Rachel & Brent had decided to baptize the twins the weekend of Father's Day. So when Jimmy and I decided to go to YNP, we decided to be up there when the baptism took place. All of Brent's family was there, and all of us except Rebekah's family and our kids were there. We spent most of Sunday together, met for dinner a couple of nights later on in the week, and other than sending texts or stopping when we passed each other on the road to get "animal sightings", we all pretty much did our own thing.
Jimmy and I spent Saturday driving to Yellowstone and then we went out to West Yellowstone. There we did some shopping before heading back to Canyon to check into our cabin. Lucas and Joy and the girls sat with us that evening while we ate dinner.
Sunday found us driving to Mammoth. Along the way we came across 3 or 4 black bears. We then met up with everyone at the chapel for the baptism. After the service, we ate lunch in the Mammoth Dining Room. Most of us had planned to go white water rafting that afternoon, but with the river running normally at 6000 cubic feet per second and that day it was up to 20000 cubic feet per second, we opted not to raft. So the boys and Rachel took an 8 mile hike through the northern backcountry, Mom and I went shopping in Gardiner and I believe everyone else rested. After the hike, we all ate pizza in Gardiner for dinner that night before heading back to our cabins.
On Monday, Jimmy and I headed east. Jimmy had never been out the East Entrance before. As were driving along the East Entrance road, the road turns to the left as it leaves the shoreline of Yellowstone Lake. A few minutes later we notice the few cars in front of us are stopped in the middle of the road because 2 wolves are crossing it! We followed them the best we could for a little bit before heading on down the road. Not too far from the east entrance, we came around a corner to find 6 bighorn rams off the road eating. It was an amazing day so far! As we left Yellowstone, we headed to Cody, WY. There we turned north and drove to Red Lodge, MT. Red Lodge is on the north side of the Beartooth Pass outside of the NE Entrance of Yellowstone. We had gone over it last time we were there and we loved it. I had read in a book that it was the next best thing to being on top of a mountain without having to climb it. Mom and Dad had tried coming into YNP through Beartooth Pass, but were turned away due to an avalanche. Jimmy and I were able to make it through and it was like being in a whole other world! We spent the rest of the day driving into YNP and then around it looking for animals with another trip to West Yellowstone to buy some souvenirs.
On Tuesday we drove down by the lake and then on over to Old Faithful. The new visitor center at Old Faithful is very nice! After visiting it, we met up with Grant for an afternoon ice cream treat. Then Jimmy and I headed out to the boardwalk and spent a few hours looking at the thermal features. When we were done, we headed up to the lodge to say hello to everyone before they went in for dinner. It turned out that they had extra seats so we stayed and ate dinner with them. After dinner, Jimmy and I went looking for animals as headed towards Canyon.
Wednesday found us getting up early to look for animals around Mt. Washburn. We only saw bison and elk and it took us a bit longer to get back to Canyon due to the bison "traffic" we encountered along the way. After eating a good breakfast, we spent the morning at the Canyon waterfalls, where we did some trails we hadn't done before. Since it was our last full day in YNP, we decided to drive the loop looking for animals one more time before we were to meet up with Mom & Dad, and Rachel's gang for dinner in Grant Village. It was a gorgeous day, and although we didn't see many animals, we did come across a huge grizzly on the south side of Mt. Washburn. After dinner at Grant Village, we stopped at Grand Prismatic Spring and then headed back to Canyon.
Thursday morning we headed south to Grand Teton National Park. We passed Mom & Dad at a picnic area and stopped to have lunch with them. Then Jimmy and I headed towards Jenny Lake. There we took a 2 1/2 mile (one way, I may add) hike up to Hidden Falls. After we made it back to the car, we drove to Jackson Lake Lodge where we met Mom & Dad who were watching 2 bull moose in the willows. We ended up having dinner with them there. After dinner we went back to the large windows in the lodge to see the moose again, only to discover a mother grizzly and her cubs in an open area just south of the moose. We decided to go outside to a pullout to see them better and while we were there, the mother and cubs disappeared in the brush only for us to discover a huge male grizzly on the other side of the meadow near a herd of elk! During this time, the camera fell out of my pocket and a little bit later we discovered our camera no longer zoomed in on anything (and from the looks of the pictures I downloaded, the zoom didn't seem to be working very well from the beginning.) We spent the night in Jackson, after a trip to Kmart to buy a new camera.
Friday morning we left our hotel at 5:30a.m. and headed back into GTNP. There we took a 10-mile sunrise float trip down the Snake River. IT WAS AMAZING! It was a bit chilly, but otherwise we had calm weather. It was very peaceful. After the float we had breakfast in Jackson, did a bit of shopping then headed south. Long story short, Friday afternoon found us buying a new car battery only to discover 100 miles later that the alternator needed to be replaced (which we were able to do) and then 45 minutes later after getting on the road, we came to a dead stop on the interstate for 1 hour due to a crash. It was a long Friday!
We made it back to Dexter on Saturday afternoon and I think we're still trying to soak up the kids as much as we can. They seem to have had a good time on the farm and we really appreciate Jimmy's family for watching them.
Total animal count:
- bighorn ewes/lambs - 25+
- bighorn rams - 6
- mountain goats - 5
- black bears - 10
- grizzly bears - 8
- wolves - 6
- marmots - 6/7
- snowshoe hares - 3
- bison - 100s
- elk - 100s
- pronghorn - 100s
- bald eagles - 5
- sandhill cranes - 6
- deer - a dozen or so
- red fox - 1
- lots of Canada geese and pelicans
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