On to Mount Rushmore!

Woke up early and were wanting to leave the campground by 8. Finishing up the last packing when Hayden came riding up from the bathroom with, "A man fainted in the bathroom and the people down there need you!". Ah, the best laid plans. So, Tom went down, I figured a better bet than a girl doctor going in the men's bathroom. There was a man, unresponsive on the floor unable to be awakened by even a firm sternal rub. So, not much for Tom to do but make sure he was breathing and beating his heart and call 911. My hero! The lady who owned the campsite though, was much appreciative of having a doctor on the premises. We did leave about 15 minutes later than we thought and were glad for all the preparation we did the night before.

We drove through some lovely countryside and saw several herds of pronghorn antelope. Lots of ranches with horses which made Katie want to drive straight through to Peoria so she can see Cricket. We got into Mount Rushmore about 6 p.m. and the guy at our rv park told us to go straight to Mount Rushmore and eat at the cafeteria(cheapest and best food according to him) and then bop around until the night time ceremony. We did just that and the food was good and good size portions with adequate prices. The ceremony was nice and they honored the vets that were in the crowd which was a nice touch. Home late to bed(again). Appears that we will get home late Saturday night which will give us Sunday to unpack and recover a bit before I go to back to work on Monday. Tom, the state worker with more vacation days, will be back Wednesday and I have a whole list of things for him to do, including mandatory dental checks for a few of the children!

Whitewater Rafting!

Up late and breakfast. Tom went out a little early to scout out places for Hayden and him to go fishing this evening. We then did laundry at 2.75 cents per load and 75 cents for 10 minutes of dry. What a ripoff! At noon we went to our whitewater rafting place and went down the river for two hours. For those of you who knew our last experience, this was much better. First, it was sunny and warm, second the water was 62 degrees not 42 degrees and thirdly, we didn't get stranded on a rock with our guide going down the river without us. It was very windy and we had to paddle a large portion of the way so that we would even move. We saw 4 osprey and their respective nests and I forgot to tell you that we saw another bear cub(black) yesterday. Home to spaghetti and fruit. Tom and Hayden are going fishing and we are going to wander the town. Packing up and leaving tomorrow for the trip to Mt. Rushmore. No pictures today as I didn't buy the whitewater CD for $55. Sorry!

The Hiking Guidebook lied!

Ok, this post is late but we got home at 9:30 and I was too tired to work on it. Our day yesterday started out with breakfast and an hour drive to the Mt. Washburn trailhead. On the sign it said it was 3 miles to the top with 1500 feet of elevation gain. Not 2.5 miles and 1000 feet. We could see the lookout from where we were parked. If you look at the picture of the white van and up at the top of the mountain you will see the structure. It is 3 stories, so you know how far away it looked to us. But we moseyed on our quest to see Bighorn sheep.

About a mile and a half into the hike, a steady uphill climb all the way, we saw a herd of bighorn sheep. Four momma sheep and 3 babies. We walked with them, as they didn't seem to want to let us pass until we came to a midhike outlook area and then almost had a Planet Earth moment. A lady, a little over the hill(not in age but on the trail) said, "Look, a coyote!". We stopped dead still as it came across the meadow and it didn't even act like we were there. It was stalking one of the baby bighorn sheep. It walked inches in front of Kate and almost brushed Hayden's leg. The sheep got nervous and then bounded down the mountain to a rocky outcrop. The coyote then trotted up the path and we met it again higher and it circled down and around the other way to get at them, I suppose. After that, we didn't see the sheep anymore, so we were glad we got there when we did. No rams with the huge curly horns, which was a little disappointing but ok.

We walked to the top which is greater than 10,000 feet. It was a beautiful view. Austin summed it up by throwing his arms wide and saying, "Isn't this the greatest! It is so cool! I love today!" We spent about a 1/2 hour looking and eating some snacks and then started down. The alpine meadow flowers were fantastic and the downhill was much easier, although you had to be careful not to slip on the loose rock. It was a lungbuster as the elevation and the climb made you feel very out of shape but so worth it.

We came home and stopped by a fishing place because Hayden wanted to fish, changed into swimsuits and while he and Tom fished, we sat in the boiling river to get the soreness out. Then out for pizza which was a bad move as we were all so tired a grumpy and the restaurant was not so great. Should have just eaten in the camper. Went to bed and slept and slept. So, SUCCESS for today.

Mammoth hot springs, Boiling River, and horseback riding with a cowboy cookout

Started the day with big breakfast, packed a lunch and headed to Mammoth Springs because I wanted to see the lower half of what we saw when we took the big loop. It is amazing, stories and stories high of mineral deposits of the hot springs. We then went to Boiling River, which is where the mammoth hot springs meet the gardiner river after traveling underground for awhile. This allows you to wade in and pick your temperature from, "wow, my legs are boiling, I need to move, to AHHHH, hot tub, nice soak! We played(ok layed) there for about 2 hours and talked to various other people as they would come and go.

We then went up to the Mammoth hot springs area again and had a picnic lunch with elk grazing around the area and the usual stupid people trying to get as close as they can. My camera has a zoom lens and gets me a great shot without risk of injury! The rangers set up orange cones and sit in there cars telling people to get back. They also told Tom, "nice catch" when he ran all the way down the street to get a red bag that blew from our picnic. This was over the car intercom speaker. I suspect a citation would have been given had he not gone after it. It is $75,000 fine if you litter at Yellowstone. Thus, no litter anywhere. I always have said that we need to make punishments bigger for things and then people won't do it.

We arrived back at the campsite for a little r and r and I took a nap! What is vacation without at least one afternoon nap? We arrived at the check in for our horseback ride and went up a rode into Gallatin National Forest until it ended at our stable. We all mounted horses and took off up the mountain. Now, I am a decent rider and don't mind heights but this trail was a little narrow for me and after my horse slipped, I was even more vigilant. Austin thought it was more than he needed and we think his horse was scared of heights just like Autsin because it kept walking on the mountain above the trail and sliding down into the trail over and over. He was not pleased. Anyway, Katie got to finally trot on the way back which made her happy. We ended with a steak dinner cowboy cookout which I am not sure was worth the money but oh, well!

Home to get a few groceries and taking a page from Nana's vacation book, we are trying to get in ice cream as many times as possible. Tonight is mint chip and reeses pieces. MMMM! Early to bed as tomorrow we are climbing Mount Washburn. It is said that a herd of 20 bighorn sheep live a the top. It is listed in our hiking book as a lung buster. Hmmmm! 2.5 miles up and 1000 feet gain in elevation. At the top is a lookout and hopefully the sheep. Check in tomorrow to see if we made it.

A Day of Rest!

Got up not at the crack of dawn but when I wanted and got breakfast and packed to head to the northside. Gardiner, MT. Home of the original entrance of Yellowstone and the only one open all winter. We sank 2200 feet in elevation and although we are farther north we are hotter because we are lower.

Not much to talk about today as we went to the IMAX movie again about caves supposedly and really was about a lady who looks for extremophiles or bacteria that live in extreme environments. Not as cool. Then we wandered over to the "Authentic Mexican Restaurant", aka TEXMEX! but it was good. Drove north and saw the obligatory elk but no other wildlife. Came to our campground glad that the car had good brakes because the guardrails are few and far between. Rested awhile and decided to go see what the town had to offer. Browsed a few shops, found a pizza place with an interesting pizza called Border2Border, which is canadian bacon and jalapenos! We forwent that for the usual large veggie and large cheese. It was my rest day too, so I refused to cook. (I did do laundry, hard to skip that)

Back home to free putt putt golf and reading and posting. We have a cabin as well courtesy of Nanny which lets us spread out a little here which is very nice. Tomorrow is another big day. See ya then!

Grand Tetons! HO!

Oh, for the exuberance of Tom wanting to get to the Grand Teton's. "Can we leave by 8 a.m.?" Met by a few groans from the crowd that now desperately need a day off. But we agreed because we wanted to see the mountains and he had a trail all picked out. So at 7:30 a.m., I was trying to roll Katie out of bed to many a groan and pulling her covers up higher. Only the promise of a set of Pop-Tarts that Joy and Trei had left behind managed to get her out of bed. Everyone else got up and ready, breakfasted and in the car by 8:17.

We then drove back through Yellowstone and down to the Grand Teton National Park. We took only one wrong turn, probably a record so far this trip and stopped at the Pioneer Grill because it was now almost 11 and if he was going to have us hike 4 hours, he had to start with us full! We wandered the gift shop while the grill set up for lunch and then ate our fill. I had an unusual Taco Salad that had chipotle marinated lettuce with feta cheese, beans, corn salsa, tomatoes, chicken and salsa vinaigrette dressing. Tom had a salmon BLT and the salmon was delicious. Luke and I also ordered garlic butter and parmesan fries which I thought were delicious and he didn't like.

We drove from there to Taggert Lake trailhead in the heart of the Grand Tetons. It was the classic hike. Nice trail with rocks and roots to go over. Areas of serious gains in elevation(about 400 feet) and downhill. Babbling brooks, quaking aspen, a lake in the middle where we took a break and laid on warm rocks while we took a break. Then we walked the rest of the way back to the parking lot. 4.2 miles total and only took us 3 hours even with the break.

We headed back to the campsite with a storm starting to brew over the Tetons and stopped at a convenience store for some ice cream. After that we were driving and noticed a large crowd of people staring into the woods by the side of the road and knew that it was another wildlife siting. This one with a ranger trying to move people a long. It was a grizzly bear up in the woods. Yeah! Now we had seen both kinds of bears and from the safety of our car. I couldn't get a picture because the ranger wouldn't let us slow down much or stop.

We arrived back in town just in time to change clothes and go to church at Our Lady of the Pines. It is a beautiful mission church basically for tourists. After that, home for dinner and now to bed. We did convince Dad that tomorrow is a rest day and we will have to pack and go to the North entrance tomorrow anyway. So, Katie and I are sleeping in until we can't sleep anymore. It is pouring rain right now and we have been very lucky with the rain! Until tomorrow!

Shhhhh! Don't tell!

Not sure I can keep up at the pace we have set for ourselves. Very tired tonight. We started the day at 9 a.m. at the IMAX to watch the Yellowstone film. Had packed our camelbaks and lunch for a full day at the Old Faithful area. After the film, we spent our obligatory amount at their giftshop and moved on. We sat in the usual morning traffic due to elk alongside the road and finally made it to the Mid Geyser basin which has Grand Prismatic Spring which was supposed to be beautiful. We realized though as we wandered the boardwalk that the people we had talked to were correct and that you couldn't see it's colors because it was so big and you were not above it. We had also heard that you could take another trail and climb the mountain across from it giving you a lovely birds eye view. So, off we went.

We got to the trailhead from which you could do this(interestingly very easy to find and the one we had looked for the first day for our six mile hike! We hiked about a mile and then about 600 feet very straight up the mountain to get to the top. Not much of a path, just well worn from other foot prints. We were way winded at the top. But, the view was spectacular and the picture is from there. We then felt sorry for all the poor souls that didn't know what they were missing. We came back and ate lunch and watched the ravens eat all of someones box of single serving dorito bags one at a time because the idiots left all their food in the back of their truck including coolers of sandwiches. We were presently in a bear awareness area. DUH!

We went on to Old Faithful and hiked the entire Old Faithful Valley looking at all the different springs and geysers etc. We went to the famous Morning Glory Pool which was much smaller than Grand Prismatic but also is green now instead of blue because people keep throwing junk in it. Stupid people!

We had 6:45 dinner reservations at the famous Old Faithful Inn and had a little time on our hands. So, guess what? Luke found the piano and asked to play and serenaded the guests in Old Faithful Inn for an hour and a half. He was in withdrawal so that was good for him and good for the guests. Dinner was prime rib buffet and they charged us children prices for all the kids! Hooray. The roasted red pepper and smoked gouda cheese soup was fabulous. Then on to home and now off to bed.

Oh, what are we not telling? Katie informed me on the first day that 6 miles was way to long and so we told her we wouldn't do that again. Well, I hate to say that we are putting in at least that every day just as short hikes and although she was very tired today, she held up well.....shhhh!