Ockey Family Adventures: Yellowstone Day 5

We love staying in these cabins at the Tetons.

On our final day of the Yellowstone trip, we slept in a bit. We had to pack up our cabin and turn in the Junior Ranger booklets from the Tetons. Then we set off on our favorite Teton hike, Moose Ponds. We did this hike two years ago and spotted a moose and her year old calf, and since moose and beaver were our final two animals to see for blackout on the Bingo Sheet, we were pretty hopeful.

This ranger was so cute with the boys as he went over their Junior Ranger books.

We made it to the pond, and there was a moose! She was standing across the pond munching grass. We walked a little farther, and a young male was standing in the pond not 40 yards away. We could see his horns sprouting, and we got a lot of great photos. Then someone coming up the trail from the other direction mentioned they’d seen a beaver sitting on a rock. We hustled up around the corner and arrived just in time to see him slinking down through the bushes. The boys were so excited for a blackout! They were hugging and dancing. This really was a perfect trip. And we have a saying now: Moose Ponds never fails!

There are so many beautiful spots in the Tetons for pictures.

This hike starts right by Jenny Lake.

We saw the mama moose first.

Here is the young bull. You can see his antlers just starting to grow.

The moose was just across the pond from us!

We were able to get a really good look at the yearling.

This is just after the boys were celebrating about seeing a beaver. I missed the hugging!

We saw a spotted towhee, too.

When we turned around to head back down the trail, the moose was trotting through the water.

Here you can see how he has half his winter coat still.

Seth always "goes fishing" by water.

We saw a Red Naped Sapsucker, which is a type of woodpecker.

Lots and lots of beautiful views.

After the hike we had a picnic lunch outside of the Jenny Lake Store. There isn’t anything else open there because of a huge construction project, but we found a bench and Mom made sandwiches. Then we started down toward Moose. We had one more stop in the park planned. We wanted to try a short drive called Schwabacher Road. The drive is only 1 mile, but it led to the most beautiful place in Grand Teton National Park. There was a short walk to a small beaver pond that was crystal clear. The boys spotted several frogs and Mom showed us a great blue heron. We wished we’d found this place sooner. It will definitely be on our future itineraries.

We can't believe we didn't know about this beautiful spot before.

We spotted this Yellow-rumped Warbler.

And a blue butterfly that Seth was excited about.

There were gorgeous looks at the mountains. The boys loved spotting frogs.

Here is one of the many frogs we saw.

We even asked someone for a family pic!

The big new adventure planned for yesterday was a ride up the Jackson Hole Tram. It was pretty expensive for our whole family to make the trip, but we decided it was worth it. We rode with Abby and Grandpa in the tram, which takes twelve minutes to rise almost 5,000 vertical feet. We crowded into the tram with up to 100 other people (it probably wasn’t quite that full). Then we left the summer-like 72 degree valley and went up. The actual ride was awesome! You zip up the mountain at 14 miles per hour. Each time you pass a support, there’s a little dip and you feel your stomach drop as the car sways back and forth. When we got to the top, we stepped out onto the snow and the temperature was only 54 degrees, but the wind made it feel colder than that! We were glad we’d taken jackets. We got out and walked around a little, and then we stopped for a waffle at 10,000 feet. There were three kinds, but none of them were very good. Still, we all had good time. The boys were most excited for a few snowball fights. In fact, we rode down, then back up, then back down again because we still had plenty of time before our last adventure.

This is the group riding the tram.

It's like riding the subway with a few benches, but mostly standing.

There's Grandma, Stephanie and her two kiddos who didn't ride.

The views are beautiful as you ride up!

Seth liked riding with Grandpa.

You can see the Tetons off in the distance.

We made it to the top!

It was quite cold compared to the valley floor with tons of snow.

Mom doesn't get too many pictures with her dad!

The kids were so excited. They were jumping and running everywhere.

Seth attacked his dad with snow!

Dax had the same plan!

Dad decided to attack Mom.

We walked out onto the snow a little bit.

The waffles weren't nearly as good as we hoped at the price we paid,
but we can say we ate a waffle on top of the mountain.

We were glad that Abby tagged along with us.

Here we go back up the mountain.

One of our favorite places to go is always the Bar J Chuckwagon. Dad has been going to this show for about 20 years, and he got Mom hooked on one of our first trips. We love the cowboy dinner, but especially the cowboy music. Last night for a special treat, Babe Humphreys, the father of the Bar J even performed on stage. He’s 82, and we hadn’t seen him on stage in the last 18 years. It was a really fun night, and the boys love the show, too. We are so glad we can stay late to do their show and still get back to the Ferlan’s house in Idaho Falls before midnight.