Bison, wolves, and moose

After the Lewis and Clark Caverns we headed for Yellowstone.  We had missed the Lamar River Valley and I figured since we were so close we could drive through around dusk, look for wildlife, and then find a campground outside of Yellowstone's northeast entrance.  This couldn't have worked any better.  We saw herd after herd of bison.  This experience was made better since they were all snorting, grunting, and purring en masse. 

We finally stopped at a pullout that didn't have buffalo knee deep for a quick dinner @ 8:15.  I was making the sandwiches when a bunch of cars and trucks started pulling up.  One of the guys asked us if we knew that there was a black wolf out in the field.  Of course we didn't, we were too busy stuffing our faces.  He was nice enough to let us look through his high powered scope so it was just like the wolf was right in front of us.  Later on we saw another bear from far away too.  I'm so glad we went through Yellowstone again.

We stayed at Fox Creek Campground outside of Yellowstone that night.  It was a nice place with good views of mountains.  Headed to Cody and Sheridan, WY in the morning.  Dead Indian Pass on the way to Cody had great views and was very curvy. 

 

Went to the visitor's center and the Old West Miniature Village before heading to the Chinese buffet on Main street in Cody.  The kids 'loved' it.  We were going to do the Buffalo Bill Museum but we ran out of time.

Stopped at the Shell Falls Interpretive Center (worth a stop).  We received  great info for our camping that night. 

 At the top of Granite Pass we saw three moose. (I'd been dying to see some moose that you could tell were moose)

Tried to camp at Sibley Lake but it was all reserved.  We turned around and headed back to Prune Creek and managed to get the last site available.  We probably would have stayed another night if we could have but they were all booked up the next day.  It was a pretty camping area along the creek.  There was lots of noise from the road that took away from the camping experience a bit. 

 

Did a little running while I was here and saw a moose and nine deer. 

Run: Prune Creek

Trails Used:  ?

Distance: 6.53 miles

Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 6.0 mph
Overall Time: 1 hrs, 05 mins
Total Ascent: 573 ft.

We crossed over to South Dakota the next day on the way to Custer State Park.

We cheated a little since we didn't get the Wyoming sign the day before.

Setting up camp in Glacier National Park

We went in the west entrance for Glacier National Park.  We were worried about getting a site at Avalanche Campground again.  The non reservation system is nice but stressful.  We ended up staying at Avalanche (Site B61) for three nights just for the ease of everything.  We had a nice grass meadow behind us and were in the trees for the most part.  It still seems like it takes forever to set up camp and we need to be careful again since we are back in bear country.

There was always a lot of fussing with the bikes.

 

I ran up to Avalanche Lake (4.9 miles) and back.  It was straight uphill with lots of people.  The lake was beautiful with many falls.  We will do the hike as a family the next day.  Late that afternoon we did the Trail of the Cedars Nature Trail.  It was an easy 1.58 mile hike on a boardwalk with views of the river and some falls, and rocky mossy cliffs.

 

 

Hike: Trail of the Cedars Nature Trail

Trails Used:  Trail of the Cedars

Distance: 1.58 miles

Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 2.3 mph

Overall Time: 0 hrs, 41 min
Total Ascent: 633 ft.

 

 

This picture makes me smile.  With out fail one of the kids had to go to the bathroom every time dinner was ready or when we were in the middle of making dinner.  It is emblematic of the percentage of time I spent with them in the bathrooms.  It's an even better picture because C took it!

 

We had a campfire for dinner w/ the pie irons.  Chicken cheese crescent roll sandwiches and potatoes.  

 Before shot of the sandwiches:

 

 After shot of the sandwiches:

 

Tried two different types of marshmallows:  strawberry 

 

and mint chocolate.  

 

We even tried the jumbo campfire marshmallows but won't ever get those again. They are too big and too messy!  Completely unnecessary for a good s'more.

We thought there were people blowing whistles on nearby trails to keep the bears away but the ranger walking by let us know that it is the nuthatches around us.  It was a maddening noise in the beginning but by the second day we didn't even notice it anymore. 

Change of scenery: The Tetons

We headed for the Tetons after Yellowstone.  We were going to camp at Colter Bay but had talked to some neighbors in Yellowstone that said Signal Mountain was pretty nice.  We decided to follow their advice.  We set up camp, sweated a lot (85 degrees), then headed to String Lake for a dip in the water to cool off and cleanse our bodies.

 

We didn't stay long since I remembered that we hadn't shut the rain flaps on the tent and the sky was getting dark.  Good thing too, since it started raining within 5 minutes of us getting back.  That was our first rain of the trip.  We sat in the tent for about 45 minutes waiting for it to end.  The kids had a blast rolling all over each other and tackling everything and anything in site.

 

When they got a little bored I set up the camera and we played photo booth w/ the timer function.  The pictures aren't quite in focus but they make me smile every time I see them.

 

 

 

 

 We were feeling lazy that evening so we headed up to the Signal Mountain Lodge (Trapper's Grille) for dinner.  I was not impressed. Notice that this was our 2nd bad meal in a National Park. It's the beginning of a trend. The hamburgers (recommended by the waitress) were like cardboard (taste and texture.)  C did enjoy his.

 

Again, the Lodge itself was pretty and had great views of the mountains and lake.

 

If only they could get their food quality higher.

Checked out Colter Bay (since we didn't end up camping there), Willow Flats, and Oxbow Bend

 

for wildlife.  We also checked out the Jackson Lake Dam.  We saw an elk & a baby on the way to Colter Bay.  We saw another elk & a baby drinking water out of the Snake River at Oxbow and 4 or 5 beavers working/swimming/eating.  They were quite industrious.

  

The following pictures are some that the kids took.  I brought an old, old camera for them not really thinking that they would take any pictures that I would keep but they did get about 10 I really like out of the 300 they took.  I'm so glad I let them do this.  This is one of my favorite pics since it's from the perspective of the little people.

 This is a classic since I was always grabbing for Q's hand so she didn't flop down the hill.

 

 Again, I just like the perspective it was taken from and that we are taking pictures of each other!

Mammoth Hot Springs

Got up and got going on our fourth day of the trip.  It was campground moving day. 

My daughter complained about having to eat a bagel and cream cheese that morning but finally gave in after much protesting when she figured out that her stomach hurt because she was hungry. As Oprah would say "it was her ah ha moment."

We drove through the Hayden Valley and saw quite a few bison and geese but not much else.  We didn't stop at many of the scenic sites because we knew we needed to have a camp site by 10 in the morning or we might not find one in the park.  We had planned to get a site at Tower Campground, or Slough Creek if there wasn't any room.  We could have found a spot at Tower but the campground wasn't very nice (crowded, too open).  Our biggest complaint there were the few sites that had flat spots for a tent.  I can't believe how many sites were crooked.  We quickly left Tower and headed for Slough Creek.  Unfortunately, they were full.  Overall, I wasn't very impressed with this campground either (not many flat spots).  We started getting worried at this point because it was after 10 and we were still searching.  This process is extremely tedious in Yellowstone since it takes so long to get anywhere.  We finally ended up at the Mammoth Campground around 11:30 in the morning.  It felt like it took all day and we still had to set up camp for the day!  We were both grumpy at this point. This campsite ended up being nice.  We had 'flushies' and a flat site w/ shade.  We did notice that it was warmer at this campground since it is lower in elevation than the rest of the park.

We set up our tent

made lunch

and drank lots of water to battle the heat

After lunch it was time to organize (an ongoing, everyday battle)

Our main way of organizing was through the use of my shopping bags and crates.  Next time we will have boxes with tops on them so that we can stack, stack, stack.

While we are cooking, cleaning, setting up or down the two free loaders get to read their National Geographic magazines (and they can't even smile at the camera for me)

Since we were actually at our campsite for nap time we got one of them to sleep before we headed out for the day's festivities.

We decided to do the Beaver Pond Loop hike (5.66 miles).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cooper made it the whole way and Quinn made it a little over 3 miles before we scooped her up and put her in the Sherpani (backpack).  We didn't see any beavers but did see a couple of elk and a neat bird with an orange head and a yellow body. The last 1.5 miles of the hike were made quickly due to an encroaching thunderstorm (with lightning).

 

Daddy took off w/ the precious cargo in the backpack and Coop and I ran/walked the rest of the way with the storm chasing us.  We caught up with them at the Mammoth Springs Hotel and ate our PB&J's under the roof (it never did rain more than a couple of sprinkles.)

We wanted to see a couple of more things that night so we bribed the kid's w/ ice cream.  Ice cream always does the trick!

We finished up the night w/ the upper and lower terraces in Mammoth (1.69 miles) to see the different thermal pools.

  

We saw a bison walking through town on our way home.  What a hoot!

 

Another day, another campsite...