Cascade Canyon

 

Day nine of camping with one shower, a couple of lake swims, some hairy legs and faces (Chris, not me!), and a bit of greasy hair.  The kids have lots of bumps, bites, and some scrapes but for the most part we are all sane and healthy.

Last night for dinner we had pie iron sandwiches.  I made them with hamburger buns, hot dogs, pepperoni, and Velveeta.  I'm not one for processed food but these were pretty dang good!  Cooked some potatoes in tinfoil w/ Lipton onion dip and ranch dip that turned out fantastic as well.

We picked up some donuts yesterday for breakfast this morning since we were doing our 'big' hike and wanted to get started early. 

 

We took the shuttle across Jenny Lake so that we could spend our time hiking more of the canyon that we hadn't seen and less time going around the lake tiring out the little people.  They seemed to like the shuttle too.  It ran frequently so you don't have to plan your trip around it. 

 We saw Hidden Falls, Inspiration Point, and into the canyon about 3 miles or so.  

 

 

At Inspiration Point a chippy was checking out Quinn and Cooper.  He really thought their snack looked good!

 

 

 

The canyon area was gorgeous and well worth hiking.

 

 

There were some cool falls way up high.

 

We turned around at one point when we were hiking back and saw a marmot following us down the trail.  I tried for a picture but was unable to get one.  We made it back to the campsite at 3, took naps (Q & daddy), I ran, then we all went to Jackson Lake for a dip to cool/clean off.

It got stormy looking in the afternoon but nothing ever rolled through our campsite.

 

 We wimped out and went up to the Lodge again for dinner.  We split a batch of the Signal Mountain Nacho's.  These were pretty good.

After dinner we headed up Signal Mountain Summit.  We saw a mama bear with two cubs, as well as a grouse.

 

It's a pretty scenic drive with great views.

We are leaving the Tetons tomorrow and are headed for Victor, ID.

Sunsets in the Tetons

I couldn't make up my mind which photos I liked the best. 

 

 

Canoeing on Jenny Lake

 

Agreed to another 'no hiking' day for the kids.  We decided to canoe (1.95 miles) on Lake Jenny instead.  It's a very pretty little lake.  The kids each had their own mini paddles and tried to do their own thing. When they got tired we would look under the water and grab on to logs that we passed.  They seemed to enjoy it.  We did have to lie and say that Q was five otherwise they wouldn't have let us do it. 

 

 We stopped for a little break to wade in the water and snack before we headed back.

 After the canoe, we passed the river area where I saw a family making cairns in the river.  I love cairns so I couldn't miss the photo op.

 The youngish kids were actually putting a ton of effort and thought into making them too.  They didn't just take the easy way out by putting the large rocks on the bottom and working their way up.

 I liked the play of the neighboring mountains peaks showing on this mountain.

 We did a Junior Ranger hike w/ Ranger Steven.  We ended up getting our own personal tour due to a misunderstanding but we heard lots of interesting stories about the Lake Jenny area that we might not have gotten otherwise.

 We came back to Jackson Lake in the late afternoon and took another dip in the lake and played w/ the rocks on the shoreline.

 Daddy out swimming:

 One of the few times we put Q down for her nap.  She sure looks comfy in the hammock!

 We needed to get this big, obnoxious piece of wood cut for the fire.

 The s'more before cooking w/ the pie iron:

 The after ooey, gooey, goodness:

Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve

My mom had told the kids the story of the 'bagel stealer' (a chipmunk had stolen my bagel on a hike when I set it down and I had to chase after the chippy to get it back) before we left and they couldn't stop talking about it once they'd found their own 'bagel stealer.'  He hung pretty close to our campsite anytime we were cooking or had food out.

 We were driving to our hike when I saw these awesome clouds. 

We went to the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve today for a hike.  The hike had lots of bridges, rapids, wildflowers, and views.  We hiked up to Phelps Lake (3.36 miles.)

 I guess Q was meditating here, she looks very peaceful.

 She wanted me to take lots of pictures of us snuggling.

 Lots and lots of columbine:

 I'd never seen this columbine before:

 The Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve was a fantastic place to visit.  The building was modern and minimalist, the exhibits were to the point and all about appreciating nature.  The kids liked this relief map of the area.  We were able to point out our hike that day.

 More of the cool, minimalist exhibits:

 The image was made from thousands of tiny images of the area:

The composting toilets were also notable. The vault like doors made it seem like you were entering an exciting place.  Alas, it was only a bathroom.

After this we headed out to Mormon Row.  I'd read up on this site on the internet.  The photography nuts made it out to be much more exciting than what it really was.  It turned out all right though since Q got a nap and C got to rest, and it drizzled a little.  I might have been more excited about it if I could have seen the mountains but it was not meant to be.