Monday, August 10, 2009
Day 46 July 27
West Yellowstone to Virginia City 88 miles
I'll fill it in when im home. I dont really like spending all day in the library
I'll fill it in when im home. I dont really like spending all day in the library
Day 45 July 26
Jackson to West Yellowstone
Today was my last day in Yellowstone with my family. We decided to do part of the Northern loop and see Mammoth Hot Springs. I mistakenly convinced everyone that you could swim in these hot springs but after 4 hours of driving we realized that they were just as hot as the others and we would die if we went in. plus there wasn’t much to see there anyway. We must have come on a bad day. There was only one spring coming out of a rock wall.
It would have been a pretty bad day but it was saved by two things. The first is XM Radio with stations like 20 on 20, Love, and The Highway. We probably heard Jordan Sparks 4 times, Lady Gaga 5 times, and Taylor Swift 7 times. I didn’t hate it. The second thing was some great animal sightings. It started off weak with only one buffalo sighting but once we got close to Mammoth it got great. A few miles before the springs we saw our first moose/elk of the trip. We could tell which it was because it ran into the brush pretty fast but we all got a good look. After the springs, during the drive to West Yellowstone was a major highlight of the trip. A few miles after Mammoth we saw a male moose with huge antlers about 150 feet away. I got a good video and Ali got some good pictures but it was raining hard and was tough to take pics. Then there was the elk. There was a huge traffic jam and people were getting out of their cars to look at something along the side of the road. There was a HUGE male elk with giant antlers. It was less than 20 feet away and didn’t seem to care that 75 people were standing around taking pictures of it. It was amazing. On the way out of the park I caught a glimpse of another animal off on the side of the road. It was another moose so we pulled off and found a whole herd. There were 15 lying around or walking about. They were about 150 feet away and on the other side of a river.
The fam dropped me off in West Yellowstone to save me two days of riding. It’s a cool town and very different from Jackson. This is more of a cowboy sort of town with a rustic feel while Jackson is more of a ski town. We ate at some restaurant which was just alright where I got another buffalo burger. While we were there we saw a man in a suit and mom wanted to ask if that was the mayor. She thought that in a town like this only the mayor would ever wear a suit. We told her that would be embarrassing so she asked the waiter “Is that man famous?” but he didn’t know. DQ for dessert. I miss Rita’s. Every camp site in town was full so mom put me up in a hotel for the night. I spent the night writing in my journal while the newer Planet of the Apes was on TV.
Today was my last day in Yellowstone with my family. We decided to do part of the Northern loop and see Mammoth Hot Springs. I mistakenly convinced everyone that you could swim in these hot springs but after 4 hours of driving we realized that they were just as hot as the others and we would die if we went in. plus there wasn’t much to see there anyway. We must have come on a bad day. There was only one spring coming out of a rock wall.
It would have been a pretty bad day but it was saved by two things. The first is XM Radio with stations like 20 on 20, Love, and The Highway. We probably heard Jordan Sparks 4 times, Lady Gaga 5 times, and Taylor Swift 7 times. I didn’t hate it. The second thing was some great animal sightings. It started off weak with only one buffalo sighting but once we got close to Mammoth it got great. A few miles before the springs we saw our first moose/elk of the trip. We could tell which it was because it ran into the brush pretty fast but we all got a good look. After the springs, during the drive to West Yellowstone was a major highlight of the trip. A few miles after Mammoth we saw a male moose with huge antlers about 150 feet away. I got a good video and Ali got some good pictures but it was raining hard and was tough to take pics. Then there was the elk. There was a huge traffic jam and people were getting out of their cars to look at something along the side of the road. There was a HUGE male elk with giant antlers. It was less than 20 feet away and didn’t seem to care that 75 people were standing around taking pictures of it. It was amazing. On the way out of the park I caught a glimpse of another animal off on the side of the road. It was another moose so we pulled off and found a whole herd. There were 15 lying around or walking about. They were about 150 feet away and on the other side of a river.
The fam dropped me off in West Yellowstone to save me two days of riding. It’s a cool town and very different from Jackson. This is more of a cowboy sort of town with a rustic feel while Jackson is more of a ski town. We ate at some restaurant which was just alright where I got another buffalo burger. While we were there we saw a man in a suit and mom wanted to ask if that was the mayor. She thought that in a town like this only the mayor would ever wear a suit. We told her that would be embarrassing so she asked the waiter “Is that man famous?” but he didn’t know. DQ for dessert. I miss Rita’s. Every camp site in town was full so mom put me up in a hotel for the night. I spent the night writing in my journal while the newer Planet of the Apes was on TV.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Day 41 July 22
Yellowstone
The van picked us up at 6:30 and there were 3 other people plus the driver going with us to the park. It was 55 miles just to get to Yellowstone and the entire tour was going to last almost 12 hours. We first stopped at Oxbow Bend where there was a perfect reflection of the Tetons in the river. It was exactly like one of the views from Forest Gump that inspired me to do this trip. Next we saw a Grizzly along the side of the road which is pretty rare. I got some good pictures and I'm sure Ali did too since she had the best view for it. Next we stopped at West Thumb where there are a lot of hot springs. We saw some ducks swimming in one of the pools and the guide was amazed and said she had never seen them do that before and that pool must not be that hot or they would all be dead. After that there was some traffic so we slowed down to take a look. It was a 2000 pound bison walking on the other side of the street towards us. It was so cool! We passed through Hayden Valley and saw herds of bison, not buffalo. The guide told us that there are no buffalo in the US and the only real buffalo are the water buffalo in africa and asia. NExt was the canyon which is also like a mini grand canyon where there were some more good pics that I will put up as soon as I can. Lunch was next to the Gibon river. We waited for 20 minutes at a construction site where Christine and I goofed off by the side of the road while Ali slept in the car. Old Faithful was next. We just missed it when we showed up so we had to wait for about an hour for the next eruption. People started doing the wave while we were waiting but we didnt because we are just too mature or maybe it was because we just didnt think to start it. But the eruption was pretty cool and i got a video of it going off. There are 150 geysers within a one mile radius of Old Faithful so it was a really cool place to walk around. Next we stopped at a really cool pond at the top the the Continental Divide. It flowed down both sides of the divide so it actually flowed into both the Atlantic and Pacific. Plus the pond was covered in lilly pads and was really pretty. On the way out we stopped at Lewis Falls which was very cool. That was about it though. We all passed out on the way back. We joked that Angela, the driver, put Drano in our lunched to put us to sleep. Christine also kept forgetting her name and just started calling her whatever name popped into her head. So by the end of the week if any girl name was said it probably referred to the guide.
We hung around the room for a bit then went to dinner at the GUn Barrel where i had Elk with mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. Its a lot better than the PB sandwiches.
Its definitely nice to slleep in a bed since I slept on the sofa every night when I was home.
The van picked us up at 6:30 and there were 3 other people plus the driver going with us to the park. It was 55 miles just to get to Yellowstone and the entire tour was going to last almost 12 hours. We first stopped at Oxbow Bend where there was a perfect reflection of the Tetons in the river. It was exactly like one of the views from Forest Gump that inspired me to do this trip. Next we saw a Grizzly along the side of the road which is pretty rare. I got some good pictures and I'm sure Ali did too since she had the best view for it. Next we stopped at West Thumb where there are a lot of hot springs. We saw some ducks swimming in one of the pools and the guide was amazed and said she had never seen them do that before and that pool must not be that hot or they would all be dead. After that there was some traffic so we slowed down to take a look. It was a 2000 pound bison walking on the other side of the street towards us. It was so cool! We passed through Hayden Valley and saw herds of bison, not buffalo. The guide told us that there are no buffalo in the US and the only real buffalo are the water buffalo in africa and asia. NExt was the canyon which is also like a mini grand canyon where there were some more good pics that I will put up as soon as I can. Lunch was next to the Gibon river. We waited for 20 minutes at a construction site where Christine and I goofed off by the side of the road while Ali slept in the car. Old Faithful was next. We just missed it when we showed up so we had to wait for about an hour for the next eruption. People started doing the wave while we were waiting but we didnt because we are just too mature or maybe it was because we just didnt think to start it. But the eruption was pretty cool and i got a video of it going off. There are 150 geysers within a one mile radius of Old Faithful so it was a really cool place to walk around. Next we stopped at a really cool pond at the top the the Continental Divide. It flowed down both sides of the divide so it actually flowed into both the Atlantic and Pacific. Plus the pond was covered in lilly pads and was really pretty. On the way out we stopped at Lewis Falls which was very cool. That was about it though. We all passed out on the way back. We joked that Angela, the driver, put Drano in our lunched to put us to sleep. Christine also kept forgetting her name and just started calling her whatever name popped into her head. So by the end of the week if any girl name was said it probably referred to the guide.
We hung around the room for a bit then went to dinner at the GUn Barrel where i had Elk with mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes. Its a lot better than the PB sandwiches.
Its definitely nice to slleep in a bed since I slept on the sofa every night when I was home.
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