Grand Teton

Our family stayed in West Yellowstone the night before heading through the Grand Tetons and back to Colorado. It's a cute town with a nice park near the restaurants. We picked up dinner to go from the Slippery Otter and played at the park, I can't give them an honest review because we only had salads but it was a great break from huckleberry jam sandwiches, yogurt and fruit on the way down. Oh, and the fighting... Our kids decided to fight over who was able to pet Sparty, our Scottish Terrier. 8 hours later, I was happy to have survived.

The morning of the Grand Tetons we drove through Yellowstone. We missed Old Faithful, Athena was disappointed. She had every plan of showing it to Jay because he had not seen it recently. I think she wanted an excuse to time it. 

We did a few short hikes at the Grand Tetons and attended a few of the ranger programs on bison and wildlife. Having attended many of the ranger led programs at various parks this summer alone, I must say, they did a great job with content and being able to address and engage the entire audience. We plan to head back through each the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone when we travel through the Pacific Northwest. We will hike each of the parks more thoroughly at that point.

She is getting taller... Or maybe she is standing on a rock. 

Toddler hikes- barefoot. It's all fun and games until you step in mud. 

We loved the wildflowers. 

Athena has decided to hike with technology in hand to take pics. Or play games. I'm not sure. Okay, it was the first. I suppose the iPad thing is growing on me because it gives her a camera (which is hard to misplace, unlike her Olympus Tough) to take photos from her level and POV. 

Yellowstone: Part Two

Notes from Athena:

I did Young Scientist books at Yellowstone for big kids. I did Canyon Quest and Old Faithful and the Jr. Ranger program. I formed a hypothesis and had to prove it right or wrong. They asked if geysers are alive. I believe are. They are alive because they provide food for the microbes that live there kind of like plants provide food for animals. It is a different type of alive. Some people don't think they are alive but I do. Kayla does not think they are alive. She is wrong. I got two patches at Yellowstone. It is my favorite park. I want to go back again and again.



We came back to Yellowstone for a day and decided to head out. We camped the last night, I woke up needing to use the restroom and looked out the tent to find an inch of snow on the cars and no longer had to pee;) Funny how our brains and bladders work.

We cancelled our last two days of the trip and headed home early but only after the cowboy dinner and wagon ride.

It is against their philosophical beliefs to wear jackets on days it is snowing on and off? There may have been people rolling their eyes and making comments.

I formed a hypothesis: They move. More than you. More than me. When they move, they heat up and no longer feel cold.

The end. 

Athena took a picture of a bear:) She was pretty excited. 

You can not tell but the meltdown she had minutes prior to this was impressive! Toddler- Day 23... Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Cowboy cookout. Athena does not eat corn products or meat and Lex will not eat grains and may or may not have a potato allergy so they ate watermelon and steak... Interesting how their GI systems work. 

Lex was proud to sport her geyser badge:) 

Following the cowboy dinner we hit the road back to Colorado. I drove overnight and hit a road called Dead Indian Pass... It was challenging around 10 PM, foggy, and pouring, sleeting with little gas and no cell phone service if there was an emergency. I'm sure it is a gorgeous drive during the day but I think I will avoid it in the future. The name seemed fitting.

We made it home around 6AM the following morning!

Yellowstone: Part One

We had planned to spend five days exploring Yellowstone and Grand Tetons but quickly realized we would need more time. We added another two nights onto our trip but because of unexpected events we had to cancel those two days. Both of the girls adored Yellowstone so it was not enough time. Animals, hiking, water shooting out from the ground. I'm pretty certain they would consider this the Disney World of National Parks.

Athena developed an OCD need to time Old Faithful... Six times we timed it. SIX! No other geyser is good enough, strong enough, "bursty" enough if you will. 

Blue Star Spring at Yellowstone was Athena's favorite geothermal feature. 

We took a historic yellow bus tour, "Wake up to wildlife." I realize you can not schedule nature but I have to say, I would strongly suggest not doing this tour. 

A few reasons: They try to load 12 or 13 people to a bus and it makes the tours very difficult according to our guide. People have a difficult time seeing out the windows and people feel less comfortable with the tour in general. 

Secondly, it is early! A group of five people did not show, they had already paid... but likely overslept, I heard this happens a lot. Our guide seemingly appreciated this.

Lastly, Yellowstone has no shortage of bears, bison and pronghorn. Jus' sayin'. Everything we saw on the tour (and more) we were able to see driving down the roads...

A car... No car seats... on a tour run by the government. Look at my rebels;)