Day: September 30, 2019

I’ve been very excited to get to Grand Teton National Park. 6th National Park. The cold came early so a lot in the Teton’s is closed, but they do have 2 campgrounds still open. We stayed in Colter Bay and got there with enough light to ride bikes along the water. So spectacular. The Tetons are jaw dropping.

Vera spotted a beaver down in the water and we hung out and watched her work for quite awhile. Even though you know what beavers do, its a completely different thing to watch it happen in person. This beaver was building its dam underneath the boat ramp. It started swimming away from the boat ramp to the shore on the other side over 100 yards away. I’ve never seen Vera move so fast 🙂 She grabbed her bike and biked along the shore to follow the beaver. Threw her bike down and ran along the shore to watch the beaver climb/walk/waddle up on shore, chew down a branch and then back into the water. The rest of us stayed near the boat ramp and we see the beaver back in the water, Vera back on her bike riding fast back towards us. We were hanging out right near her dam when about a few feet away she slammed her tail against the water and dove down with the branch in her mouth. We hung out for at least 10 minutes waiting for the beaver to surface again. How long can beavers hold their breath? I don’t know, we haven’t looked it up yet. Maybe she hung out in her den for awhile since she knew we were watching her.

We decided to ride our bikes along the peninsula to watch the sunset and scope out a place we were could watch the sunrise the next morning. I like it here. Could stand it to be a few degrees warmer, but also imagining the craziness of people that would be here if that was the case.

We were happy to be in a campground tonight where we were able to plug in. The heat was cranked, Edwin made a yummy dinner while we all took showers in the RV for the first time. Don’t worry, we have showered more than once this last month, but we’ve either back at home, taking showers at friends houses or using the public showers at a campground. The showers were warm and successful. Yay! Only one little hiccup… Vera went in first, all was good. My mom went second and of course the fresh water ran out so my poor mom hung out in the shower while Edwin filled up the fresh water. Then the hot water heater wasn’t working. But Edwin is Edwin and is awesome and doesn’t give up so he got it all back up and running. Can’t tell you how good it felt to take a shower tonight after a few days in Yellowstone. We all sat down to a delicious dinner around the table, happy, tired, and CLEAN 🙂 How simple it can be to feel content.

We decided last night that we would drive through Canyon on the way to Yellowstone Lake on our way out of Yellowstone. Edwin and I woke up early so we decided to pull in the side of the RV and drive to Artist’s Point while my mom and the kids were asleep, one of our favorite spots from the first day near Canyon. It was nice to be there without the crowds. I can see why they call it Artist’s Point. It is the most photographed view in Yellowstone. We took a little hike along the South Rim to Ribbon Lake. The morning sun was shining on the canyon and the amount of colors were incredible. Reds, yellows, oranges, greens. Because of the weather we hadn’t spent a lot of time off the main trafficked areas. It was nice to get onto a trail and have a some tranquility in the beauty.

We went back to the Canyon visitor center and the girls completed their science badges. I know I said this yesterday, but I feel like I finally went full circle in my understanding of Yellowstone. They do a really complete job and give so much information. Here’s some more information from the Canyon visitor center as we didn’t realize there was a whole second floor.

Native Americans used the colors from all the different hydrothermal areas to paint their bodies and the buffalo hides

The Yellowstone caldera is huge…45 miles by 34 miles. Crater Lake which looks huge is tiny in comparison, 6 miles wide

On the way to Lake Yellowstone we stopped by another series of mud pots with cold names like “Black Dragon’s Cauldron”, “Sizzling Basin”, “Grizzly Fumarole”, “Churning Cauldron”, “Sour Lake”, “Dragon’s Mouth Spring”.

We went to the “big thumb” part of Lake Yellowstone and I was just expecting the lake so don’t know why I was surprised to see the lake with a boardwalk of another series of springs and fumaroles. The lake looked appetizing to go into, but its not allowed. Just as I was saying this to my mom and noticed elk literally frolicking in the lake just 100 yards from us. They looked like dogs jumping around the shallows. And you know when dogs get wet they get crazy hyper, so did this baby elk. It was trying to get its mom to play with him, but she wasn’t having it. They sauntered over grazing along the way and ended up only feet from us.

They had these super cool springs right near the water and it is said that the Native American’s and also the first mountaineers would go fishing, casting their fishing rod into the lake and then without removing the fish from the rod, dip the pole into the spring to cook the fish and then eat it. Both swimming in the water and fishing/cooking made me wish we could do that too. It started snowing again when we got to the Lake but the somehow the colors in the springs were more vibrant than those inside the basin.

Goodbye Yellowstone. It was a lovely time. Considering the cold snap the Northwest is having we felt like we lucked out with the weather and everything seemed to just work out. Off to the Tetons.