Day 12 - Tetons

Well, it's easy to get an early start when you start waking up at 5 am with a crowing of a rooster. An actual rooster. We had seen some wandering in the cabin front yards and didn't think much of it. The kids thought it was great to see chickens just running free. This morning, at 5 am, though, not so cool. We were all up by 7:30. The night got pretty chilly, as predicted. At 4 am, Eleanor got Will up to use the bathroom. I think she wore her robe outside. At 5, with the rooster, Ethan asked to come down and sleep in our bed because he kept hitting his head on the ceiling from the top bunk. So I spent the last 2 hours of the early morn in the top bunk. I actually felt quite cozy in there, though, and fell asleep a couple times between rooster crows. But Will said Ethan stole his blanket and he was left freezing. All in all, not the greatest night, but we did get a solid 6 or 7 hours, even Will, which we didn't expect. I just keep telling myself...we're saving $400, we're saving $400. Not gonna lie, though, that I'm awfully jealous of the luxury cabins. They look like tiny houses with a loft, and a living room, kitchen, and bathroom downstairs. They are at least $250 a night, though, and not available. I want someone to invite me in, though, because I just wonder what they look like inside. 

Anyway, even though we hadn't showered last night, none of us showered in the morning because it was too cold. We left for the park around 8:30. It was probably about a 30 minute drive or so. Our first stop was at the Moose visitor center, where we got a map and watched a movie about the Tetons. I texted my best friend Sarah, who grew up coming here nearly every year, and asked what we should see in our two days here. She suggested a few hikes, one of which was Taggert Lake. It was just a bit further down the road, so we parked at the trailhead and got ready. The hike to the lake was 1.4. It was relatively easy, and very pretty. We went over several streams and mini waterfalls. There were some uphill struggle but not much. It was a fairly busy trail with a lot of people. At one point, we were in an area with flat land on either side. I was walking up ahead a bit with Ethan. I looked to my right and saw a dark mass in the trees. My first thought was bear, but I quickly saw it was a female moose. Our first moose! Ethan and I backed up slowly because they say at least 25 yards from animals (farther for bears), and we were probably between 10 and 15 away. A man was coming toward us, so I told him. He watched for a bit and then decided to pass. More people came and we all kind of slowly walked past. The moose was happily eating some of a bush. We didn't see any young with her so felt safer passing. I, of course, snapped a couple of pics, too. We were so excited to see a moose! And I actually spotted it myself. 

We continued on, warning those passing us that they may run into a moose. When we got to the lake, it was super worthwhile, as usual. Mount Moran loomed above the lake, reflecting perfectly on the water. There was a big rock we could climb on, and we had our picture taken. Sadly, it's all pretty shadowy. We really haven't gotten a great family pic yet. We may have to photoshop ourselves into one of our landscape photos. We could go out the way we came, or do a longer hike (2.4) back. Will wanted to go the other way, so we did. Eleanor trudged along as usual, and it took over an hour, but it was certainly pretty. We came out on the other side of the lake, into a valley with stunning views of Mount Moran and, I think, the Grand Teton with the other two peaks that are with it to form The Cathedral. No wildlife spotting on this end of the hike.

Afterwards, we got in the car, intending to drive to Jenny Lake to eat. It's one of the larger lakes an has a lodge and shuttle boats. We ended up at a lake, but I realized that it wasn't Jenny, it was String Lake, just beyond Jenny, and actually the place Sarah had suggested we go for swimming. We had planned to go there after Jenny Lake. Will couldn't find parking so dropped us off. There were a lot of people going in and out with canoes, kayaks, and stand up paddle boards. Eleanor waded in a bit and collected another 100 rocks. When Will got to us, we walked back to the car, which was at Jenny Lake lodge and got changed into our suits. We stopped at an overlook to see the real Jenny Lake first, which is pretty big. Then we went back to String Lake.

We walked along the path and found a nice spot to set up and go in the water. Ethan, who was cranky, stayed out and read at first, so Will, Eleanor, and I went in. It was chilly, but certainly not the coldest mountain lake we've been in by far. I guess the reason it's a popular swimming spot is because it's not as cold because it's very shallow. Will was the first to go under and swim out. In the very middle, it was not far above his waist. I followed soon after. Going under was startling, but was also refreshing. And then coming out and looking at the massive mountains on 2 sides, glaciers looking down on us, it was another one of those places I took a lot of mental pictures. From shore, I took real pictures, too. I got out after a while and warmed up in the hot sun. It was probably the prettiest place I've ever sunbathed. Eventually, Ethan went in the water, too, though not for long.

After we warmed up, we walked back to the car and then drove to the Jenny Lake Visitor's Center to get a different view of the lake. Eleanor and I walked down to feel the water, and she found 100 more rocks for her growing collection. At one point on our hike today, her pants fell down because they were weighed down with rocks. I'm not sure how we will drive them all home, but she sure does love them. 

We are in the town of Jackson now, and will stop at the grocery store (our daily task it seems) to grab a few things for fire tacos/quesadillas. We collected a lot of dry wood in the Tetons today, determined to not pay for firewood again. The bundles at the KOA are $8 and pretty much last one fire. They also charge for bad coffee in the morning. I am sleeping in a terribly uncomfortable bed in a cabin with a broken screen and walking 200 yards to go to a shared bathroom. I'm not paying them any more money than we have to! 

We barely scratched the surface of the Tetons today, and I'm a little sad we only have one full day here left. We can't see it all. We talked to a ranger today, who suggested a cool canyon hike we may do tomorrow. We will also probably drive up to Jackson Lake, which makes Jenny lake look like a puddle. 

At the same time, we have been living out of a suitcase for almost a month, and being in close quarters with each other is taking its toll. Ethan and Eleanor are bickering more the last few days. I think Will and I have decided to drive home via 80, instead of going back up north and going into North Dakota. We have seen some amazing things, but it's time to come home. By next week, our appliances should be in and house livable. It will be a big mess at home, but the dust will have settled, and we can sleep in our own beds. 

Day 11 - Drive to Tetons and KOA cabin

Our drive to Jackson was pretty quick and easy. We opted to go the faster way. We really debated driving through the park, but, ultimately, Will decided we would go through Idaho. And now we can say we've been in Idaho, not that we even stepped out of the car. The drive was pretty. Lots of open land, ranches, and the Tetons on our left. The Tetons appear to be taller mountains than those in Yellowstone, and many have snow on top. Crossing over from Idaho to Wyoming, you drive through a mountain pass. It was gorgeous, but a lot scarier driving for Will than Yellowstone. We started going uphill. I think the signs said it was a 10% grade. Well, what comes up, must come down. The second part of the mountain pass was a steep decline. You could smell people's breaks working hard. Ours were replaced last year, so hopefully we are good. I have a feeling Teton driving is going to be more difficult on the car than Yellowstone. 

Once we were out of the mountain pass, we were in Jackson fairly quickly. We found the world's nicest Albertson's and grabbed lunch. Ethan got a box full of chicken wings, bone in and boneless. The kid was hungry! Eleanor got soup, I got a salad, and Will got a sandwich. We ate outside. We had planned to go to our KOA but it was still another 20 minutes south, and Grand Teton is at least 20 minutes north of Jackson. So we decided to go to this Jackson Mountain Lodge. Will had read that after 4, they had free gondola rides. There are trails to go up, easy, medium, and hard. We figured we would go up one trail and then take the gondola down. 

When we got there, we learned that the free gondola didn't start until 5. It wasn't quite 3 yet. The Jackson Mountain Lodge is basically a huge luxury ski resort. There were different lodging buildings, shops, and activities galore. Right way, the kids saw a bungee activity that was basically a trampoline and you were attached to bungee cords on either side so you can safely flip and go really high and stuff. There was also a rock climbing area with four sides of varying difficulty. The kids opted for the rock climbing, mostly because we told them to do that one. The other one had a line of kids and we figured the turn would be short. There was no one on the rock walls. And it turns out we were right. One of the teenage workers said they could pretty much just go as long as they wanted as long as there weren't others waiting. So each of them tried all four sides and stayed a good 25 minutes on the wall. One of the workers heard me say something about being from IL and asked where. He said he moved from Winnetka when he was in fifth grade. He went to Sacred Heart. Small world. I asked what brought his family to Jackson and he said, "Honestly, probably a mid-life crisis." He said his dad said they would go for a year and see how it went (the grandparents had a place there already), and now they bought a house and have been there 5 years.  Funny. 

(And now, here is mystery reader once again:

I don't know how Mom and Dad get so anxious about falling off mountains, and the Badlands and stuff. Well let me tell you, I was more anxious on this rock wall than both of them put TOGETHER. But yet they were taking pictures and encouraging me to go higher. I'm sure I looked completely safe from down there. But I honestly didn't feel comfortable with the high schoolers handling the other side of the rope. If they had a heart attack, or swat at a fly, or something, then Zing! I have two broken legs. I was a lot more comfortable with the one that wasn't run by a person. That way, the high schoolers could text their girlfriends while I reached the top. But my fingers ache from doing both. We stay in this next cabin for three nights. By day, we hike, but by night, we sleep. You probably wonder how we get around to all these places. Well, we do it in the K95 Toyota mobile. The main territory is the kid area. Entertainment including, Hamilton, Drawing, Beastie Boys, Rubik's Cube, Greg Russell, and other stuff. Sorry, we just got to our cabin. I would love to talk, but this is me, signing out.)

After rock climbing, we decided to do a hike. To go up to where the big gondola was going way up the mountain would have taken 3 hours or more. There was a shorter hike we could do that led to an open ski lift used for mountain bikers. We were allowed to use it going down though, and apparently going  down the lifts is always free. So we did this shorter hike that went a little ways up the mountain and then across. It was called 7 Bridges because you went over several small wooden platforms to avoid stepping into little waterfalls. The trail was thick with wildflowers and brush on either side. At one point, we went through a pretty section with ferns everywhere. We got to the ski lift, and dad closed his eyes and did it. It wasn't so bad because we weren't nearly as high as others we've been on, but he still didn't like it. He kept asking me to remind him that it was free to make him feel better. :) 

It was just a little after 4, so we killed some time exploring the resort and then we got in line for the free gondola. We weren't the only ones who like free. There was a decent line formed. Will was reading that they started doing this because there is a restaurant up at the top but business wasn't great. If you have to pay over $100 to get to a restaurant, I can believe it. We considered eating up there, but the menu for the outdoor cafe literally had 7 items on it: 3 flatbreads and 4 appetizers like edamame and French fries. We said, no thanks. Got a few pics from the top and went back down. 

Then we hit the Albertson's again for some hotdogs/sausages to grill up for dinner. I am finishing the blog from the picnic outside our cabin. I am watching the kids roast marshmallows after our dinner of chicken sausage and green beans. We have a fire pit with a grate, which I covered in foil to grill the sausage. Then I sautéed green beans in our stainless steel pan we brought. We also had good bread with butter. A great campfire dinner if I do say so myself. 

Our cabin is tiny. It's also crazy hot right now, but as it gets dark now there is a good breeze going, so I'm confident it will cool off. The cabin has a full bed and a bunk bed, about 4 feet apart. There is a bench between them. At the foot of the full bed, there's a large mini-fridge (bigger than a hotel fridge, thankfully) and a table. That's it. The bathroom is about 5 cabins down. The bathrooms are nice, though, at least. 5 rooms with a toilet, sink, and shower all in one. The mattresses look horrendous, like a foam bad inside of rubber, so I'm pretty sure neither Will nor I will sleep. This is when I'm glad that I got some red wine at the Albertson's. Right now, it's keeping me from a panic attack. Honestly, though, I think we will like it here. I can see the Snake River from where I type, and we have access just below our cabin. The kids were building a rock bridge while I got dinner started. We have a cute front porch with a wooden swing. 

When we got here, I noticed that our screen door was not attached on the top and sides. Worried that we would have mosquitoes bothering us all night, we told the people in the office. They came and taped it up for now. But we actually haven't noticed any mosquitos yet, surprisingly. Hopefully we will be okay. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty jealous of the people in the "luxury cabin" next door to us with AC, a tv, a loft, and a kitchenette. But for $100, it may not be worth it for the time we will spend here. Plus, this is good practice for camping for Will. He wanted to walk all our food to a grill on the other side of the camp instead of using the fire. For the kids and I, cooking over the fire is the fun part. What's not so fun is walking down the lane to do dishes in the camp sink, but it's not so bad. 

We do not have wifi in our cabin, only in the office. So I'm going to head there to post this with any luck. 

Day 10 - Last Day and Fun Meet Up

Another late start for us. I think the biggest advantage of having 5 full days here is that we didn't need to rush as much. I mean, we probably would have had fewer traffic jams had we gotten out earlier, but I also feel like we were more well rested and sane. We left at 10. I was on a mission to find the hike that led to an aerial view of the Grand Prismatic Spring. Apparently, people used to climb a hill to see it, making it an unofficial trail, but the park built an actual trail last year with a ledge at the top in order to keep people safe and protect the park. I'd read that it was off of the Fairy Falls trail an that you park at this Midway Geyser Basin, which is where the Grand Prismatic Spring is located. It was insanely crowded, so we parked on the road and walked toward the lot. But we couldn't find any trailhead and all we saw were the boardwalks for the springs. We could see the people up on a hill but couldn't tell how they got here. It was frustrating. So we trekked back to our car and went up the road. Sure enough, there was a full parking lot for the Fairy Falls trail. Oops. That is not what I had read, and the current map doesn't even have a dot for Fairy Falls. Annoying. 

The hike wasn't far and on a wide, sandy gravel path. About a half mile in, you turned and went up a steep hill. At the top, you were looking down on the Grand Prismatic Spring. You could see all the colors so well. It was awesome! We were able to get someone to take a pic of the four of us with the awesomeness in the background. We decided not to continue on to Fairy Falls because it was almost lunchtime, and Ethan really had to go to the bathroom. Seriously - every hike. He refuses to go in the pit toilets, so we moved on to the Old Faithful area. Ethan wanted to exchange the Yellowstone pin he got anyway because he wanted one with a bison since we'd seen so many. We hit the bathrooms, exchanged the pin, and I got a hat. Then we went to find a place to eat lunch. We'd had part of our lunch before our first little hike in case we had gone ahead, but we still had sandwiches to eat. We wanted to get to the West Thumb area, along Yellowstone Lake. 

A good friend from college, Marty, was in Yellowstone today with his wife Debbie and daughter Lauren. He'd commented on one of my Facebook post that they were coming Tuesday. Yesterday, he texted, asking for any suggestions. I gave him a few and also the link to this blog to get some ideas. I said it would be fun to meet up but with our departure times so random and the cell service in here, it would likely be hard to coordinate. And this place is HUGE. Well, after our  Grand Prismatic hike, I had a little service and texted that they should definitely do it. He texted back that they did it that morning and that they were in the West Thumb area. I texted back that we were headed there. We passed by the West Thumb Geyser Basin and went about a mile up the road and pulled off the road and just went down in this little area by the lake. Marty texted that they would wait for us. I asked if they were at the basin and said that we had passed it already. He said they would come to us. So they did, and we got to visit for 20 minutes or so. It was lovely to see them. We were continuing north, but they planned to go back out the way they came in, so we had to part ways. But how fun that we were able to meet up in this big park? I haven't seen them in several years. Wish we could have visited longer, but we both had drives ahead of us and they planned to do the Mystic Falls hike we did a few days ago. 

I'm wondering if they were able to do it, though, because we had rain come in shortly after we left them. But before that, we came across 3 elk, right off the road. Got some great pictures. Then we stopped off at this spot in Yellowstone Lake that had a sandbar going from one side of the inlet to another. It was cloudy at this point, and only high sixties with a breeze, so I had no desire to go in the water. But Eleanor did. Ethan skipped rocks while she got in her suit. She didn't last long, though. I think she would have stayed in, but we had storm clouds rolling in fast, and it started raining lightly, so we got back in the car. We drove up through Hayden Valley, which is home to many bison. At one point, we saw at least 50 off the road. 

There was one last thing I wanted to see that we hadn't stopped at a couple of days ago: Artist Paint Pots. Debbie said they stopped and it was really cool. She mentioned something about soup and stew. Well, it was raining as we approached, but I decided I would go see it regardless if anyone wanted to come. It's our last day here after all. The kids said they would come, so we grabbed umbrellas and set off. It was .6 miles down a trail. Once you got to it, there were boardwalks along the bottom and then you could go left or right to go up to another higher level. From the top, looking down was very neat. There were a lot of light green moss covered rocks, and all kind of small springs of different colors, hence the name of Artist Paint Pots. Then, we came to the soup and stew part. There was one spring of liquidy mud boiling; this was the soup. Next to it, a much thicker white mud stew was boiling. It was so cool! A circle would form and out would pop a string of mud. Sometimes it was small, other times a big blob of mud would come out. It kind of looked like frogs jumping sometimes. At one point, a blob of mud jumped so far it hit a guy next to us. Luckily, he had a raincoat on. The kids said it was the coolest thing they had seen in Yellowstone and didn't want to leave. Will had stayed in the car, saying he might catch up to us, but he hadn't come. We were sad for him to miss it. We stayed a bit longer than said goodbye and went back down the stairs. It had stopped raining, and there was faint rainbow, reminding me of our last night in Banff last year. We also got rain followed by a pretty rainbow in the mountains. My camera was acting up, so I'm not sure I got a good picture. At this point, the kids were convinced Will had to see it, so Ethan was going to run back to the car to get him. He didn't get far before Will was coming back. He had finally set off when the rain ended. So we went back up to show him. I'm not sure he was as impressed by it as me and the kids, but I think he's glad he saw it too. I'm so glad we decided to stop, especially since the kids loved it so much. It was a great way to end our trip here. 

Will was commenting on the sheer amount of driving we have done on this trip because the park is so vast, but it just hasn't seemed nearly as bad to me as some of our other trips. Maybe because the drives are easier and not as claustrophobic. Besides when we were in traffic, we were rarely in the car for more than 30 minutes at a time. And there's so much to see out the window! Maybe it's because he did all the driving in the park. I've offered, but he is more comfortable driving I think. 

We could go through Yellowstone and out the south entrance tomorrow and then drive through the Tetons to our place in Jackson, but Will decided we will do it on the main highway. For some reason, the 14 mile stretch from the west entrance to the loop always takes at least 30 minutes, and the part we'd have to drive through the park goes through the Old Faithful area, which can also be congested. Just now, we turned onto the road out of the park and we are going 5 miles an hour with a huge line of cars ahead. It is likely the fact that everyone is leaving the park right now. That, and there may be wildlife delays. (Update: It was an elk delay. We blew past. We already saw elk and they were a lot closer. Ha ha!)

It really was a wonderful visit to Yellowstone. Our place was nice and close, we saw more than we thought we would, the extreme wildlife viewing was something new, and we had some awesome hikes. Now, on to the next adventure in the Tetons!

Day 9 - Anniversary Hike and Float

First of all, a very happy birthday to my dear friend, and most loyal blog reader, Susie! I hope it was a fun day filled with all your favorites. Love you!

We had a relatively short day in the park today. We definitely got our latest start, too. Will and I slept until about 8. And we let Eleanor sleep until 9:30. There was a little drizzle, so we weren't in a hurry. Will made pancakes again. We left the cabin a little before 11. Our traffic today was at the entrance to the park. We waited probably 30 minutes to get up to the gate. I have no idea why it was so busy today. We hadn't ever had a long line of cars to get in. We thought maybe it was a backup from inside the park, but once we were through the gate, it was smooth sailing. Oh well. It also could have been that a lot of others waited until after the morning shower to come in. We'll never know. 

Our destination today was Purple Mountain. Will had read about the Mount Washburn hike, but when we drove past it late yesterday, the road was closed. I looked it up last night and found out that the service road and trail was closed on July 12th for improvements or something. Ethan was bummed. But it did say on the website to try Bunsen (did it yesterday), Avalanche (did part of that on our way in to the park last Friday - very steep and we didn't have time/weren't prepared to do whole thing), or Purple Mountain. So we set our sights on Purple Mountain. This was is a 6 mile round trip hike, though, as it is 3 miles to the top, so a full mile longer up than Bunsen. Ethan was determined, though, so we said, let's do it!

With our traffic jam getting into the park, and a 20 minute drive to the trailhead, it was already noon, so we ate part of our lunch stuff before starting the hike. Then we got ready with bug spray, etc. We made sure to pack not only Ethan's small water bottle this time, but also one of our big bottles, too. Yesterday, we were out of water at the top. We started off but I realized early on that we forgot to put on sunblock. It had been cloudy and I meant to just pack it to put on later but forgot. So Ethan and I went back to the van and got sun blocked. We told Will and Eleanor to go on and that we would catch up. When we were back on the trail, it took us a full 15 minutes to catch up to them, meaning Eleanor was really motoring. She was also motor-mouthing, Will said, and was providing their bear repellant by keeping her mouth moving at all times. They do say to talk on your hikes to warn any wildlife you're coming. She's likely more effective than bear spray. 

When we caught up to them, we passed them and told them we would see them later. They weren't sure if they would try to get to the summit. This trail was a lot more closed in than yesterday's trail. There were tall pine trees on both sides of it for most of the hike. After about a mile and a half, these very long switchbacks started. You would likely go 300 meters before you would turn and do it again. It wasn't very steep, maybe 10 percent grade, but it was just long, and the switchback above was so much higher. They were really far apart. For the last mile or so, the trail wasn't very wide, and off the one side, you would have a decent slide down sandy rock. I wasn't anxious, but wondered if Will would make it that far. 

Ethan and I had set a goal of getting up in an hour twenty minutes. I had my GPS app tracking us, so every five minutes it would tell us how far we'd gone at what pace. Ethan lagged behind a bit, but we did little bursts of "maximum effort," and we made it to the top in an hour eighteen minutes. We were a bit disappointed that this peak didn't have a little house with a sign and hikers log like Bunsen Peak. But, we had the top to ourselves. I seem to get good cell service at the top, and I texted Diane to ask her to Google the elevation for us. She came through, of course: 8392 feet. And we climbed about 1500 feet from the bottom. The GPS app said we'd gone 3.2 miles. We took some video, pictures, and enjoyed some well-deserved water and a snack. Ethan was really determined to do an Instagram Live video, but my cell service had disappeared, so we weren't able to. 

Our walk down was uneventful, and quiet, as we were pretty tanked. It took us an hour and four minutes. So you really don't gain that much time going down. Maybe if it had been a lot steeper we would have. When we got back, Will and Eleanor were finishing up some lunch. They had only been back 15 minutes, apparently. Eleanor informed me that she had really wanted to go all the way but that dad had to stop at 2.6 miles. They were less than half a mile from the top, but his anxiety with the narrow trail got the best of him. Had he not had Eleanor to worry about, he could have done it, he said, but he was holding onto her hand. I was really impressed that Eleanor made it that far and had wanted to keep going, too. She might be a hiker yet! Ethan and I had a little more lunch and then we drove off to find a place to jump in the water. 

We decided to go back to the Firehole River, knowing that it was warm and the kids had really loved going in the other day. We found a spot to park just off the road that had a little area to access it. The kids thought it didn't look "rapidy" enough, but it looked a bit deeper than the last time we went in so we gave it a try. Well, it may not have looked very "rapidy," but the current was strong. I got in and went to the middle and could hardly walk against it. I tried swimming but it was like one of those indoor personal pools where you can just keep swimming but never go anywhere. About 100 yards ahead of where we were, it definitely got rougher and it looked like it may have even had a small little waterfall, so we gave the kids a spot they couldn't go past. Eleanor really wanted to find a log to float on, and there were some on the other side of the river. So I started that way, but it got deeper and soon I was in to my neck and was having a hard time going against the current. To make matters worse, Eleanor came to join me, so I had to grab onto her and try to get us both to where I could stand better and move against the current. I panicked a little and called for Will to help, but I was able to get over to the side quickly and get out of trouble. No waterfall rides for us. Don't worry, grandparents: we weren't even close. 

We stayed in the water for maybe 25 minutes. The kids would walk back a ways, and then they would float to Will and I and we would catch them. I told them all to take a few mental pictures. In the fall, when I'm super overwhelmed with 3 classes to prep for, in addition to my normal life, I will return to my float on the Firehole River for sure. 

The water was very warm but outside the water it was only in the low 70s with a breeze, so it was freezing when you came up out of the water. You had to stay in the water to keep warm. Finally, we were all chilly enough to want to get out and get dressed. I used the skills taught me by my California cousins to change out in the open, under a towel. I'm also teaching Eleanor these skills. The boys choose the minivan. :) 

At this point, it was a quarter to 5. Will suggested we head for home, surprisingly. It would be our earliest departure. But we definitely made the right decision. We have been home for a 30 minutes, and the wind just picked up significantly. Will looked at the radar, and a storm is coming. We can't even keep the grill lit right now, so we may be doing our frozen burgers in a skillet. We stopped at the store on the way out to try to find some chocolate cake. Today is our 14th Anniversary, and chocolate cake is a tradition of ours, starting way back in China on our 1st anniversary in Beijing. Unfortunately, he couldn't find a good chocolate option, so he got a lemon meringue pie instead. That will do, and I think the kids will like it. We have a few champagne flutes here, so we will do an anniversary toast during our fancy burger and fry dinner. :) All of our anniversaries spent traveling are good, so I'm not complaining. I did a six mile hike, and floated in a mountain river today. It's a win!

With that, I will sign off and post this so I can just relax the rest of the evening. 

Day 8 - Bison Backups, Peaks, and More

We are barely in the park, but I'm starting the blog entry because I have nothing else to do. We've been sitting/barely moving for about 10 minutes. We assumed there was some kind of animal backup, since this has happened a few other times, though not this extreme. Thankfully, some lady just drove by going the other way and yelled out, "Bison!" We are wondering if there are some blocking the road as well as right off the side. There are signs everywhere indicating that vehicles are not to stop along the side of the road to view wildlife and to use pullouts, but no one seems to pay any attention to that. We're now going but 3 miles an hour. At this point, there is no way that the backup isn't all the way back at the entrance, so hopefully some rangers have gotten involved. We just increased to 15 and climbing. Stay tuned! Slower again. But we were just saying it could be worse: we could be on 290. At least we have mountains and trees galore out all the windows. Both kids are drawing. Ethan is making a great scene of Old Faithful. He has a crowd of tiny people and is interspersing random people in between like Santa, a man in a banana costume, Trump, Snape, a unicycler, and more. It's pretty funny. We have been in this jam for over a half hour and haven't seen what is causing it. I'm laughing thinking about how my dad's anger would have been bubbling at this point with outbursts every once and a while. There may have been some slapping of the steering wheel with a "God Dammit," followed by a scolding "Jeff!" from my mom. Lisa would be threatening vomit from the backseat, Malia would be telling us all what it probably is up ahead, and I would be sitting quietly in the middle seat, praying the rosary to the tune of Michael Bolton songs. :)

40 minutes later...we are moving! It was a big caravan of bison with about 5 babies. It was adorable, but I can't believe it caused that much of a backup. The must have been crossing the road at some point. You can't rush bison. 

To get out of the car after the unexpected traffic, we stopped at Gibbon Falls. It's not a trail, but sits right off the road, and there is a path built up along the road to see it. It's very pretty. Not very tall, but quite wide, and the mountains behind it makes for a great view. We were able to grab our first picture of the four of us here. We need to be better about asking people for a picture. I'm regretting that we didn't get a family photo in front of Grand Prasmatic Spring. 

After Gibbon Falls, we made a pit stop and then continued north. Unfortunately, we hit another traffic jam of sorts, this time due to construction. The road was torn up and unpaved, so it was slow going. And it was only one way. Luckily, we must have gotten in line behind the "pace car" and didn't have to stop on the one end. It was probably only 3 miles long, but it took us a good 20 minutes. 

We found a spot to have a picnic lunch. I believe it was called Obsidian Cliff. There was a cliff of black rock with a lot of boulders at the bottom. We shared a picnic table with a couple from California with a small daughter. They had just gotten in last night and are staying in Gardiner, which is at the north entrance. We said good luck heading south in the construction. 

The kids really wanted to find another creek to swim in, but we wanted to find a hike first to work our bodies a bit before a water break. The thing about the map they give you at Yellowstone is that it doesn't have trailheads on it. There are places marked where you pull off the road for different sights, but you kind of just happen upon hikes by driving past a trailhead sign. (Will says the website isn't very helpful in terms of trails, either, and he wants Diane's company to take over the website and fix it. Get on that, Diane.) We saw a sign up the road for Bunsen Peak, so we pulled off and parked. The sign said it was 2.1 miles, meaning it would be 4.2 miles round trip. That is less than what we did yesterday, so we set off. The only one not too sure was Eleanor. She can go long distances, but she does it slowly, and talking - a lot. Every twenty steps she takes a water break, or a Red Vine break, or a picking sage break, or a "can I take a picture of this flower" break. It can take forever. Shortly after starting the hike, Ethan and I made a pact to make it to the summit, provided it the trail didn't turn too dangerous. 

The beginning section of the hike was a lot of meadow just filled with sage bushes. They were everywhere. It was also filled with mosquitos and horse flies. We bathed in deet to discourage the mosquitos, and it helps a bit with the flies. Some of them just circle your head for a while. I find running fast and screaming a little helps. For a while, Ethan and I would walk ahead and then stop to wait for Will and Eleanor. Early on, there were couple of spots with a narrower trail with maybe a 45 degree angle drop off the side. Not as bad as yesterday, though, and Will was able to do it. When we had gone almost a mile, I told Will we were going to go ahead. He kept going for a bit more with Eleanor before turning back. Ethan and I trudged along. It was a decent incline then with a lot of switchbacks as we climbed. One section was all pine trees close to the trail on both sides. It smelled like Christmas! Toward the end, the entire trail is made from large, broken rocks. Ethan said, "They should call these the Rocky Mountains." I responded, "Well, they do call these the Rockies." He didn't know it was the same range as in Rocky Mountain National Park. I explained that the mountains in Glacier and Banff were also part of the Rockies. The more you know. Anyway, we huffed and puffed, and finally made it to the top. There were few people there already, resting at this little log house. You couldn't go in the house, but it had a sign with the Peak's name and elevation. When Ethan saw "Elev," he said, "Wait, there's an elevator?!" We wish! At the top, we took some pictures, video, and just took in the view. It was pretty awesome. We could see several other peaks as well as the Mammoth Spring area down the road. It's rare on these trips that we are able to get to the very top of a mountain, so it was awesome to summit. I knew I could count on my hiking buddy. 

I actually like going up more than I like going down. I like feeling the burn, as they say, and the challenge of doing something hard. And, really, going down is harder on my body. It hurts my knees and that's when I feel rubbing of my toes inside my hiking boots. But since there wasn't an elevator, we had no choice but to go down. I started at timer, and it took us 45 minutes to go down. The whole trip took us an hour and fifty minutes, which means the way up didn't take us that much longer than the way down, especially since part of the way up was waiting for Eleanor to catch up. And we were at the top for at least 10 minutes, too. 

Of course, this 2 hour hike took up a big chunk of the day since it was close to 4 when we were done. Ethan really needed a bathroom, so we went north to the Mammoth Springs area that has all kids of shops and things. After bathroom duty (and doody) was taken care of, we walked over to the Mammoth Spring formations. I had read that the spring formations here were unlike anything else in Yellowstone. And the book was right. We saw this crazy, white thing that looked looked like icy stairs. At the top, there was water coming out and another spot at the bottom, too. It was cool enough to take video of. Again, it looked like another planet. It's wild to see these features juxtaposed with the green pine trees beyond. 

At this point, we needed to decide if we were going to go back the way we came (with the construction) or head east and do the entire top loop, knowing we probably wouldn't stop too much, but also knowing we may not have another chance to see some of the things along this route. We decided for the latter. Mammoth Springs is where you go to from the North Entrance. Since we knew the drive would take us some time, we grabbed dinner at a "grill" in the Mammoth Springs area. It was not great food, and NP food never seems to be in our experience. But waiting until after at least 8 for dinner didn't seem like a great option. 

I am actually typing from this part of the blog now from the northern part of the loop. I am typing blindly while looking at the ridiculous views. I am SO glad we took this route. It is GORGEOUS. There are really expansive views of the mountain peaks. It's different from other parts of the park. First, we went downhill quite a bit and made good time across to Tower Falls, which is at the northeast corner of the loop. At one point, a coyote went across the road just in front of us. Then, right before Tower Falls, a fox ran across the road. As we walked to down the short path to the falls, we could see people taking pictures, and they were pointing them right off the path. We looked to our left, and there was Mr. Fox, chilling in the tall grass, just a few feet away. Snapped a quick pic and skedaddled. He went across the path, full of people, again and went down the hill. That was our first fox encounter. Oh, and I forgot that we also saw mountain goats today on the way to Mammoth Springs. We basically spot all our wildlife by seeing other people taking pictures of wildlife. Sadly, we missed a moose today, I think. People were on the opposite side of the road from us taking pics. We slowed down and someone said moose. We had people behind us, though, and there wasn't a pullout to park safely at, so we had to keep moving. Will saw something but thought it was a deer. Now he's mad we may have had a chance for our first moose. We still have a couple days. For those of you keeping track, we've now seen plenty of bison, mountain goats, elk, a coyote, and a fox. I also saw a prairie dog at Tower Falls, but no one else did. Later, we saw a buck out in a field. It was hard to tell, even with the zoom lens, but it had antlers, but didn't have the darker face of an elk.

We are now almost to our last stretch of road, heading to the east entrance. It will be close to 9 when we get home, and both kids could use a shower. We had a later start today and were delayed by the traffic, so I guess that makes sense. It's just so hard to skip seeing things. And...we just ran into what appears to be another wildlife traffic jam. We have officially come full circle. Ha! It appears to be the same caravan of bison. Thankfully, it was a lot shorter slowdown. 

And now, mystery writer would like to write about the hike too. But mystery writer may not be as mysterious now since only two of us went up all the way. Here s/he is:

Howdy from the middle of Yellowstone National Park. Currently you probably know who I am considering the fact that Will is driving, Michelle just finished typing, and Eleanor is totally freaked out by her previous attack. She was listening to Disney princess music, and then she started screaming. She screamed three times, shocking everyone in the car. Will stopped the car, and everyone starting wondering what was happening, and then she shouted, "THERE'S A BEE IN THE CAR!!" I stared at her and she started pointing to the floor, where I saw a bug that was lying on it's back. It flipped over, revealing an orange and black striped back, and crawled out of sight. Oh, and I forgot about the sound. News flash: Eleanor kept screaming and screeching, the whole time. Long story short, we got the bug out of the car. Now, what was I supposed to talk about? Oh yes, Bunsen Peak. Me (totally not Ethan) and Michelle hiked up to a peak today. You can see pictures on her Instagram feed. So all four us hiked about 0.8 miles, and Will and Eleanor decided to bail out, and Michelle and Ethan went on (like usual). It was very rocky, and very tiring. Not to mention exhilarating. We went up over 8,000 feet, but the view was totally worth it. We finished our dinky bottle of water up at the top, meanwhile Will and Eleanor were in water galore down at the van. And now, mystery writer would like to write about the hike too. But mystery writer may not be as mysterious now since only two of us went up all the way. Here s/he is: The hike down was much faster, and we go down quick.

Day 7 - Geysers, Springs, Mud Pots, and more

We didn't get out quite early enough this morning to do a ranger walk at Old Faithful, but we did manage to get out of the house by 8:30. And that was after pancakes and sausage for breakfast. It was our first hot breakfast for a while, other than the one we had for dinner. We drove in the west entrance and at the fork went south toward Old Faithful (so we were on the bottom left of the 8 shaped loops). 

Firehole falls was our first accidental stop because I thought it was the Firehole loop I had read about. It was just a short, one way road that took you past a small waterfall along the Firehole River. Worth getting out of the car for a picture, at least.

Now, what sets Yellowstone apart from all other parks we've seen is all the geothermal activity. Ethan and I saw a movie today that said there are more hydro/geothermal spots in Yellowstone than all other places combined: over 10,000. I believe it because you can see little steam vents from the road all over. There are several spots you can get out and walk on boardwalks around some of these hot springs, mud pots, and steam vents. The first one we got out at was the Lower Geyser Basin. This place was home to the Fountain Paint Pots, named such because the bubbling mud looks like it's latex paint. It is otherworldly and looks like something out of some kind of sci fi movie. Other spots, you have big holes in the ground the bluest water, but it's bubbling and steaming. Some are just hot, others are hot and extremely acidic. Needless to say, you do not leave the boardwalk anywhere near these things. Little rivers form outside the springs, and they are orange and yellow and all different colors. As with all things on these trips, the pictures will not do them justice.

The next set of hot springs, et cetera, was at the Biscuit Basin, and Will had read about a hike to Mystic Falls from this spot, so we stopped. First, we were up on more boardwalks, looking at different shapes and sizes of geo/hydrothermic areas. There was one geyser that went off fairly often, just not very high. There were other bubbling ponds with deep blue color and what sort of looks like white coral under the water. Past the boardwalk, the trail toward Mystic Falls started. It was about a mile hike, two out and back. It was a fairly easy trail and the payoff was great: the falls were beautiful. We were able to walk up higher and see them from a different vantage point. There was a sign that said to keep going up for the Biscuit Basin Lookout, which we took to mean the place we had parked our car. Back at the bottom, there had been two ways to get to the falls, one longer than the other. We assumed this was just the longer one and we could get back that way. The trail quickly became a switchback trail, high up, and Will started to freak out a bit. It had been his idea to go that way and not back the way we came, but he didn't realize how the trail was going to change. I wasn't all that nervous, but Will had to lean over and touch the side of the mountain. At one point he was sitting down sort of and saying he might turn back. I knew he was afraid of heights, but I was surprised by his reaction. Poor guy! He decided to keep going, and after a few switchbacks, the trail leveled off and there was not as much of a drop-off. Just when he was feeling safe, though, Will realized he lost his knife he had in his pocket. He told us to stay there and that he would be right back. So the kids and I took a 15 minute rest while he retraced his steps. He had to go back over the scary part. I tried calling him after a while to see if he just was going back the way we came and if we should go on. He answered on the third try (not sure how we had service on a mountain), and said he was one his way back, without the knife. I joked to the kids that it was probably in the car. 

We continued on the hike and it kept getting higher and higher. We were essentially on top of this small mountain. Finally, we reached Biscuit Lookout, which was just that, a lookout down to where our car was. Oops. Fortunately, we were able to find the spot to go down that was the other trail. Not so fortunately, it was similar to the part of the trail dad hated, with a narrow trail off of a somewhat steep cliff. It really wasn't that bad and a fall would not have led to death. You would have been bruised and battered, not much else. We finally made it down with surprisingly happy kids still and hightailed it to the car. Will immediately looked for his knife and found it in between the seat middle console. Ha! Will had logged our hike on his gps app Strava. Our 2 mile hike more than doubled, and we ended up going 4.8. The kids were champs. 

Hungry champs. We all were. It was well after 1 o'clock. We hit the road and drove to Old Faithful, which has it's own big area with a lodge, grocery, visitor's center, etc. The parking lot is huge to accommodate everyone. Eleanor and I waited in a line for the bathrooms - surprise - and then we ate lunch from rocking chairs on the steps of the store. Just as we started lunch, we saw Old Faithful go off over the roofs of buildings ahead of us. I wish we would have known and we would have walked to it first, before lunch. Because it went off, we had to wait until hour and half or so. I decided ice cream was necessary to kill some time. Ethan got mountain berry (delicious), and Eleanor got strawberry (also yummy). Then we went to the visitor's center. Will saw there was a junior ranger program going on, so we walked over to learn a bit. Ethan and I left early to watch a Yellowstone movie they were playing a half hour before Old Faithful. I was interested in the movie, but, admittedly, I also just wanted to sit down for a bit. I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. 

We met up outside of Old Faithful. All around it, there are benches set up, but they were in the sun so we waited on some shaded logs a bit off. Faithful was predicted to blow at 3:22, give or take 10 minutes. We got a good spot a few minutes before it was set to blow. Sadly, Old Faithful was not so faithful this time. We waited at least 15 minutes after its predicted time. Will kept a running commentary of jokes while we waited. Every once and a while, it would spit out a bit of water and everyone's cameras would go up and there would be a collective whoop. Then it wouldn't continue and cameras would go down once more. Finally, Old Faithful gathered enough anger to spout off. A ranger said it blows from 100 to 180 feet. I have no idea how far the geyser went up today, but it was impressive and fun to watch. Another bucket list item. Though I'll tell you there are far cooler things here than Old Faithful. 

Cooler, or much hotter, like the Grand Prismatic Spring. Do me a favor and stop reading and Google Grand Prismatic right now. Click on images. That is what we saw on our way out today. It is gorgeous! You're not that much higher than it when you walk around it, though, so I may see if there's a spot to go where you can see it from a more arial view. But even our view was so dang cool. I saw pictures of it months ago, and this was pretty much the Yellowstone feature I was looking most forward to seeing. Yay!

To end our day, we wanted to find a place to dip our feet in some water. The day started cool but got warm and our tootsies could use a good soak. Will found a pullout along the Firehole River. The water wasn't all that cold at all (likely due to very hot water from the hot springs flowing in up River), and Eleanor changed into her suit right away. Normally, Will would be next, but he stayed in his clothes. I decided, what the heck, and changed into my suit quickly. We had water shoes, luckily, because the bottom was all rock. The water felt great. Not warm, but not bitter cold. It wasn't very deep and had a decent current. I went on my back and let the current take me downriver a few yards until it was more shallow and my backside was hitting rocks. Very fun! I did this a few times and then got out to dry off a bit. The kids stayed in another 20 minutes, having a blast.

Now we are in the last few miles of our drive out of the park. We will stop at the grocery (again) for a few things we forgot. Tonight's menu is tacos. We were determined to get back to the cabin a bit earlier tonight so that we can have dinner done and kids reading by 8:30. If we want to get out of the house earlier, we need to get to bed earlier. It's hard sometimes not to keep seeing one more thing, but I'm glad we have another few days here. We have lots of time to explore. Not sure which way we will go tomorrow, but I know Will wants to find a lake to swim in possibly. 

Day 6 - Bison

I am starting to type this entry from the car in an Elk backup on the road through Yellowstone (people are slowing down to see a herd of elk off the side of the highway). We are heading toward the West Entrance after a solid first day in the park. 

Leaving Cody at around 9:30, it took up a little over an hour to get to the east entrance. We decided to purchase a National Park Pass, and they prorated it since we had already paid to get into the Badlands. We figure with Tetons coming and possible another park in North Dakota if we go back that way, it will be worthwhile. Plus, it's good for a year, and if my cousin's wedding is the 6th of July, as they are thinking right now, we will be able to use it in the Colorodo Rockie's next year. 

Let me describe the layout of Yellowstone in terms of the roads. Basically, there are two big circles, the bottom one larger than the top one, so it's shaped like an 8. The east entrance comes in (from the east, imagine that) in the middle of the bottom circle of the 8, and the west comes in from the west on the bottom. So for our drive today, we came in, straight east, into the east entrance and when we came to the circle we went north and and then west, staying in the middle of the 8 shape. We went a little south and then out the west entrance. I'm not sure if we will see all of the top circle, but the drives in Yellowstone seem easier and faster than those in Glacier. In Glacier, you were on the side of a mountain a lot. In Yellowstone, it is a bit more open, at least in the parts we were on today. 

So, our first stop just inside the east entrance was at Eleanor Lake. It was more like a pond, but our Eleanor was proud to have a lake named after her in a National Park. We didn't tell her it was probably after Eleanor Roosevelt. At this stop, there was a trailhead for Avalanche Peak, so we headed up the mountain. This trail was rather steep, but fun. Like clockwork, Eleanor announced she had to go to the bathroom shortly (the harder one), but we kept going. We had no idea how long it was to the top, but we were curious to keep going. Admittedly, for the first part, I was nervous about bears. There was the usual sign warning us to start, and there were very few people. Finally, we saw a few guys who told us the top was a ways up but that we would come to a clearing soon with a great view. That clearing had creeks running all down and was filled with purple and pink wildflowers. It was gorgeous. Ethan, my peak hiker, and I went up a bit more, but it was pretty steep, making him want to turn around after a few minutes. The way down was faster, certainly, but actually harder on your legs and feet. You have to be careful not to slip on the dry dirt and rocks. We made it all in one piece and set off to find a bathroom, which ended up being a pit toilet down the road. Eleanor suddenly didn't have to go number 2 as badly.

The next big stop was at Lake Yellowstone. Lake Yellowstone looks a bit like Lake Michigan, with mountains. It is HUGE. I believe I read in the guidebook that it's the largest alpine lake in North America. That seems about right. There are over 100 miles of shoreline. We saw a rocky beach to stop at, so we pulled over, took our shoes off, and took a toe dip. It honestly didn't feel that bad, even though my book warned that it's not a good lake for swimming because the average temp is 41. But it felt warmer than that for sure. Eleanor was ready to put her suit on, but since we still had a lot of road to cover and knew we'd be stopping a lot, we opted not to get all wet. 

I would need the map to know for sure, but I think we stopped and looked at some rapids from here. We just walked along the Yellowstone River along a path. We learned it was trout spawning season, so they were busy swimming upstream. Will found a calm spot were three huge trout were resting before the rest of their journey. They were probably a foot and a half long. The only bad thing about this spot was that there were these long winged beetles of some kind, flying around and landing on you. They didn't bother me, but Eleanor kept having them fly at her, so we didn't stick around too long. This was the only spot we saw these bugs. I think Ethan said he heard a guy saying that the fish eat them. Maybe they were the flies that fly fishermen use. 

Next, we ended up at the Fishing Bridge camping area, where they had a large store and a little snack bar. Of course, there was a line for the ladies room. Whoever thought two stalls in such a large place was a good idea was clearly a man. We shopped around for a bit and ended up with a pin, a patch, a shirt for Eleanor, and a little deer for Eleanor. Eleanor decided to blow her souvenir money in the first stop. 

From here, we continued along the road to this sulfur spring area, and this is where we encountered our first of many  bison of the day. There were some out of the right side of our car, and then there was one in the road, about 5 cars ahead of us. Traffic was stopped on both sides as this beast of an animal just took it's time crossing the road. Just ahead, we parked on the side of the road and walked across to the Mud Volcano area. It was a series of these sulfur springs. The mud was just bubbling up out of the ground, and you smell rotten eggs. It's kinda nuts. And there were more bison - lots! There were some rolling in the sulfur mud, presumably to cool off. There was this boardwalk surrounding the sulfur pits, and there was one directly underneath. Of course, tons of people were right above it, posing for pictures. We chose to back up and go the other way. Everything we've read about bison attacks is from people getting too close. People are dumb. We try not to be those people. 

Eleanor started a tally of all the bison that we saw, and I believe she got up to at least 25. Not bad for day one. As we drove on from the sulfur volcanos, we could see many off in the distance, chilling in the valley. At one turn off, we saw a ranger who had a telescope pointing one way, so we stopped. There was a herd of Elk across a river. Through her binos, you could see them, but they were a bit far way for my zoom lens. All I saw were some dark spots. 

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is as it sounds, a large canyon, except at the bottom was the Yellowstone River instead of the Colorado. It was a loooong way down. There are two waterfalls to see, upper and lower falls. Lower falls is the highest in Yellowstone. We saw it from a lookout spot above and could see people right at the top of the falls, behind a railing. Determined to see it, Ethan and I set off. It was 3/8ths of a mile down a switchback trail down. Will wanted to skip it because it was already after 5. But I was worried we wouldn't be back this Far East and didn't want to miss out. I promised him we'd go fast. It took us about 10 minutes to go down. And it did not disappoint. This was, by far, the most massive waterfall we have seen up close. It was probably about 40 feet across and a few stories high. The amount of water rushing over it was incredible. We took some photos and video to show dad and Eleanor, and we went up as fast as we could. I timed it on my phone, and we were up in 8.5 minutes. Not bad. 

Now it was really time to head out of the park, and, luckily, the next stretch didn't have any big stopping areas. And we were moving pretty quickly, too, other than a couple of animal slowdowns. We went about 45 miles in an hour and got out of the park a little after 6. Upon exiting, you are immediately in the town of West Yellowstone. It's small, with a ton of hotels, motels, restaurants, and souvenir shops crammed into a small area. We found a tiny, expensive grocery store, picked up some ground beef for spaghetti, and some fruit, etc. Our cabin was a 10 minute drive from there, so it really is very close to the entrance but away from the crowded town.

Our cabin is very nice. Large living room/kitchen, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. There is short shag carpet everywhere but the kitchen. The cabinets are all knotty wood, as is the ceiling. I would call it cowboy modern. And our front yard is mountains. Can't beat that. We have a little porch with a grill and table for four. In the back, there's a small deck with a table for two. You can hear a small creek (our cabin is called creek side), but you can't really see it as there is a bunch of brush around it. We were in a rush to get dinner going when we got home, and we didn't want to have the kids outside on their own. Honestly, if we see a bear at all, it will likely be out the kitchen window. 

We got the car unpacked, made a quick dinner, and tried to organize a bit. Kids just went to bed, and I am following soon after a shower and some laundry. Will is talking about a ranger hike at 8:30 at Old Faithful. I'm not sure I can be up and out early enough to make it there. We will see. I don't have it in me to proofread this right now, so please excuse any errors.