Saturday, June 8, 2013

The Last Week

Yellowstone. The words to describe this place do not give it justice.  I'm glad that I had 5 days to spend in this National Park. It's enormous and spread out. It's expensive (ugh)--  But, the views and vistas make it totally worth the drive.

When we got to the Park, Adam immediately had to start working, so Ryan and I got settled in to the cabin at the old Lake Lodge. It wasn't open for the season, so it was placement of temporary  "employees." We were in a tiny, tiny room, but it was comfortable. We had no hot water for the first 2 days, but hey, that's okay too. We were camping in!

The fun we had was unmatched thus far. I figured that I'd just list what we saw and write about my favorite things.

1. Storm Point Hike.
2. Uncle Tom's Hike/Upper and Lower Falls.
3. Artist's Point.
4. Norris Geyser Basin.
5. Artist Paint Pots.
6. Hayden Valley.
7. Virginia Cascades.
8. Tower.
9. Lost Lake Hike at Roosevelt Lodge. (my favorite).
10. Mammoth Hot Springs.

The hike to Lost Lake was great. It's loop that starts and ends at Roosevelt Lodge. We (Adam, Ryan and I) gained only about 300 ft. to hike to the lake. We had a lunch there beside the lake under a tree. Lilypads lined the lake and a sage covered hill. We continued on the hike to Petrified Tree, and up a steep butte. Once we hit the top of the butte, the view of the Beartooth and Absarokas was breath-taking. It was worth it. Sweet Ryan fell asleep on the way down, but this hike was the most memorable. The lodge had closed the gate on us, so I had to push it open for us to leave.  It was spectacular.

Storm Point was a ranger-led hike for Ryan and I. I totally recommend these if you are by yourself and want to hike. I am terrified of bears, so it was the perfect way to still go hiking without Adam. I learned a great amount of information too. Yellowstone is a breathing active part of our Earth, and it's just incredibly abstract to wrap my brain around. However, the ranger helped explain questions and also share information about wildlife too.

We saw wildlife galore! Mountain Bluebirds (one of my favorite things west!), Black bears, bison, elk, otters, ducks, canadian geese, ravens... the list goes on and on.

I also still did some cooking! Although some of our meat went bad in the cooler. W
e lost ten dollars in meat. That was really challenging the last two days. For our dinner after our hike, we had homemade french fries, and they were delicious. I should say, my husband cooked those in olive oil--- out of this world good.  We had a whole chicken in the crockpot, pasta with chicken in a tomato garlic sauce, and quesadillas.

I have a camera!! So, I'll leave you with some photos from the last week--- From Dubois until yesterday:






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