Day 8: Grand Tetons

 I told everyone in the morning that the high temp was only going to be in the 50s today, and if we get to higher elevations it might even be cooler. I wore jeans and a sweatshirt and brought a jacket,
too. Ben and Daryl chose to wear shorts. We drove a couple of hours down through eastern Idaho (lots of potato farms!) to the Grand Teton National Park. It remained overcast, looked like it would rain, and the low clouds covered the mountain tops.

 Did I mention in a previous blog the prairie dog dashboard ornament we got Elaine? Well, it sits on the dashboard and looks at us, so it wound up being in quite a few photos, too!

 We drove through Jackson, WY, where Daryl bought himself a rain jacket at a Sports Authority. We had a large windbreaker sweatshirt in the trunk, which I keep there for emergencies (mostly having to do with freezing soccer games!), which Ben had worn before when he was unprepared for the cold weather. We took some cool photos of the antler arches in Jackson and then drove on into the park.
 Unfortunately by this point it started to rain and visibility was poor.

 The clouds did make the mountains look cool, but some of the views were not the best.

 We spent some time at a gift shop and then headed toward Jenny Lake, which was the one thing we really wanted to do and see. I was prepared to hike in the rain, we had 4 umbrellas, too. But lo and behold, the rain stopped and the sun came out just in time! We took a boat across the lake and hiked a mile up to the Hidden Falls. Beautiful!
It was still really cold, but the hike warmed us up and it was well worth it!

 

 Ben had his mind set on jumping from rock to rock to reach a big boulder I the middle of the river. He worked really hard to move a fallen log, but eventually decided to take of his shoes and socks and walk through the cold water.

 Yeah! Made it!

 After he got back to the side, while putting on his socks, he stumbled and fell face first, catching himself with hi hands and knees on the rocks, resulting in several bloody scratches. Poor Ben!

 He also loves to skip stones. He had collected a bag full at the Walmart we stayed at and was just waiting for an opportunity to skip them! Here it was!

 After we got back in the car, it promptly started raining again, but not before we got some more great photos of the Tetons! There was even a rainbow!

We decided to eat out at a restaurant, so we searched by GPS and found one called "Pioneer Grill" at one of the Park Visitor Centers. We were not expecting much, just a few good burgers, but it turned out it was at this posh ski lodge with a huge hotel, lots of shops, multiple bars and restaurants and a spectacular lobby with a picture window about 3 stories high! We had a delicious supper for a reasonable price (though Alex's huckleberry milkshake was a bit steep at $6.50!). My black bean burger was only $10 and was really good with chipotle aioli, yum!

After browsing some shops, it was a late drive back through Yellowstone Park at night; we did not get back to West Yellowstone until around 11 pm!

Days 6 and 7: Yellowstone

On day 6 we drove most of the day to get to Yellowstone National Park. It was some hairy driving, especially for Daryl in the camper. Our highest elevation was 9455 ft, crossing the Bighorn Mountains. Beautiful scenery again!

When going downhill, there were runaway truck ramps occasionally. The signs told all drivers (not just trucks) to use a low gear, to not burn out your brakes.

After passing Cody, there was the Buffalo Bill Dam and coming through the tunnel, we saw a beautiful lake at the other side!

 

Then, when we arrived at Yellowstone we drove along the huge Yellowstone Lake for a while.

 

Ben still had not seen his buffalo, so we kept a lookout. We stopped at some geysers, and sure enough, there was a big lazy buffalo just lounging for us to take his picture!

The smell of sulfur was really bad in this place!

Then as we drove on we saw several herd of buffalo and then there was one just strolling down the road towards us! How cool was that?!

 

Yellowstone National Park was really amazing. The waterfalls and mountains and beatiful scenery
was kind of what I expected, but what I did not expect were the geysers and springs. Wow, were they interesting and unique! Apparently the bacteria cause various different colors to show up, so they might be bright sapphire blue or bright orange, etc.

The grand prismatic spring was the best. I just could not believe the brilliant colors in this pool! Visitors were warned to stay on the boardwalks, since the geysers are not only boiling hot, but also dangerously acidic. Some of then smelled really badly of sulphur, but for the most part it was windy enough that it was not too disturbing.

I love the shallow rivers all over here. So beautiful to look at!

 We decided to hike a mile to Mystic Falls, which was beautiful! There were warning signs to carry bear spray, etc. but there were a lot of other people hiking this trail and we felt pretty safe. All we saw were some chipmunks and squirrels, and black crows.

The waterfall was awesome, though. Unfortunately, despite his new hiking boots and special hiking socks, Daryl had blisters on his feet, so we took a lot longer than expected.

 By the time we got back to the car, we knew the next Old Faithful eruption was scheduled in about 12 minutes. If we missed it, it would be another 90 minute wait! We pulled into the huge parking lot with about 3 minutes to spare and were not even sure which way to go. We parked in a handicapped spot (thanks Elaine!) and followed the general direction of people. The boys and I actually jogged around the side of the visitor center and as we turned the corner we saw it erupting. I had the camera in hand and snapped photos while we moved closer ... it was perfect timing!

 There were hundreds of visitors there to watch it, some had probably been waiting 90 minutes since just after the last eruption! But we made it!! Made my day!

 While driving along, we saw this huge elk.

 Also more buffalo!

We also saw the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, wow! I have never seen the real Grand Canyon, so to me this was really impressive. Such awesome views of the mountains and the Yellowstone River at the bottom! Also, of course more water falls, my favorite!

The best wildlife viewing was supposed to be in Lamar Valley, but it was getting late and it was quite far out of our way, so we decided to skip that part. Just after we decided to turn around, we witnessed the most amazing thing. Apparently, a brown bear and a grizzly were both interested in the same kill and were prowling around competing for it. We watched the grizzly chase away the other bear and then a huge grey wolf showed up and was trying to get in on the action. He slowly approached and circled the grizzly at close range until the grizzly chased him. Then the wolf went for the food and got a piece of whatever it was. Meanwhile the whole road was blocked with stopped cars,everyone with cameras, binocular, some real serious photographers with tripods and huge lenses. It was quite the commotion. The park rangers eventually made everyone move on, but we got to watch a large amount of the action and got some really good photos even on Alex's little pocket Lumix camera (it has a better zoom than my big Canon!).  So glad we decided to skip Lamar Valley and saw this instead. I was really surprised at the size of the wolf. He looked to be almost as big as the bear! We found out later that they can be about 200-250 lbs!