Yellowstone Day 4

On Day 4 of our trip, we moved from the bunkhouse in Island Park, to a cabin in Mammoth. We’d never stayed in Mammoth before, and the cabins were tiny but had everything we needed. We had running water and electricity (except when the power was out and we took showers by flashlight). We even had a grassy area where we cooked dinner on our camp stove. 
 
On the way into the park, we decided to head straight up to Mammoth. We hadn’t spent a lot of time in this corner of the park as we love the eastern side, but with Dunraven Pass closed for construction, we decided to do a little exploring. We saw a coyote on the road north of Sheepeater Cliff, and we drove around the upper terrace of Mammoth and walked a few boardwalks. Mostly we tried to imagine what Mammoth Hot Spring looked like back when it was still flowing. 

We started to really enjoy all the space in the suburban. 

On the way in, we saw these beautiful cow elk walking through the river.

We drove the Firehole road, but we failed at taking pictures for this photo.

Mark was such a trooper this entire trip with a broken arm.

We haven't stopped at roaring mountain for a long time.

We saw plenty of buffalo.

We caught a glimpse of the coyote as he ran across the road and into the forest.

We walked around Mammoth Hot Springs, which we haven't done for awhile.

There were a few places with water left.

Family picture

One of the many elk walking through Mammoth.

 
Next, we embarked on a hike that Dad has had on his list for a lot of years. Beaver Ponds is nearly 6 miles, and it starts with a three-quarter mile climb. We were hopeful we might see some animals, though. Before we were a few blocks up the hill, we were warned by other hikers that they’d seen bears. They described the spot and told us that it was about a mile up the trail. 
 
We were excited, but also on pins and needles. We usually see bears from the safety of our van, so being in the woods and coming across a bear made us nervous. A little while later, when Mark called, “There he is!” we all jumped about 4 feet. Then we backed up a little and Dad got the bear spray ready. He was a young black bear, and he was only about 25 yards up the hill. After we gave him a little space, he came down and crossed the trail and then laid down in the brush about 50 yards away. We watched him for a few minutes, giggling nervously, and then moved on. 

Beaver Ponds was our favorite hike of the entire trip.

The trail begins right by Mammoth.

Mark spotted the bear up off the trail.

He crossed right in front of us.

 
Later we came across two cow elk. They were acting really strangely, and one put her nose straight in the air and pranced off in a diagonal line. When we turned up the trail, she stopped and followed us for a short way, which was odd. Dad mentioned to Seth that she probably had a calf nearby. We all watched for another minute as these two mama elk stared at us, tensely alert from about 30 yards away. Then Seth said, “Mom, right there!” We looked down and lying perfectly still not three feet off the trail with nose tucked under its hoof was a tiny baby elk. It was close enough we could have touched it with a yardstick. We hurried down the trail and Mom took a quick snapshot. Suddenly, the elks’ strange behavior made sense!
 
After seeing a coyote run far below us on the ridge, we turned a corner and saw a mother white-tailed deer and her fawn. It was the prettiest little thing! It pranced about, curiously checking us out and then darting behind its mother. She wasn’t afraid of us at all, even though they were only about 20 yards away. We flirted with them for a few minutes before continuing along the trail. 

The trail was beautiful.

This was the elk who was acting bizarre.

The baby elk was right next to the trail. 

Mom loved all of the wildflowers on this trail.

The fawn was so cute and playful.

This trail has a unique distinction of crossing into Montana, and while we were there, two things happened. First, we got a little rain, so we quickly covered Mark’s cast and the camera, and we saw some huge bull elk. There were four of them lying down looking at us. Later, we came across a second bear. This one wasn’t nearly as scary, and we watched him amble up and over the hill. By the time we stumbled into Mammoth, we were footsore, but we’d seen everything along Beaver Pond Trail except for a beaver.

The boys loved all of the animals that we saw.

It was a great hike.

We made it to Beaver Ponds.

This is the largest of the ponds.

There were a few bridges and logs to cross along the trail.

The other bear we saw heading away through the trees.

We watched the bear head up the hill.

We saw another fawn near the end of this trail. 

The trail ended right at our cabin, so we checked in and made sandwiches for late lunch. We got settled and spent a little time with the Ferlans, who are right across the road from us. Then we decided to drive out to Gardner to see the Roosevelt Arch. On the short drive, we spotted some bighorn sheep, which helped the kids on their Bingo sheet. When we reached the arch, we found that they are expanding the northwest gate, but the construction wasn’t too bad. We could still see and walk through the arch. We were really impressed, and the kids had never seen it before, so it was nice side adventure.

We loved our little cabin.

It was so fun to be close to the Ferlans. We played lots of games with them.

This was one of the ugliest bighorn sheep we have ever seen.

It was fun to walk through the arch.

Roosevelt Arch is impressive.

Mom loves Yellowstone.

 
Back at the cabin we cooked tacos on the stove. Then we drove out to our favorite area of the park, Lamar Valley. We were pretty successful in our animal spotting. We saw several bears including lots of cubs. We missed seeing wolves on Slough Creek, but there were pronghorn, elk, and deer, too. Our best sighting was when a bear walked right across the road behind the suburban. Finally, it started getting dark, but we’d seen so much in one day!

We saw a mom and her two cubs heading away as we drove by.

This is the bear that ran right past our van.

We were so close, but this time we were safe in the car.

The kids loved playing games out on the porch of our cabin.

Yellowstone Day 3

Today we planned a big adventure in Montana. We wanted to drive up the highway and see two historical cities: Nevada City and Virginia City. They are located very close together, but they are a bit different when you visit.  

Nevada City is a ghost town, and has no actual residents. Instead, the preservers of the town have bought up a bunch of historical buildings and added them to the existing ghost town over the years. It is run like a museum, and you can walk through each of the buildings as if you were visiting a ghost town with actual exhibits. We found it to be a bit pricey, but the family pass included panning for garnet and riding the train, so we decided to splurge. 

This is definitely the kind of town that Randy would love to live in!

We love exploring with the cousins and Brittany!

We paid the fee and began our tour in the music room. There were a bunch of old player pianos and other music makers that you could put a few quarters in. Dad really wanted to operate the largest one, a huge carnival organ that cost a whole dollar. This monstrosity was built in 1905 and used at fairs across the country. We paid the fee and leaned in expectantly. Suddenly the organ roared to life, nearly scaring the life out of us as we jumped right out of our shoes. It was well worth the dollar.

 
We walked around the rest of the buildings, which were arranged like a small town. We peeked into the blacksmith shop, the school, and many houses. The boys enjoyed collecting stamps in a small booklet as they found certain destinations. 

The organs and player pianos were fun to listen to, and very scary sometimes.

These kids are in jail.

It was really fun exploring the old historic buildings.

Dax tried out the old swing.

Mark pretended to be the sheriff.

Seth liked peeking out of the window on this door.

Eventually it came time for our train ride. This was a real train ride that lasted about 25 minutes over to Virginia City. They employed a wye to turn the train around on the track using switches, and then we were on our way. We rode along for nearly 25 minutes with a fully narrated tour. We even managed to see a few wild turkeys along the way.

The train was slow, but we learned a lot of history.

Virginia City is an actual town that maintains an Old West style. We walked along the boardwalks past the shops and bought some ice cream. This town wasn’t as interesting and had a much more touristy feel, but it was still small and cozy. 

Mom and Dad ended up with all the cousins while Steph and Mel took care of things, and everyone in town thought we had 8 kids. 

We found an ice cream shop AND a candy shop.

Waiting to ride the train back.

We could only fit 4 or us, so Seth rode with Grandpa and Brittany on this trip.

By the time the train got us back to Nevada City we needed to do our panning for garnets. There were actually a lot of rocks to collect but most of us went after the pretty red ones. Dax saved a whole phial to give to Grandma, and we spent a good hour and a half sifting through our pans of dirt. Tragedy struck when Dax opened the van door and his phial fell out and shattered. It took him a long time to get those tiny garnets picked up and transferred to another container, but he finely got them safely to Grandma.

Mom mostly helped the boys find gems.

Grandpa had fun panning for gold.

Mark was very focused.

We had a blast planning for gems and gold.

That night we decided to take it easy. Most of the kids went swimming, but those with broken arms, like Mark, stayed in the bunkhouse and watched a movie. Dad even took Mark for a short animal drive, and they saw two moose and a white red-tailed hawk.

The kids had a ton of fun swimming!

Mark took this photo on the drive.