Yellowstone Day 7

Today we decided to take it a little bit easier. This was partly because we are nearing the end of a long vacation, and partly because we wanted to dedicate a little of our time to Grandma. After Mom asked everyone how they wanted to spend day, she made up an itinerary. 
 
In the early morning, we went looking for animals. We managed to spot a grizzly bear that walked right out in the open. Everyone was able to see it from a safe distance, so it didn’t matter that we didn’t see much else. We stopped at Oxbow Bend to see if we could see the baby Great Blue Herons, but we didn't spot anything.

The only grizzly bear that we saw on this trip.

Trying to take a picture while looking into the sun! 

 
Our first stop was at String Lake. We took the short hike along the shore, going slowly and allowing the kids to throw hundreds of rocks into the lake. It was a pleasant walk on a beautiful day, and Grandma enjoyed being with everyone. 

I love all of these pictures of Grandma and Grandpa with the kids.

Seth was the only one brave enough to put this feet in the freezing water.

Dax took a warmer way out into the water.

We always love strolling along String Lake.

Look at the reflection early in the morning.

 
We drove out the Jenny Lake scenic drive and stopped to see the lake. We saw some frazzled hikers coming along, and they told us that they’d seen a grizzly bear about a quarter mile up the trail. Of course, we headed up the trail immediately. After a very short walk, Mark and Dad heard a tree limb snap. We watched for a few minutes until we saw a black bear and her cubs come into the open, not 25 yards from the trail. We watched them and got some pictures, as they ambled along the side of the trail. After a few minutes, we headed back to the parking lot. As we were standing discussing our amazing sighting, the bear walked right into the parking lot. It was not 15 feet from Grandpa and Brittany! Everyone scattered and we watched the three bears until they crossed the parking lot and headed up the hill. It was so exciting for everyone except the bear. She wasn’t bothered by us at all!

She was a really pretty cinnamon black bear.

Watching them cross the road was amazing.

 
We continued our drive down Schwabacher, which is one of our favorite places in the whole world. We spotted the usual frogs, snakes, and variety of ducks. There was even a muskrat swimming along with a mouth full of long grass. 

This is our favorite view of the Tetons.

Mom loved spending all of this time with her mom.

She always loves spending every day with Dad, too!

For lunch, we all showed up at Dornan’s and had pizza. Despite the busyness of the park, we got food fairly quickly and all sat in the same general area. Then we split up and everyone went their separate ways. 
 
Our family decided to drive out to Antelope Flats. This turned out to be a good idea as we spotted a massive bull moose. We watched him from across the river until a fisherman walked within 25 yards of him. Then someone yelled out to warn them both, and they went their separate ways. We moved on, too.

We have a picture of Mark when he is much younger with these yellow flowers and the Tetons. So we tried to recreate it. It wasn't quite the same without the yellow shirt, and with a purple cast. See below.

Such a cute pic of Mark. He is 7 in this photo!

The clouds were especially beautiful on the Gros Ventre road.

One of our best moose sightings ever!

We’ve had our eye on the Phelps Lake hike for a while. It starts at the nature center, and though it goes all the way around the lake, we were just going the 3 miles to and from the lake. It was a really beautiful hike, but we didn’t see a lot of animals. We enjoyed Phelps Lake. The boys threw a few rocks, but we were definitely getting worn out as we’ve put a lot of miles on our shoes over the last week.

The hike began with this mini waterfall. 

We enjoyed this hike because it wasn't busy at all. 

There were great views, too.

The lake was so pretty.

Someone was kind enough to take our photo!

Mom and Dad are still working on taking lots of photos together.

There were so many great photo spots along this trail.

It was a great hike to end the trip!

As we drove back toward Moose, we were only two animals short of blacking out our Bingo Sheets. We needed an otter and some kind of rabbit. Seeing a rabbit should be pretty easy, but that has not been the case. We figured the otter was a lost cause because we’ve only ever seen one in Yellowstone and not the Tetons, but sure enough, we managed to spot one swimming at the overlook on the Moose Wilson Road. 
 
Our last stop on the way home was for dinner. We stopped at a picnic area and pulled out the stove. Mom made pancakes and bacon on the grill, and we were all happy because those two foods are best served under a pine tree. 

This picnic dinner was one of our best meals!

 
We only saw one bull elk on the way back to the cabin, but that was because we weren’t looking too hard. Dad was reading aloud to the kids in the car, and they were all involved in the books. It was late when we got back, but it had been another fabulous day in the Tetons.

We made one last stop at Oxbow Bend to look for animals and saw a few more beavers.

Grandma & Grandpa gave Seth this T-shirt for his birthday.