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.

Yellowstone Day 6

Kepler Cascades

We reluctantly checked out of the cabin in Mammoth and headed south. The goal was to get south out of the park with a minimal number of stops. We only took a few moments at Kepler Cascades, Lewis Falls, and Moose Falls because we love waterfalls so much. We were out the south end of the park and to Flagg Ranch by 10:30.

Lewis Falls

Moose Falls

Dad really wanted to do another hike in Cascade Corner. This one was a four miler that passed a half dozen small waterfalls along the way to the grandaddy of them all, Terraced Falls. The only problem was that it was a twelve mile drive on a rough road to reach the trailhead. We easily made it, though, and started the hike, which was all downhill.
 
Surprisingly, we didn’t see any animals on this trail. We did see a lot of raging water, though. Two rivers converged and went jumping over the rocks for the entire length of the trail. The constant roar of rapids accompanied us as we passed small falls called Humpback and Diamond. Finally, we reached Terraced Falls. It was massive and beautiful as it cut its way through a narrow, black canyon. It was a little difficult to take pictures because of the steep canyon walls, but we all proclaimed the hike, and the rough drive, worth it.

It was fun to explore a new section of Yellowstone.

This trail was awesome as it followed the river and had lots of little waterfalls.

Mom loves waterfalls almost as much as Dad.

There was a little bit of an adventure along the trail when two people needed to go to the bathroom....

Terraced Falls was massive.

 
After lunch in the parking lot at Flagg Ranch, we again, turned south. There were no animals along this stretch of the drive either, but we eventually met up the Ferlans at Colter Bay. The kids threw rocks in Jackson Lake for a while and then picked up the Junior Ranger booklets and checked into our cabin.

We love staying at Colter Bay.

Having Bob on the trip is always fun. 

When everyone got checked in, we went to do our favorite hike in the Tetons, Moose Ponds. We almost always see something amazing on this trail, and today was no different. First, Mark spotted a bear running across the hillside above the ponds. It was a small black bear, and it sent people on that side of the pond scattering. Then, on the way back, Dax spotted a marmot. As everyone took a look, Dad glanced up the trail and fulfilled his lifelong dream of seeing a marten. Nobody else got to see it, because it was gone so fast, but he described as “a cross between a chihuahua and a fox.” It was so bittersweet for him to see it but not to have anyone else share in it.

We saw this deer right at the start of the trail.

Kate loves hiking with Mark.

This bear was on the other side of the pond, so we were not too close.

Mom loves purple flowers AND butterflies.

We love hiking.

Moose Ponds is so peaceful.

 
We skipped dinner and snacked in the car instead. This was so we could ride out to Oxbow Bend and check out the animals. We saw several beavers, as usual. Mom also saw a great blue heron feeding her chicks high up in a nest above the river. By then, it was time to head back to the cabin for well-deserved showers.

Ockey Family in the Tetons

The Great Blue Heron feeding her chicks was amazing.

It was a unique sight.

We love the view at Oxbow bend.

Grandma & Grandpa with the grandkids that went to Yellowstone.

These kids loved hanging with Brittany.

Yellowstone Day 5

We stopped to see the wolves on our way out to Cooke City.

We really wanted to do some different things on this trip to Yellowstone. Since it is our eleventh visit to the park, that meant driving out to Cook City, which is the only entrance we’ve never visited. This was perfect for us, because it took us through Lamar Valley, and we got to see a lot more animals. In addition, though it is a record breaking attendance year, the northeast corner of the park is pretty quiet because of the closure near Tower.
 
We saw plenty of bears today. Our total rose to 14. We also spotted a fox running across the road. We made our usual stop at Slough Creek and saw the wolves sitting under a tree several thousand yards away. We saw hundreds of bison, too. Out near the northeast entrance, we even spotted mountain goats high up the cliffside, which is the only place we see them anymore. 

We started the morning by seeing this mom and her cub.

This is the mountain goat mountain.

Can you see them up there?

They are so far away, but here is one all by himself.

 
We’d researched five waterfalls around Cook City, but with all the kids we had with us, we only managed to make it to one. It was a short, beautiful hike, and since it had been raining, the smells along the trail were like a rainforest. The kids enjoyed the waterfall, but they enjoyed it more when Bob drove his vehicle so quickly through the creek that he nearly soaked them as they stood watching!

Bridal Falls was a great waterfall.

We are so grateful for all of these family photos.

Another amazing Dad selfie!

We loved hiking with all of the cousins.

This was the kids's favorite part, though.

And somehow all of the cousins hike with Randy. 

 
We didn’t spend long in Cooke City. We drove back into the park and hit our favorite hike at Trout Lake. We had to double park and prepare lunch until we could get the vehicles safely in stalls, but that didn’t take too long. We even waited out a small rainstorm, which seems to happen every time we are at Trout Lake. The hike was great. We spotted several small snakes, a few frogs, trout, of course, and a muskrat. We watched him swim along the edge of the lake for a while. Then we headed back down the hill. 

Another cousin hike!

Trout Lake is gorgeous.

We are always happy in Yellowstone.

Down by the bank looking for frogs.

Yellowstone is our favorite.

We saw a few snakes.

And we all got a really good look at the muskrat.

It was fun to watch him.

We also spotted lots of frogs.

The most exciting stop of the day was at the bathroom in Lamar Valley. While several of us were using the surprisingly clean facilities, Mark went across the road to see what a small crowd was looking at. Luckily, it was a family of badgers. On all of our adventures and great sightings, our boys have never seen a badger. We were really excited to see three of them running around outside their den. This made the trip really memorable!

We spotted this coyote and tried to point him out to everyone, but somehow Melanie's car missed him. 

He was right by the road!

Seeing badgers was so exciting because the boys have never seen one.

We ended up seeing three badgers by this hole.

Our next stop was Roosevelt. They have redone the entire area, so the parking lot is new. We wanted to try a short little hike called Lost Falls. It was only 0.2 miles each way, and when we arrived, the fall was mostly lost behind a tree, but it was a really pretty place.
 
Finally, we headed back across the park to Mammoth. We cooked hotdogs and pasta on the stove for dinner. Then the kids played in the grassy area. They enjoyed tag and No Bears are Out Tonight. Dad even taught them Mother May I? and the team version of Paper, Rock Scissors.

Dad is a rock climber/jumper.

Lost Falls was hidden behind trees, but it was an easy hike.

We spotted another bear on the way back to our cabins.

Making dinner in the park was super fun.

And playing games together made it even better.

After dinner, we had two more hikes we wanted to do, but both were really short. The first was the top of Undine Falls. We’ve seen this waterfall from the road, but we wanted to take the short hike to the brink. It was definitely worth it! Even Grandpa and Brittany made the trek, which was less than a half mile. Then we crossed the road and did our usual hike at Wraith Falls. It was definitely a waterfall day!

There were lots of wildflowers on this trail.

The kids love to hike with Grandpa.

Seeing Undine Falls from the other side was awesome.

Our favorite bridge for Pooh sticks on the way to Wraith Falls.

Grandpa with 3 of his daughters.

We love the Wraith Falls trail. 

The elk hung out right by our cabins. It was so fun!