So, ages since our last post. July was as tough a month as June was nice. But we all survived, and the end of the month was a nice vacation in Yellowstone.
The whole lot of us (Janette and me, Angel, Ryan, Joshua, and Roxanne) flew into Idaho Falls on Friday evening and drove to the cabin we rented in Island Park. We only took time to look up and see a skyful of stars before going to bed, because we wanted to start the day early, get some hiking in before meeting up with Nat and Shannon and my folks. Our first big hike was at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which runs alongside (you guessed it) the south rim of the canyon. Nice hike. Here’s some photos, the best of which were Ryan’s.
We met up with Nat and Shannon and my mom and dad at Old Faithful, where we had lunch just before the geyser went off, and then we hiked up to Observation Point, which overlooks Old Faithful and the geyser basin. After a 15 minute wait, we watched Old Faithful again from 200 feet above. The Aurum Geyser erupted at the same time, putting on a nice show.
We wandered through the Artist’s Paint Pots area, and everyone declared themselves sufficiently blistered, sunburned, and generally hiked-out that we made that the last walk of more than a quarter-mile. Mammoth had elk (lots of them) and the incredible terrace forms of the hot springs. Mammoth was nice and pleasant, with a brief, light thunderstorm and the elk setting a leisurely "we-will-not-be-rushed" tone to the little village, and I think the springs are phenomenal, just made for photographs, though none of mine really turned out well. The nice one, again, is Ryan’s. On the way out, we stopped at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, which was not the tourist trap you might imagine. The kids loved it (Roxanne and Elizabeth got to go into the grizzly bear habitat—while the bears were gone, of course—and hide food for the bears), and us adults found it pretty interesting and informational, as well. Here’s more photos (in this batch of photos, I’m throwing in a buffalo in the middle of the road that might have been from Saturday’s drive…).
Monday, we had enough driving and enough hiking, and so we did the #1 greatest lazy thing you can do in the outdoors: floated down Henry’s Fork of the Snake River from Big Springs to Mack’s Inn in a big rubber raft. It was three hours of lazy, relaxing, but still engaging fun. No big mammals were seen, but there were numerous blue herons, an osprey (pictured), ducks, and some kind of plover. My right foot and left knee are still pink from the sun.
(The whole lot of photos, if you're interested, are posted to Shutterfly, here.)
Then we drove back to Idaho Falls and got to spend a few hours at my folks’ place, seeing the vegetable gardens, picking buckets of raspberries, and enjoying a great meal before we left (thanks mom & dad!) It turned out to be a really nice trip. Great to be together with family and to bring families together.
The final wild animal list, kept by Roxanne:
- Buffalo (lots)
Elk (lots)
Mule deer
Coyote
Eagles
Herons
Plovers
Kildeer
Bluebirds
Ducks
