Yellowstone National Park

July 7  Yellowstone National Park

There is so much to post about our stay in Yellowstone. On the drive to Yellowstone I saw 22 deer. Wyoming has beautiful scenery. The running joke in the family is that Doug can drive for 10 hours without anything exciting happening, but as soon as I drive some weird or dangerous driving situation occurs. As soon as Doug and I switched places and I started to drive, we exited the interstate and headed up a ridiculously curvy and steep two lane road. We see signs for big horn sheep crossing and the altitude keeps rising. And then we were able to stop at a pullout. It was beautiful!

 We reached Yellowstone in the evening, and our lodge was 30 miles deeper into the park, so by the time we actually got checked in the restaurants had closed and the only thing open was the gift shop where we purchased a couple of candy bars and drinks for dinner. Luckily we had stopped in Cody, Wyoming just before entering the park and picked up a loaf of bread to go with the peanut butter we had brought. The only problem was that I couldn't find the plastic ware and so we had to improvise on the utensils. Despite it being late and the boys being tired and hungry, they were real troopers. They didn't complain about eating poptarts and Swedish Fish for dinner. The Canyon Lodge we had was very rustic. It was clean and modern but rustic in that it had no air conditioning, tv, internet, cell or phone service. Again, the boys were great sports.

The upside of entering the park in the evening is that there is more wildlife activity. On the way to our cabin we saw elk, bison, and a bear. Just an FYI, if you are ever in Yellowstone and see more than one park ranger stopped in their vehicle, there is a bear sighting and they are trying to keep the tourists from being eaten. It's probably a good thing because you would not believe the people who do really stupid things to get photos of wildlife.

Here is our  first black bear. We saw a total of five black and one grizzly.

   This is a 10 point elk we saw on the way to our lodge the first night. 

We were all excited about seeing this bison.....until we saw about a thousand more. You can tell when a tourist is new to Yellowstone, they pull the car over to look at bison and elk. After a few days you only bother to stop for bear.

So, funny story- on the first night in Yellowstone I happened to wake up at one or two in the morning and wanted to open a window and turn on the fan. When I raised up to look at the clock I noticed I was woosey. I got out of bed and walked to the window, or at least tried. Completely disoriented,  I walked into a lamp and then the wall. Yellowstone is nearly 8,900 feet above sea level! I am apparently altitude sensitive. So the next morning as I hear eveyone rousing from sleep, but before they are out of bed I shout out a loud warning. "Everyone, be careful when you get up.  We are at a high altitude and you will be dizzy when you first get out of bed. Take your time and sit up slowly!" Certain that I had saved everyone from serious injury, I felt very satisfied. Then everyone got up and went about their business. No one else was bothered in the least. No one. Nothing. Just me.

Day 2 of Yellowstone- Horseback Riding at 7:45 in the morning!

As I mentioned, getting to Yellowstone made quite a day and we were all looking forward to sleeping late the next morning. But Doug wanted to get our day started early so he booked our horseback rides at 7:45 the next morning. I know I gave him one of my looks when he told me but I really tried to stay positive. I had to take a few moments to collect myself, but I did, and we had a great ride.

 This is Eli riding Biscuit. First let me say the name of the horses that were chosen for us were perfect! More on that later. 

There were half a dozen other kids on the tour who were all running around and bragging about how long they had taken riding lessons. They didn't pay attention to the signs that clearly said not to approach the horses in the corral as Eli sat quietly on the bench waiting for instructions. All of the kids road at the beginning of the line and Eli was chosen to ride first, directly behind the wrangler. It was awesome. He was such a natural. Even though he rides at Miss Sarah's English style, western worked great for him.

 

Here's Peyton on DJ. Cool name for a horse. Peyton said he tried to connect on a mental level with DJ so that they would have a smooth ride. DJ, like Peyton, was very laid back and easy going. The lady on the horse directly behind him (we had to ride nose to tail so wild animals would see us as one large animal rather than several smaller ones) had several times when her horse went a little nuts and broke line rearing and bumping other horses. It actually knocked DJ (and Peyton) out of line and nearly caused a huge problem on a mountain trail, but thankfully Peyton was able to get DJ calmed quickly. THANK YOU MISS SARAH for the riding lessons. Peyton didn't panic and all was well. 

Apparently something was wrong with the camera setting when they took my photo. Clearly it was on that setting that makes the person in the photo look HUGE. Anyway, this beautiful horse is Trooper. I think this fits me. I mean, I was being a trooper about the whole 7:45 ride after about a hundred hours in the car. Then there is Trooper, Eli's beloved chocolate lab. So all the way around I think they picked the perfect horse for me.

And this brings us to Doug and his horse. The horse that was carefully chosen for him; the horse that had bad gas that morning. Here is Doug on his horse named Dick.

 I had to try about ten different ways of wording the previous sentence.