Yellowstone Trip!

During our trip to Utah, I wanted to take Lucas to Yellowstone, so his grandpa planned a wonderful trip! We left on a Monday and came home on the following Saturday. Grandma and Grandpa came along with Aunt Kenzie, Aunt Kim, and Lucas's cousin Eevee. Grandpa rented a van so that everyone would fit! We were not sure how the car ride would be or how much sleep we would get taking to little babies with us, and we were also unsure about the weather.

Our first stop was in Jackson Hole! We went and saw the Bar J Wrangler's that night, Lucas seemed to enjoy the music and the food. The next day we went to Jenny Lake and took the boat across the lake. Lucas did okay, except when the boat went fast enough to pick up wind. I think it bothered his ears because Lucas would grab his ears and fuss. We hiked around the Tetons and received plenty of looks as Kim and I hauled our kids around in hiking backpacks! The view was beautiful and the weather was pleasant. On our way back into town, the clouds had let up and we had a beautiful view of the Tetons! We walked through town and watched the shoot out that the play theater puts on. The sound of the guns scared Lucas and we had to move away from it, but he made it through.

That night Lucas took his first swim in a "pool" (it is in quotation marks, because the hotel called it a pool, but it wasn't a pool, it was an over-sized hot tub) He loved it, he would climb out and then quickly crawl back in, we had to really keep an eye on him as he wanted to crawl in without us looking which would have been bad! The next day we headed to a little town called Red Lodge. To get there we drove through Yellowstone Park. Using Grandpas new binoculars, we were able to see a grizzly bear that was headed down a hill to a river. We also ran into my parents neighbors, who go to Yellowstone every year early in the season to see the wildlife. They got out their really nice telescope and showed us a grizzly bear with her two cubs, which was pretty neat! We were early enough in the season that the bears were coming out from hibernation.

After traveling through Yellowstone we went up through Beartooth pass, which was a beautiful drive, you are literally driving on the tops of the mountains. I think the elevation was about 11,000 feet above sea level. Spring had not arrived yet and there was still feet upon feet of snow (some of the snow pack was taller than the van). You felt like you had driven right back into winter, it was very interesting! Beartooth pass lead us to Red Lodge, Montana, which is about an hour from Billings, Montana. It is a small, older looking town. When we arrived at our hotel, which was ran by a husband and wife, we really were not too sure about staying for two nights, the hotel was older and looked like a room you would fine in a cabin. Kim and I thought of psycho or other movies where the family gets strained in a small town stays at an old hotel and never leaves.

We went into town that night had dinner and took a ride on a wagon around town which was fun, though Lucas was not too sure about the horses! We also met the owners of hotel, they were wonderful and our doubts about being murdered in our sleep quickly went away! Needless to stay we stayed the two nights and had a wonderful time. The man that owned the hotel, made a stellar breakfast: pancakes with blueberries and whip cream, biscuits and gravy, this awesome breakfast sandwich which he compared to McDonald's Egg McMuffin. That was an understatement, it was the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had!

We spent the rest of the day hiking. We were going to go on this trail suggested by the hotel owner, but the road was closed. Instead we decided to go on this road that wasn't paved and it lead us to this other trail which no one was there, and we were a little nervous that we were going to get eaten by a bear. There was a sign there that talked about Bear safety and pretty much said enter at your own risk! Not very comforting, but we hiked in. It was nice trail. A mountain biker heading out had been around the area and hadn't seen any bears. We didn't go to far in when we decided to turn back and try another trail.

Later that day we went on another trail. It was beautiful, though it also had a similar sign to the previous trail. This trail ran alongside a river, we had to cross a stream and saw a waterfall that was still partially covered in ice! The trail was suppose to end at a lake, the Lost Lake, but we were not able to make it that far because it started to rain and we decided to turn back.

The next morning we packed up and goy ready to leave. We went down for breakfast and met a couple who were from England, the man had retired from being the head school master at a Private school. It was their first time in states. He had always wanted to visit the West because he had a fascination with cowboys and Indians, so as birthday gift they decided to travel out to the west. They were a very interesting couple and it was really neat to talk with them.

We drove through Beartooth pass again and through Yellowstone Park. As we headed into Yellowstone Park Kenzie asked two questions, "Can buffalo run?" and "Do bears climb trees?" As we drove through Yellowstone we watched for groups of people and individuals looking through their fancy telescopes. Sure enough we stopped where there was a group of people, my thought it was bears, but the bears turned out to be buffalo. We talked to a man with a telescope and he said that their was a coyote with some pups. He let us look through his telescope and sure enough their was a coyote with three pups hanging out around a rock, few minutes later we saw the dad coyote up close as he crossed the road to meet up with his family. While watching the coyotes we saw Buffalo running down a hill onto the main road where they about took out a car. It was neat to see all of this wildlife and it answered Kenzie's question yes, buffalo can run!

Further down the road we came upon a huge group of people and we figured we should find a spot to pull over because we figured there was a bear. Sure enough there were two black bear cubs up in the trees, which answered Kenzie's second question, yes, bears climb trees. The parents were somewhere close by, but out of sight. We were about to get on the road again but decided to head back towards where the baby cubs were in the trees. Before we got there we spotted the parents, they were still kinda hidden by some trees, but soon appeared and it quickly became clear that they were in the process of making more baby cubs. They were not very far away and it was pretty interesting. We watched them for awhile and when they had become partially hidden by more trees we left. Further down the road we same a long horned sheep off to the side of the road, we also saw a bull moose.

At the end of the day we exited the park and headed into West Yellowstone, our final destination. Every time we go to West Yellowstone we pretty much do the same thing, we have developed a routine. We had dinner at the Gusher, a pizza place, but later on we learned that supposedly their is a better pizza place. I guess we might have to try that place next time. Kim, Kenzie, and I left the babies and the parents at the hotel and went to the Playmill Theater to see Beauty and the Beast, which was pretty good. We were literally on the front row, which was a little too close for me. The next morning Kim, Kenzie, and the babies took a swim in the pool. We packed up and checked out of the hotel. We walked through town, bought a ton of fudge at the fudge shop, and headed home. It was a very pleasant trip. The babies did pretty well. It took some effort to haul them around, and we did get some looks especially when we would walk into a restaurant and ask for two highchairs. Lucas really enjoyed wrestling with Eevee, as soon as Lucas spotted Eevee he would go after her and it looked as though he was wrestling her to the ground. I am sure he was just playing with her, but we had to keep an eye on him, because he would attack her every chance he got. I really liked going early in the season, the crowds were smaller and it made it easier to get through the park. The places were not nearly as busy as they would be in the following weeks. It was a wonderful vacation!