Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone

We're back to West Yellowstone tonite, after spending last night in Jackson, WY and checking our Grand Teton NP.

Our wildlife sightings were pretty good today, 2 moose and a bear, and I only yelled at a few dumbasses in the park who can't be bothered to read/follow the signs and protect the animals. Oh wait, I did that a few times at Old Faithful yesterday when people were too stupid to note people (myself and Kat in particular) in the crosswalk. I haven't done that since Pearl Harbor.

Bison in the river.
Storm coming up on Jackson Lake, in Grand Teton. I can still feel the wind looking at this pic. I kept panning and shooting serially, hoping to get some lightning in a shot. No such luck.

The bull moose laying down....the brown thing in the middle of the frame.

Awwww... aren't they cute? That's a sticker on her cheek and you can't see it, but her legs (or as she calls them, her 'canvas') were covered with different colored marks from her markers. Hey, she has to occupy herself in the back seat somehow....

Female moose browsing.

At Jackson Hole ski area.

Grand Teton last night, no storm. Still very cool.

Grand Teton yesterday afternoon.

Prismatic spring at Yellowstone. Yup, that's steam and the water is 150 degrees or so.

We were holding the kid tight up there.

Yellowstone's candidates for the Darwin awards for foot entrapment, or being eaten by an animal (like there's a shortage of those....just about everyone out there is a candidate, between getting too close to enormous, ornery animals, disregarding warnings about thermal areas or pissing me off by being a complete moron).

Yellowstone

Well, no great sightings today, BUT everyone is healthy(ier). Dan had what he suspects was food poisoning and had a fever of 101 yesterday and poor Kat had(has) thrush- her tongue and mouth are/were a hotbed of yeast breeding activity. We got some acidopholus at the drug store and have gotten some in her. Things definitely look better. Not sure if that was causing a sore throat or she had other issues, but she wasn't eating or drinking (or sleeping nearly enough) for 2 days. She seems to be recovering now though, and while she was (supposed to be) awake, you'd never guess that she didn't feel well. At night, when she was supposed to be sleeping....another story. But last night and tonite she went down quietly at about her normal time. Huge sigh of relief from us AND our hotel neighbors.

We saw a few sandhill cranes fighting (or at least arguing animatedly), a few sorry looking bison, a few elk and a white pelican at a distance. Pretty lame sightings. We're still waiting for the big guns....bears, both kinds, wolves and moose. We keep watching for them. Tomorrow we head down to Jackson, and start our Grand Teton NP tour. It is amazing out here.

The incredible Old Faithful Inn. A beautiful example of 'parkitecture'. Absolutely stunning inside and out. We are not staying here. Though one day I would love to, even just for one night.

An entire valley of steaming, hissing, spitting and boiling waters (and who knows what else). It just blows my mind. It looks like a great place for animals to hang out, except for the geothermal issues. We didn't see any here.

Old Faithful. Erupting faithfully on time. And with the rainbow (far right).

Kat trying to kill time in the car by sharing her milk with the moose.

Kat at Yellowstone Lake. No drama in these pics. It poured soon after, as you may have guessed.

Daddy teaching her to throw rocks. Awesome.

This bison was about 20 feet from the road, so everyone passing by could slow down and get great pics. He's in pretty rough shape and I'm pretty sure that his plan was to wait till dark and then do one more 30mph sprint into the road to end it all, instead of waiting for the wolves to do it for him.

Kat running to high-five daddy.

This one cracked me up.

Followed by 'knucks'. Family self portrait.

These pics are at Artist's Point for some reason. I suppose you may want to paint or photograph the river....it's alright.

The call it big sky country for a reason I suppose. That's the famed Roosevelt arch.

Day One, Yellowstone. And a new state for all of us.

Well, we made it to Yellowstone! Poor Kat has spent way too much time in the car. She has done great! In the hotel might be another story. It's 11:38 and she's sitting on me zipping and unzipping my zipper. And playing with my hair. Last night she watched an entire Elmo movie, starting probably about now with Dan and did NOT fall asleep until it ended at 1:30 or so. She also has a bunch of red/white spots in her throat. She has hardly eaten (not unusual for travel), hasn't drunk much, but has been extremely happy and fun, excepting when we want her to sleep. Dan's on the phone with the nurse hotline now.....as she's still up and crying/running around the room frantically at midnight (PDT). I'm guessing we'll be visiting the clinic tomorow for a throat culture.

Anyway, we were impressed by our first 2 hours in Yellowstone. We passed through to Gardiner, along the incredibly gorgeous Beartooth Highway. Once in the park, we saw herds of bison. We'd never seen them before, so that was really cool. And we saw one pronghorn antelope up close, just hanging out and a few more at a distance. And we saw a pair of coyotes (there was discussion that they may be wolves, but I don't think so). At the Mammoth Hot Springs area, we saw tons of sheep and goats, so we can cross them all off. Still no bears, but it's early days yet. We're staying here in Gardiner again tomorrow night, so will stay in the northern sections of the park to explore. And the little girl, barring a fever, or maybe even with one, will get tons of exercise and spend little time in the car (I think that's what we're paying for tonite and last night).

I don't think I've ever been at this elevation before.

Home on the range....
That's a pronghorn, practically dead center, that white deer-shaped thing. Might be time to figure out my optical zoom......

On our way

We left SEA at 11:45 and 95 degrees. We were all so happy to be in the air conditioned car. And are even happier tonite to be in an air conditioned room in Idaho. Kat did great, 5 straight hours in the car and she played with her toys, read many of her multitude of books and was almost great the whole time. Course, she never napped, so she passed out instantly tonite in the hotel room (did I mention nice and cool hotel room?). We scored on the t room- not that it was cheap (it's prime resort country), but they had a free buffet of hot dogs and burgers and potato and macaroni salads. And beer. So that was nice that we didn't have to hunt down dinner and pay for it. And there's a free full beakfast, so we'll get more money's worth out of that. We went swimming in the pool. I believe there was crying when it was time to go (and the next time we walked by the pool as well).

Tomorrow, Bozeman. The next day should be Yellowstone, or maybe more accurately, the Beartooth highway, up above the NE corner of Yellowstone. It's supposed to be an absolutely spectacular drive (with the pass at 10,000 feet). We want to find out for ourselves if it rivals the Lake Louise to Jasper route (which is definitely not at 10,000' feet) but IS breathtaking.

Here's Kat and her new friend, the Mariner Moose (I got it free for signing up for the Seattle Times on weekends). She loves it.

Hot hot hot

Well, we broke 100 degrees today with the hottest temps ever on record in Seattle. Lucky us. We went to the afternoon Mariners game, and it wasn't that bad. We were in the shade and kept wetting a towel for cooling. I saw 107 on my car thermometer. I'm sure we'll all get a great night's sleep. We leave for Yellowstone in the AM. I'm looking forward to days in the air conditioned car!

Well, I'm on my second iPhone.....after 3 trips to the Apple store in the past week regarding the battery. I didn't want to go on our trip without having all of the potential power I can. Even though my appt was for 8:40 tonite, the mall and parking lot was PACKED. My thermometer said 98 degrees or so on the way there. No one seemed to me in a hurry to leave the mall. We'll see how the new phone works. Maybe I'll be able to e-mail the pics to here with the new phone. I'll definitely keep trying.

Beating the heat

I hosed down the boys. Then climbed in the kiddie pool myself. That definitely encouraged kat. And now I'm mostly dry and hot again. The sprinkler is next. Thermometer says 103 out (that's in sun) and a cool 81 in...... Tomorrow, an afternoon baseball game. Maybe they'll close the roof?

War paint

She had the markers out the other day...went right for her face. And Dan's legs. And the bottom of her feet.

Testing. To see if I can text to the blog (no pics to worry about).

Ben

Well, I'm trying to post from my phone and I'm not getting the pictures.... Will keep trying, though. I added the pics from the computer after mailing them to myself.

Trying to bury himself in the dirt to hide from the heat?



Sent from my iPhone. Sorry for any typos.

It's safe to say I LOVE the iPhone

Especially now that I've turned off the 3G network and the battery survives throughout the day. And it's now my official phone- I only have one to carry around. I'm on AT&T (as are almost all Americans with iPhones), so you can call me free if you are too. And if you have one and have cool apps to share, drop me a note. And I have the ability (though likely not the inclination) to text now. Same phone number, BTW. As of today, Dan is on T-Mobile with work. Also same #.

We survived Dan's absence last week and he had a great time exploring NYC (and sweating in the 90 degree, 90% humidity that NYC is famous for).

This week's activities look a lot like last week's, though never as hot. They keep claiming that it will be. I keep checking the weather on the iphone and the high for the day keeps dropping throughout the day until it matches reality. It says 80 for today. I doubt it. It also says 94, 97 and 95 for Mon-Wed next week. I hope they're wrong. But Top has Tillamook ice cream BOGO, can't be too careful with heat like that- must be prepared.

We went to Matthews Beach on lake Washington. But we liked the playground better as it was pretty cool out. I hadn't seen one of these merry-go-round things in ages and Kat had never,but she LOVED it. I suspect they haven't survived into the new age of kinder, gentler, safer playground apparatus.

Just now- that's a dog food container that she's sitting in. I wondered why it got so quiet. She spit out the piece she was eating when I walked in.....At least she's learning to eat her dog food secretly.

Can you say obsessed with all things related to dog food (and dogs)? Yes, that's a dog bowl on her head.This was blueberry picking. She can eat a lot of blueberries. I felt obligated to buy corn, pears and cukes from the farmer's market, as our blueberry bucket MAY have had a pint in it.....but probably not.

Awwwww. I love this pic.

We stopped at a garage sale after music class.....she loved her bouncer when she was little- this is a toddler version and she loves this too.

In action on the bouncer.
With her beloved Ben, who is eating dog food that she scattered all over the place. He didn't want it when it was in his bowl, but apparently his philosophy is NEVER turn down food offered by a two year old- even if it's just crappy dog food-they may stop offering and he does not want that to happen. As if that could ever happen.