Yellowstone Day 4

Seth loves being somewhere fun on his birthday!

June 29^th was Seth’s eleventh birthday. The boys wanted to get up really early and go for an animal drive, but 6:30 seemed plenty early. We’d all showered and we had plans for breakfast, so we made it out the door by 6:45. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t with us. We didn’t see a single notable animal.

No animals, but beautiful views.

We stopped by Jackson Lake Lodge and saw a moose hundreds of yards out the massive west window. Then we went and got breakfast for Seth’s birthday. Seth loves pancakes, but he ordered French toast. Mom got the huckleberry pancakes, and both were delicious. Everyone else got big breakfast plates. Since Dad sang happy birthday when Seth’s food was delivered, the waitress found out that it was a special day. She treated Seth to a nice brownie. We really enjoyed that breakfast and even considered making it a tradition.

It was fun to eat out for breakfast!

Seth loves brownies. It was a great treat!

After breakfast, we drove to Moose Ponds to do our favorite hike. It was reported that a mother bear and her cubs had been sighted along the way, but again, we were unlucky. We didn’t see anything along the path, though we decided to enjoy the hike anyway.

This is our favorite trail in Grand Teton.

It is such a beautiful part of the park.

Mom and Dad love hiking together.

Happy Birthday to Seth!

Mark was really hoping to see some wildlife, but nothing!

We still enjoyed visiting Moose Ponds.

Dad trying to spot something!

This was the trail Seth most wanted to do. 

A second hike took us to Taggart Lake, which was a hike we’d never done before. The parking lot is always packed, and there are hundreds of people on the trail. Luckily, a prime parking spot opened up just for us. We passed large groups all up and down the trail, but Dad told Seth a birthday story and before we knew it, we had arrived at Taggart Lake. It was a beautiful, crystal clear lake, so we decided to dip our toes in for a few minutes. The water was ice cold and refreshing. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to take the long way back to the trailhead, hoping to final see a few animals. The hike was beautiful along Beaver Creek, but we were still unlucky as we didn’t spot any animals at all. We were disappointed, because it seemed like such an amazing place to see a moose or bear. We had been excited to spot a few bears, because we got to 21 quickly, which is just two short of our record of 23. Unfortunately, we stayed on 21 throughout this day.

Taggart Lake was a climb!

The views at the top were lovely.

It was nice to cool our feet off in the water.

Taggart Lake was an awesome new hike.

Seth wanted to touch one of these fish, but it never happened.

We really liked Taggart Lake.

The lake was so pretty.

The hike back down had a lot of pretty spots, too.

Mom loves hiking with this crew. Mark is of course way ahead of us!

We had a quick lunch of chips and applesauce and didn’t even bother with the sandwiches. Then we made the drives that we knew would net us some animals. On the Moose-Wilson Road, we saw nothing. Up toward Gros Ventre Canyon, we didn’t see a single thing. At Schwabacher Pond we heard that a moose had just wandered away. It seemed as if we wouldn’t being seeing animals for Seth’s birthday. Then the rain started. It was getting close to 5 o’clock, and we’d planned dinner at Dornan’s Pizza in Moose. The food was good and quick and the rain really came down while we ate. We had one more hike to try.

Schwabacher's Landing has the best photo spots.

Getting ready for the picture.

Family pic!

We had a hard time getting everyone ready for this picture.

Dax was being very silly. 

Seth got to eat pizza for his birthday!

Mom wanted to stop on the main road and try a “secret hike” that she’d heard about. It was very short and took us to a few cabins and other structures that few visitors in the Tetons ever see. We were encouraged by the terrain, but we only managed to spot a few marmots among the wildflowers.

Cute boys! And lots of rain all day long!

This spot was hidden and magical. 
 

Finally, we drove out Moose-Wilson Road one last time. At the overlook, we saw nothing, and the rain started to fall again. We thought about turning around right there, but we drove out a little farther. Within a few miles, we came to road construction, so we had to turn around. Back at the overlook we saw a few cars looking off to the west. Amazingly, a mama moose and her tiny calf were wading in the pond! The baby didn’t seem to like the water and swam to the edge, but the cow ate in the knee-deep water for quite a while. It was the perfect sighting! 

Here is momma and baby in the water together.

The baby moose did not like being in the water.

Momma Moose didn't mind.

She called the baby over to her as we were leaving.

Back at the cabin, we gave Seth a few birthday gifts. We sang and had oreos and milk, which is Seth's favorite treat. Then we read together and headed off to bed. It hadn’t been such a bad day after all.

We celebrated in our cabin at Grand Teton.

Seth loves mythology and was excited for this game.

Seth also got some new books and stuffed animals.

Yellowstone Day 3

Our third day in Yellowstone was a transition day. We would be leaving the park and heading down to the Tetons. We started the day by spotting a mother grizzly and her cubs. They were playing right along the road in Hayden Valley, and we watched them for a long time.

We spotted this beautiful great blue heron on our way to find some bears.

We watched the momma and her two cubs for a while.

The cubs weren't too sure about all the people watching them.

They were just up the hill, so it was a great sighting.

 

Next, we drove out and threw a few rocks in Yellowstone Lake before stopping for our next hike. We really love Storm Point because there is so much wildlife. We identified a variety of birds like goldeneyes, mountain bluebirds, and pine siskins. Of course, there were dozens of marmots, as well as a few buffalo and an injured deer. It was a nice hike, and it never really rained on us, though it was misty and muddy for much of the distance.

We saw this buck on the way out to Yellowstone Lake.

Then we spotted some elk.

We love throwing rocks at this spot.

Yellowstone Lake is a nice lake!

This marmot was right by the window when we turned around for our hike.

Pretty mountain bluebird.

Seth liked sitting in the back so he could get snacks easily!

We love the Storm Point trail.

It was weird to be all bundled up on June 28th!

We saw a bunch of marmots. Here are just a few.

A beautiful butterfly posing again!

Mom likes to find all the colorful wildflowers.

Dad and Seth love hiking together.

Another adorable squirrel enjoying breakfast.

 

The boys wanted to stop at Old Faithful, so we made the long drive around the Grand Loop. We spent a little time in construction, but it wasn’t a major delay. We arrived with about a half hour to spare before the next Old Faithful eruption, so we walked up to Anemone Geyser, which we love because it goes off every 8-10 minutes. We weren’t disappointed. Then we turned around and walked back to Old Faithful. We stopped on the south side of the geyser for a change, right where the path comes up from the river. There was a bison sitting between the geyser and us, which we thought would be pretty in pictures. It was pretty, but we got pretty wet when the wind blew the spray right over top of us!

The bison made for a pretty iconic picture.

We always enjoy this hike around the geyser basin.

Anemone geyser is a family favorite.

It was a quick stop at Old Faithful, but a fun one.

We didn’t stay long at Old Faithful. We ate a quick lunch out of the back of the van and started south. We wanted plenty of time in the Tetons on this day, too. We skipped most of the short stops like Moose Falls and went straight to Colter Bay to check in. The boys wanted to go do a hike immediately.

The one stop we did make was at Kepler Falls.

Our hike of choice in this area is Heron Pond and Swan Lake, but we found that the main trail was closed and we’d have to take a different route. Still, the boys wanted to do this one badly. It turned out to be amazing. We saw another mama bear with her two cubs and close to a dozen beavers. There was an osprey diving in the water, and we spotted a downy woodpecker, too. It seemed like animals were everywhere! We walked farther than we wanted to, and ended up getting back late for supper.

Seth really wanted to throw more rocks.

The bears were through the trees, so it was hard to get a great picture, but the cubs were adorable.

A hairy woodpecker

We saw so many beavers! It was crazy!

There were a bunch on the beaver hutch and some on land in this pic!

This place is super pretty!

Beaver swimming away from us!

We saw a bunch of yellow dumped warblers, too. This guy looks very fierce!

Enjoying the rainy outings as much as we can!

Turned out to be a great hike!

Wow! This momma has her hands full!
 

Mom made pasta on the camp stove right next to the parking lot on a picnic table. We ate really well and got all cleaned up in a hurry. When we are in the Tetons, the boys don’t waste a second. They just want to look for animals. This meant a drive out to Oxbow Bend. The water was really low, the lowest we’d ever seen it, but we did spot a lot of wildlife. Most amazingly, we saw another half dozen beavers. One sat on the edge of the pond not 20 feet from us. Some people got even closer, but we didn’t want to make the beaver nervous. He just chomped on his stick and ignored all of the humans. We got home late, but the cabin in the Tetons was really snug for the five of us. It had been another great day!

We luckily got dinner in before it started to really rain!

Mom takes a picture by all the wildflowers.

Oxbow Bend was super low this year.

Dax even took a pic with the flowers.

We were able to walk in areas we can't normally explore because of low water.

Mark found a huge egg shell.

We found a lot more beavers!

These three were having out together. But we saw some more on the other side, too.

I love the way this picture turned out with the reflection and lighting!

This beaver swam right over by where we were standing.

It was the year of seeing a million beavers.