Yellowstone

So you already know from the previous two posts that we saw many of the main Yellowstone attractions and camped at Norris campground, so this blog post is mostly photos with only a bit of story.
 

Lower Falls of Yellowstone

We visited Artist Point viewing the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. The girls enjoyed it, but after seeing Gibbon Falls and Tower Falls they were less impressed than I had expected. Perhaps this is a location where one's memory grows in time and seeing others' photos of the same location.... we'll have to wait and see. 

  

The top photo is my favorite of the trip, the bottom two will need some help from Photoshop once we return home.

Old Faithful

Yellowstone is know for the geothermal activity, with over a quarter of the entire world's geyser viewable from the Old Faithful Lodge and visitor center. The tallest geyser in the world is just north of this location at the Norris basin. The girls thoughts can be heard on the video below.

Christine and I would have preferred to visit Yellowstone the first week of June or earlier, but schedules put us here in July. The main drawback of mid summer can be seen on this picture. 

Hot Springs

We quickly squeezed in a stop at Mammoth Terrace the first night, then walked Fountain Paint Pot basin the second day.

 

 

Other Stops

 

 

Petrified Tree and Tower were quick stops the first day...ice cream at the second of course in 80+ weather.

Wildlife

 

Lastly, the major draw for us is wildlife.

 

 

 

Danielle's photos of a Mule Deer and Grizzly Bear are on top, another Mule Deer and Elk below.

Michaela hiked a good part of Mt Washburn with Christine while Danielle and I stopped earlier. Luckily it gave me an opportunity to look at butterflies. The best photo is below, but the other two unidentified butterflies can be seen here and here.   

 

 

Ravens, Juncos and Sparrows were common....butterflies were left unidentified.

For even more of our trip watch Michaela's reaction to being in the cave as the lights are turned off while in the Black Hills.

First time for everything

Yellowstone has long been one of my favorite destinations; I first enjoyed trips there with my sister and parents, then later after marriage with Christine.  Christine and I have been to Yellowstone a handful of times but this trip afforded us a first ever while at the park. With many photos, videos, and stories from the two days this blog is devoted to one specific moment. Another blog will contain other stories from Yellowstone,  To get an idea of that moment and potential first for Christine and I here are the girls journals from yesterday.
 

Michaela's Journal

Danielle's Journal

After a late night unsuccessfully scanning Hayden Valley for Wolves we returned to Norris campground around 9:30.  We backed into the #4 site of A Loop and both girls piled out of the van to hop in the tent.  As soon as the doors opened we heard someone yelling, "There is a Bison in the campground get back in your vehicle."  Somehow both girls were outside with closed doors as we heard this, they of course struggled to run around to the other side to get back in. As soon as they were back in the car we lowered a window to see the Bison 10 yards from our tent and 15 yards from the Van. If I had only pulled into the parking spot directly rather than backing in we would have seen it.

A park volunteer soon asked us to move to the opposite side of the loop as, "A Ranger is going to fire a gun and we don't know which way the Bison will go." We obliged the request and shot the video below after parking.  Three park rangers and a volunteer went campsite to campsite asking everyone to move to a hard sided vehicle. In a constant rain some poor campers (many with kids) lumbered back to their cars. We've never seen rangers walk tent to tent asking people to return to their vehicles.......a first for us! The videos below are better viewed in HD, but I'm not sure if you can make out anything other than our conversation in the first.
 

 

Shortly after 10 it was so dark the only way the Bison could be seen was with spotlights.  Luckily the animal chose to walk toward the valley with the gentle nudging of a ranger's truck (no gun needed) and we were able to return to the tent by 10:30. 

 

This morning Michaela informed us "There is a Bison in camp!" when she woke up. It is hard to know if it was the same animal as before but it was nearly in the same location as the night before. Luckily everyone, including the Bison, were unharmed in these encounters. It was awesome being able to observe sites 4 and 5 of Norris campground special visitor.

The girls' perspectives

We successfully found a campsite in Yellowstone and traveled the top half of the grand circle the first day.  Today we are traversing the southern half with Old Faithful and Canyon.  We have limited reception in Yellowstone and probably won't be posting many pictures to the blog until we are out of the park.

In the meantime here are the journal entries of Michaela And Danielle regarding the first week of our road trip to the West Coast.

Michaela's journal

Danielle's Journal

Headed West

Summer Trip 2015

So, it has probably been a year (or more) since I have posted anything to the blog but Malcolm has thankfully taken up the slack.  As I sit down tonight in non-air conditioned room that barely has room to walk around, let alone sleep 4, I am trying to relax and let go of the small mistakes I have made on the trip.  We have been gone from home for 2 ½ weeks and it has been thoroughly busy but enjoyable.  As I look back, I see laughter, smiles and lots of love for my family.  We are lucky and blessed to have the opportunity to go on a trip like this and see our family.  No little ‘hiccups’ should get in the way of seeing this wonderful opportunity to make memories for both myself and my family.  So, though I am not the blogger that Malcolm is, I will try to fill in for him and chronicle some of our trip so far as well as provide some fun photos that we can look back on to remember our summer trip of 2015!

HEADING WEST

Though the days have been long and we are not even halfway to Oregon, we have already had some good memories.  We started off by taking back roads in MN and SD to get to the campground we had reserved in the heart of the Black Hills National Forest.  We made sure to stop at the huge Raven statue at the Belgrade Centennial Memorial in MN and the girls had a chance to run off some of their sillies and pose for the first of many ‘classic vacation photos’ to chronicle our journey.  It was beautiful memorial for such a small town in the middle rural MN and I had never been there that I recall. 

Our goal for the trip is to have a picture to for each state that we drive through so the girls can look back and have proof of which ones they have visited (maybe one day we’ll make an album!)  Here are the one we have so far,  notice that we were on the dirt backroads of SD/WY when we hit the state line…not such a fancy sign in middle of free range cow pastures!

BADLANDS NATIONAL PARK/Black Hills

This was the one thing so far that I wish I had planned differently.  We only got a chance to drive through the badland with a QUICK walk/climb in the park.  We were already so late that we had to race through it in order to reach our campground in the middle of the Black Hills.  I wish we had planned for time to hike and climb this beautiful landscape.  It was absolutely beautiful!  Danielle was an absolute daredevil making me squirm as she shot to the top of the rocks barefoot no less!  No fear for climbing, I guess, though deep, dark caves….not so much.  (more to come!)

Rushing on we made the journey to our campground but we arrived after dark and with a thunderstorm on our tails.  It was a very stressful 30 minutes trying to set up the tent in the dark with thunder/lighting sounding ominously in the background.  (Not my proudest of parenting times and I am sure not the most exciting of setups for camping the girls will have).  However, we got it up and we were in the tent not 10 minutes before first pea-sized hail then downpour rain hit.  We were so thankful to have it up in time but realized that it was the first hail storm we had ever camped in!  The girls were scared and Danielle spent most of the night at the bottom of the sleeping bag and I spent the next while worried that the tent would blow down and we would end up sopping wet.  The reality was that the tent stayed up but the waterproofing I had sprayed after our Texas trip did not hold up to the raging thunderstorm.  But we mostly stayed dry…just a couple of damp pillows/clothes but almost everything was still dry…thankfully!

Mount Rushmore

I don’t believe I have ever been to Mount Rushmore before this trip, I was surprised at how commercialized/built up.  Multi-level parking garages and the expected hordes of tourists.  It reminded me of an amusement park, that is until you see the beauty and wonder of the monument.  It is hard to fathom how they could construct it without modern technology with just the vision of a man and dynamite and jackhammers!  Super cool.  This was the one place that Michaela wanted to see on our trip though I am sure it had a large part to do with recognizing it from school.  Though it was not quite as she expected either as she was more under the misconception as I that is was more of a natural area and less of a ‘business/touristy’ feel.  Though both girls did think that the monument itself was “awesome!”

 

Black Hills Cave Tour

I decided buy a ‘groupon’ for a cave tour and we went there after Rushmore.  The cave itself was nothing spectacular but provided the girls with enough ‘fear’ that it was exhilarating for them and they enjoyed it.  The cave itself was mostly dead due to human pollution of touching and so forth, but it was cool to walk through the caverns and enjoy how nervous the girls were about exploring such a dark space 100s of feet below ground.  It seemed such a milestone for them to conquer their fear and continue the tour, though I am sure they will not be volunteering to go down one by themselves anytime soon! 

 

Taking pictures in dark caves are challenging.

On to Yellowstone

Today, we spent most of the day driving from the Black Hills to Cody, WY but we still had a good day and got to see Devil’s Tower as well, but it was a quick drive by/potty break before heading on.  After looking at our picture from here I had to edit it to sepia/black & white because it reminded me so much of the old time portraits where no one smiles!  My only defense is that it was REALLY bright!!!

Though one of the funniest parts of the day for me was at the beginning when we used the van’s “Shortest Route” navigation to Cody.  Being in the heart of the black hills and 1 hour from the freeway I asked the campground manager about the back way/shortest way to the free heading to Yellowstone.  He recommended that we should take it but made us aware that it had quite a bit gravel. After 20 miles our route turned to dirt and we had 6 cows laying in the road....luckily another option existed and we didn't have to backtrack.  Malcolm liked it as we were able to stop quickly for birds, including a Townsend's Solitaire just over the WY border.  More to come in a few days, we're hoping to find a camping spot in Yellowstone tomorrow....fingers crossed.

The next generation in Canada

This past Friday we left central Minnesota mid-morning for Canada. There were no blog postings the previous week, but I expect everyone that reads this blog also follows Christine or myself on Facebook and were able to see their adventures this past week with family. This was our first trip to Canada as a family when the girls were old enough to participate and remember the journey. I was extremely excited the girls could join Grandpa Mike and Grandma Cindy near Morison Ontario as I continue to add to nearly 30 years of similar journies with my grandfather, uncle, and father. To help remember the trip we took photos both in Baudette MN and Rainy River ON.

After quickly unpacking our van we all jumped in the boat and were fishing by late afternoon Friday. Michaela And Danielle we're excited for the opportunity and within a couple of minutes Michaela caught the first fish of the trip, a small walleye. We soon experienced another first for the girls, their first shore lunch. We didn't find many fish after dinner, but the girls enjoyed the stories of past fishing ventures. Seemingly someone had a fish on most of the day and we ended with nearly 50 fish, Michaela catching the largest of the day with a 20 inch walleye.



 

The girls loved the time in the boat; they loved the rides, fishing, and grandparents.

Forecast for the weekend included heavy rain so dad and I left early Saturday morning, but returned a few hours later to get everyone else. Luckily the 4 women brought us better luck and we caught plenty of fish the next couple of hours. We even got all three of my women to hold walleyes!! We returned early afternoon before the rain showers and saw a little black bear walking along one of the islands.

 

We were fairly close to the black bear, coasting to only 25 yards or so before it ran away.

   

The girls even found the beach to go swimming. Heavy rain prohibited any additional fishing on Saturday but it didn't dampen our spirits. The girls enjoyed watching the movie Flipper and eating fish for the second day in a row.

We were fishing early morning on Sunday but our luck changed with the evening lightning and rain. Fishing was slow and we decided to troll. Danielle cut the only northern, a well-behaved 24 inched that modeled the teeth nicely for them.

Overall they saw walleye, sauger, black crappie, yellow perch, northern pike, and a small rock bass.
 

 

The girls even decided to thumb their first fish on the trip.

  It was a great trip.  Below are their journal entries....a bit overwhelmed but lots of good memories.

Michaela's entry

Danielle's entry

Vacation

And so it has begun.......

.....we are on a five week long massive road trip. Updates should be coming on a semi-regular basis as we progress from family-time in MN and Canada to road-trip west to family-time in OR to road-trip home.

We arrived late Wednesday night in central MN. We were welcomed by the MN state insect, the mosquito, in such numbers that would alter most people's definition of "they are bad" to "they aren't so bad". Here is Michaela modeling their welcoming greeting. 

Thursday we visited Great Grandma's farm. Michaela and Danielle both enjoyed the hay mow.

 

 

The girls also enjoyed visiting Grandpa Mike and Grandma Cindy's place adding their house warming present to their new addition.

 

We visited Christine's home town for a parade and each of the floats below were part of it.... eat your heart out Kansas City.



  

  

  

There is a lot of pride in small towns, even if the vehicles are a bit different. I often miss that feeling.

So I hope you get a couple of guest posts from Christine this coming week as I am at a conference..... let the summer vacation begin.

First week of summer break

This is the first week our entire family is out of school....so of course we are checking out parks, swimming, birding, and trying to sleep in. 

 

The birding lens got a few odd looks when I took pictures of kids 20 yards away from me.

After finding many this past weekend I challenged the girls to find a Cicada and Snail. Our Memorial Day walk at Wyandotte County Lake only revealed a Magicicada (a 17-year cycle Cicadea that will be providing a constant chainsaw buzz throughout Kansas and Missouri this summer. The girls enjoyed playing at at the park before we headed home.

 

We don't get many of these Oregon style days with blue skies and bright clouds, but we did on Tuesday! 

On Tuesday I asked the girls to come with to Heritage Park as Christine got tires on the Van. The trade-off was they needed to search for the snail before we would go to the playground. We were unsuccessful in finding a snail but we found a raccoon, rabbits, a singing Eastern Towhee, an inch worm, a slug, and this Ornate Box Turtle. After our walk the girls played at the park again. I think I see a pattern emerging that may be prevalent much of the summer.