Summer Vacation: Wild West

August 10th - 23rd Family Vacation. 

A simple listing of what we did on our lovely vacation with a reflective afterword by Paul. 
Note: If you click on the pictures, they get bigger.  This is likely the cause of Paul's enlarged belly in several of the photos.

Day 1- Travel and settling in Big Sky and Buck's T-4 Lodge.  (No photos, but had we taken any it would have been the somewhat outside concourse we walked through in Salt Lake City to get to our connecting flight to Butte.)





Day 2- Paul, Samuel, and Faith did ropes course in morning.  Em and Kelly shopped.  Whitewater rafting on the Gallatin in the afternoon (awesome fun!).  Farmer's and Art Market in evening in Big Sky.




Day 3- Ousel Falls hike in Big Sky.  Drive to West Yellowstone.  Smokejumpers School, Earthquake Lake and Memorial.







 
 

Day 4- Yellowstone: Early morning to look for wolves in Hayden Valley (only saw crows), Madison, Norris, Canyon, Fishing Bridge, Mud Volcano,  Gull Point and big storm over Lake Yellowstone. We saw a moose, bison.  Old Faithful went off, faithfully.  Beauty and the Beast at PlayMill Theater.

 
 

Day 5- Yellowstone: Rock climbing near National Park Mountain. Geyser watching--Great Fountain and White Dome.  Rent Bikes at Old Faithful basin--Punchbowl Spring and Riverside Geyser.  Swimming at Firehole Canyon.  Artist Paint Pots.  Wolf in Gibbon Meadows.   Grizzly Overlook--see a grizzly.  Visit the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in the dusk.  Pretty quiet that time of night.



 

Day 6- Yellowstone: Mammoth and Old Fort Yellowstone.  Elk all over.  Swim and "hot tub" at Boiling/Gardiner River.  Roosevelt Arch.  Off-roaded the Blacktail Plateau (should have been on ATVs). Roosevelt Lodge.  Lamar Valley--pronghorn and bison.  See mule deer and three fawns on way back. 


 



Day 7-  Tired. Grant and then down to Teton Village through Tetons.  Signal Mountain on way there, which is only pic from the day.



Day 8- Tram to top of Rendevous Mountain.  Saw pika and marmot.  Paul and Samuel hiked down 6 miles.  Girls played in Teton Village.

 



Day 9- Grand Teton National Park: Jenny Lake Boat Trip, Hidden Falls and rock climbing, Menor's Ferry and homestead tour (great), swim at String Lake, Mormon Row homesteads.  Two moose on way back.  Bridger Gondola in rain and dark--got stuck on it for a while (spooky).



 Day 10- Leave Grand Tetons through north end and back to Yellowstone to do a few things we missed: Brink of Lower Falls, Norris Basin.  Two more grizzlies at Grizzly Overlook.  Traveled through Idaho, back into Montana, to Butte through the pass in rain at night.  Rain eventually turned to snow during the night. 


 Day 11- Butte: Mining Museum (rock pics courtesy Faith), trolley tour of Butte and mines.  Swimming, pizza, and packing for next day's 6:35 a.m. flight.


Day 12- Fly home.



Afterword by Paul:  My parents provided a lot of good in my life, none better than a love of travel.  To go somewhere as a family, see something new together, and grow together is a great thing.  This was my third visit to Yellowstone: once as a child with my parents; once as a newlywed with Kelly and her family, and now this time.  The trip was a weird combination of old and new--seeing again vistas I'd seen as a child, but each renewed as I was seeing them for the first time with my children with me.  I have been told that I don't like change, and to a large degree I guess I don't.  Certain things are so beautiful I don't see any need for them to change.  But of course without change I wouldn't have the family I have today.  And so that is why these twelve days were so meaningful for me, fulfilling my quirky desire to blend all of past that I remember fondly with all of the present I am grateful to have.

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