Home Sweet Home.....away from home!

We have enjoyed our time at Yellowstone NP so much, and decided to camp at the KOA in W. Yellowstone while we were here. Our tent, (given to us by Jeremy a long time ago), has been great and we have used it for more years than I can remember. The first of the week, the zipper on the front door of the tent gave up in the middle of the night...the flap just collapsed to the floor and there was no fixing it,,,,we tried! Needless to say, we did not get much sleep the rest of the night. The temp was in the 30's and we were told that bears come roaming through the campground at night! Yikes!!

Well, the next day we went tent shopping and bought a new tent. It is 10'x14' and 7' tall.....it's huge for us, but we love it. It's like living in a mansion! The next night after we got the tent up, a bear comes into the campground. He bumped our car (no damage) and set off the car alarm!
The last two nights, he has come by and set off our car alarm two times each night!!! Ethan heard him make a noise like he was disgusted that he couldn't get in the car! We didn't look out the window to check him out!

What are we going to do with this tent when we get home? We have a camper we really enjoy....so kids, if any of you want a nice tent that sleeps 9 people, we have just the tent for you to use!

Another slip of the finger, but worth seeing....actually pretty awesome.


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#1 camper by the new tent

Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces

I guess I'm a little behind in posting our exploring. I haven't had service for my iPad in some areas, so have gotten a little behind. I was sure I had entered a blog of Old Faithful, but I don't see it, so forgive me if you have read a posting and seen pictures already of the geysers.

We have never seen so many geysers before, and each one was a little different. Some were beautiful shades of blue and others were bubbling mud pots. Old Faithful was fun to watch....it erupts about every hour and half.

On Wednesday, July 6th, we drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces, not really knowing what to expect, and it is rather hard to explain. The other geysers we saw were on the flatlands, but we were on the mountains and all of a sudden we come upon bare white rock with water streaming over the edge. We were able to walk on boardwalks all over the mountain and see all the geysers and terraces that had been made from the hot waters spilling down the mountain side...it was very interesting.

We also checked out two waterfalls nearby, and then headed back

Oops...put Old Faithful in the wrong place!! Fun to watch.


to W. Yellowstone. Our plan was to be back around 8 p.m., but that's not what happened! We were on a 14 mile stretch of road in the park through a beautiful pass and had gone maybe 4-5 miles when the traffic came to a standstill. Two and a half hours later we were in W. Yellowstone! Some people walked down the pass to see what was going on....it was a herd of buffalo using the road to go down to the meadows. So they escorted us down the pass! It was dark when we got to the meadows, so we never got to see them!

Yesterday we explored the Madison River Canyon earthquake area. It was a 64 mile loop just outside the park, and it was beautiful. We stopped at the visitor's center and saw a short film on what happened in this area in 1959 when an earthquake, measured 7.5 on the Richter scale, changed the area drastically.

Yellowstone is an amazing place, and we have enjoyed our week here. We could have stayed longer, but as I write this, we are on our way to Glacier National Park. We will stay in Missoula, MT tonight and then travel up to Glacier tomorrow.


The kittle geyser is called Young Hopeful Geyser!


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Just another picture of the betty all around us!




This geyser was not bubbling, but the colors of blue were beautiful.




This iPad is very sensitive...didn't really mean to put another picture of Old Faithful here!



One of the pictures taken at Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. It's hard to see from the picture, but there is bubbling water at the top of the rock cascading down the mountain side.

Location:Wyoming

The 4th of July in W. Yellowstone, MT

We took a day off from sight seeing and enjoyed the town of W. Yellowstone today. Played a game of miniature golf, and ran into a Red Sox fan! The town parade just ended and we're just relaxing for a few minutes before we find a place for dinner...fireworks later. Including a few parade pictures-it was nice.




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Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole

Today, July 3rd, we went to Grand Tetons National Park and I do not even have the words to express the granduer of it all! Two songs kept coming to mind, "America the Beautiful" and "How Great Thou Art". I know I've said this before, but we feel so blessed to be able to take this trip.

Before getting to The Grand Tetons NP, we drove through a different part of Yellowstone. We saw fishermen fly fishing by the river, and I thought of our fishermen sons. We saw a group of moose...( sure what you call a bunch of moose!) and I thought of our friends Crystal and Don and Upper Wilson Pond. Ethan kept saying, "Boy, I wish Daryl was here taking all these pictures, he'd have a great time." We saw a group of horses grazing in a huge meadow with buffalo, and I thought of Danielle.

The Tetons were amazing. We walked around part of Jackson Lake and took pictures. A deer crossed the path right in front of us...she just looked at us and walked to the beach.

Tomorrow we explore part of Yellowstone. We have all week to see it all.


Including some of the pictures taken today. Hope you enjoy them.














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Location:Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park

We got toYellowstone National Park this afternoon, (Saturday, July 2) but the drive to the park was just incredible. From Cody, WY west there were beautiful mountains and a winding road through an awesome pass. We stopped at the Buffalo Bill Dam, and then continued west.

There is still a lot of snow in Yellowstone. We had our lunch at a picnic area on Sylvan Lake with piles of snow around us. The view across the lake to the majestic snow covered mountains was so beautiful. It's hard to find the right words to describe what we have seen just today, and we haven't even started exploring the park yet. We passed buffalo grazing right off the road--boy they're big creatures!

We will be here for a week, and hope that will be enough time to see all we want to see. If not, oh well, we may need to stay longer.

Our Golden Geezer pass has paid for itself many times over already...what a blessing that is to not have to pay to get into the parks. One of the many perks for getting "older".


Ethan took this pictures from the Buffalo Bill Dam looking at the Buffalo Bill Reservoir.













At the picnic area by Sylvan Lake in Yellowstone. The wind was blowing like crazy....one reason we look a little scary!!







Mr. Buffalo just off the road. Glad he was busy eating lunch!





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Location:Wyoming

Traveling to Wyoming

We left South Dakota this morning. We had a wonderful time in SD...a beautiful state. As we traveled west, we saw snow capped mountains in the distance. It was Bighorn National Forest we were seeing, and as we got closer we realized that the road we were taking went through the southern part of the forest. It was just breath taking. We are so thankful and feel so blessed to be able to take this trip. Our God and Creator is awesome!!


We traveled through Powder River Pass in Bighorn National Forest, the elevation--9,666 ft., with patches of snow around us.




Ethan getting ready to throw a snow ball at me....he missed!




The mountains were just spectacular, and every turn down the mountain was different.




Looking back up the canyon. The river below was just raging and causing some flooding down stream.


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Mt. Rushmore and so much more

Yesterday, June 30th, we decided to do something a little different. We left our KOA at 6:30 a.m. and arrived at Ft. Hays about 45 minutes later for an old fashion chuck wagon breakfast. The buildings were the set for the movie Dances with Wolves, which was filmed about 16 miles down the road in South Dakota.

After breakfast, we got on a tour bus and relaxed for the next 9 hours while bus driver, Bill, took us every where. What a treat for Ethan to let someone else do the driving so he could look around and see the beauty around him.
Our first stop was Mt. Rushmore and it was so awesome. Before deciding to take the tour, we had wanted to hike the trail to the top of Mt. Rushmore, but the trail was closed....so the tour it was. Our bus driver was a very funny Christian man who did a great job entertaining us while we were on the road. He took us through scenic tunnels, we had lunch at Calvin Coolidge's summer White House, stopped many places to get pictures of the Cathedral Spires and the Rock formations called the Needles. Our last stop was at Crazy Horse Mountain and Memorial. Such an impressive undertaking.

We headed back to Ft. Hays for a real chuck wagon supper and Western music variety show. It was a long day, but a wonderful experience for us. We were taken places we would not have gone, and didn't have to worry about the driving.


Entrance to Mt. Rushmore







There was a great boardwalk that took you around the base of the "rock". This picture is as close as you can get to the Presidents--totally awesome!







Look what walked in front of the bus!







The Cathedral Spires are in the back ground. Bus driver Bill couldn't wait to get his hands on the iPad to take the picture.







One of the many rock formations called the Needles. They are huge!







Our bus driver drinking Maalox before taking us down the the winding switch back roads we were traveling.







At Crazy Horse. The model in the foreground is what the mountain sculpture will look like when completed. The mountain is about a mile away from where we are, and it has taken 50 years to do this much of the sculpture. They estimate it could take another 40 years, if they get the funding for the project. WOW! It's very inspiring to see the dedication to finishing Crazy Horse.






Us with Bill, the bus driver.





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Location:South Dakota