one who we watched search out the river then dive in and catch a fish right next to us during a bison traffic jam), a few coyote (one eating a dead bison), a bald eagle, two moose eating in a river not 30 feet away, deer, and enough bison to last me a lifetime.  We pretty much saw everything except a big horn sheep.  I was thrilled because the kids would have been so disappointed if they hadn't seen most of the animals.  They were even willing to get up early with no complaints!

Eric scoping out the grizzly...

More and more and more bison!  We were getting quite tired of them.  They seem to be quite stubborn and walk in the road so no one can get by.  Then you see the very stupid people walking up to them to get a "close-up".  Ugh.  Sometimes you wish they would get gored just to teach them a lesson!  We kept a safe distance.

We also spent time seeing the beautiful sights of nature there.  The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is always a great place.

We went to the Mud Volcanoes and boy was it stinky!  There are a lot of stinky places in Yellowstone!

We went for a short hike to Clear Lake.  It was only just less than a mile in but you'd have thought it was 10 miles based on the fact that it took us an hour to get there.  Maggie insisted on carrying the backpack...that lasted about 3 minutes.  But at least I got a cute shot!

I was nervous about bears so I made us all stay together.  We had some bear spray, and my kids were loud enough to scare off even the most ferocious of grizzlies.  We didn't have any encounters, even though we were hiking in the same spot we saw a black bear the day before.

Just a pic of me and Eric to prove we actually were there--there aren't many pics with us in them.  I don't look to glamorous, but hey, I was camping!

We did our fair share of driving while in the park.  Eric kept track and from the time we entered the Yellowstone gate to the time we left we drove over 500 miles!  Just inside the park!  So the kids at times would get crazy.  Especially if we happened to see an animal--oh boy!  Chaos ensued as to who would get the window, the binoculars, should we get out or not?  Oh boy.

We went to see Old Faithful early one morning.  There was hardly anyone else there.  I highly recommend getting up early for the busy spots.  Much more enjoyable.  We happened to arrive only 15 minutes before Old Faithful erupted so it was perfect.  We explored the lodge too.

One of my favorite places to go is Midway Geyser Basin.  The colors and pools are awesome there.  You can't see too well in this pic, but the hot water from above has cut paths in the rocks and is flowing down into the river.  Around the hot water it is bright orange.

We also walked around Norris Geyser Basin.  Really cool stuff there too.  I can't imagine what the first explorers must have thought when they found this place.  Mind blowing stuff!

Here's a bison that caused us some grief.  He just took his sweet time meandering down the road between the lanes.  It took us a while to get past him.  So we decided to at least get a pic from the car--note, this is NOT zoomed in.

Our last full day there we hiked out to Slough Creek.  It was about 2 miles in and 2 miles out.  I was thinking after the Clear Creek hike that we'd never make it, but the kids were actually pretty good.  Tyler is like a pack mule.  Eric has told me before that when he goes hunting/hiking with Tyler that Ty just goes and goes and never complains or anything.  I saw it first hand!  I had to carry Joey on my back most of the time, so Tyler ended up carrying the big backpack which had our water, picnic and supplies in it.  It was pretty heavy.  Then he was also carrying his fishing pole.  Man, he walked out in front and led the way the whole time.  Didn't make a peep of complaint.  Awesome!  Eric called him a Scout Master's dream.  For sure.  When we got out to the Slough Creek meadow Eric and Tyler went fly fishing for a few hours while me and the other kids stayed in the meadow.  Apparently there are quite a few bears up there, but once again my loud kids took care of that.  But don't worry--I had my bear spray on me!

After our little picnic the kids found a toad.  Can they catch it?

Yes!  This is their victory walk back to show me the toad.

Jake ended up catching another one and wanted to keep them both, but I figure if you can't even take a rock from Yellowstone you certainly can't keep a toad!  So he set it free.

The kids enjoyed having the trailer house because they were able to watch movies before bed.  Here they are bunked up for the night.

We also visited the West Thumb geyser/hot pots.  Joey was making me so nervous running around on the boardwalks.   We tried our best to contain him but it was a battle!  We ran into a ranger who was measuring the temperature of the pools.  The most beautiful one ("Black Pool"--because it used to be black colored but over time has gotten hotter and killed all the organisms in it so now it is a deep crystal clear blue) measured over 200 degrees!  She said it would take less than a second of touching that water to get 3rd degree burns.  I asked about a guys I heard of years ago who jumped into a hot pot to save his dog who jumped in (they both died) and she told us the story, where it happened and recommended the book "Death in Yellowstone."  We, being morbid I suppose, bought it and read a lot on the drive home--amazing!  I couldn't believe how stupid some people are!  A lot of people get killed in the hot pots.  It was quite surprising.  But the book has stories on bear deaths, poisonous plants, falls, etc.  It's actually very interesting!

This next shot is Black Pool that I mentioned earlier--don't you just want to jump in?  Seriously, it looks so blue and clear and warm (heck yeah it's warm!).

Out trip was a blast.  The boys want to go back next year!  Who knows, maybe we will!