Monday, September 01, 2008

Roadtrip to Yellowstone National Park

There is no better way to end a summer than a good old fashioned road trip. Drew, Aaron & myself embarked on a 4 day trip to Yellowstone for the Labor Day Holiday. We camped within the park and had a great time.Just outside of Rawlins, WY I took this pic of the changing landscape.The first night we spent in Jackson Hole, WY. Notice that Aaron, myself & Drew look clean in this pic. That was not the case by the end of it.
Probably one of the prettiest mountain ranges there is. The Grand Tetons are simply amazing.
This is my favorite pic of the whole trip. This was taken as we were entering Yellowstone.Giddy up partner!!! So Aaron is as big a horse nut as myself. We took a trail ride inside the park and had a great time. It was neat to see the park at this vantage point. The trail ride leader said 98% of people visiting the park never venture outside of their car.
The IDAHO SPUD. So there is a story behind this candy bar. About 13 years ago my family was in Montana for Christmas. My sisters and parents were out one day while the rest of us were skiing. They stopped at a gas station and Cynthia told mom to get her a Snickers to snack on. Mom decided to get her something local & bought her this Idaho Spud candy bar. They had already gotten back on the road when Cynthia decided to eat it and she thought it was god awful. We laughed about this candy bar the rest of the trip, so when I saw it in Yellowstone I had to buy one. Cynthia, Carla & mom will be getting one in the mail real soon. Yumm!!!They estimate the herd population of the buffalo in the park to be about 3500 this year. When you see all the land in the park you would think there would be a lot more than this.We lucked out as far as Old Faithful goes. The geyser erupts every 70 to 120 minutes. Luckily we had just gotten there and it erupted. Sweet!!!
I had to include this picture of Aaron since he rode in the backseat the majority of the time. We opted not to take the side panels for my Jeep since it looked to be great weather the whole time we were gone. The last day when we were driving home it was cold. We drove through rain & snow. Thank goodness we had a ton of blankets.
Huge bull elk just across the street from where we were camping.
It is the Ritz Carlton. Nah, that is just our tent.Nothing like cooking beans and chicken outdoors. Mental note, no more beans for Aaron on the next trip. :)I love toasted marshmellows. Of course the only way I eat mine are completely burnt to which Drew and Aaron thought I was crazy.
So you know the old story how "every village has its idiot"??? Well this idiot in the red cap was vacationing in Yellowstone. First off, you are not supposed to feed the animals. We watched from the Jeep in amazement as what was about to take place. This guy decided to go get his dogs out of his car & I guess he thought they would make friends with this elk. So he takes the dogs down to the elk & basically forces them with the leash to get right up to the elk. So what does the elk do? IT ATTACKS!!! The elk came up on its back legs and started pawing the poor dogs. It is a wonder it didn't attack this man too. Another tourist started shouting at the man telling him how stupid he was. We just felt sorry for the dogs because they got hurt and were crying. The dogs can't help it that they have an idiot for an owner. Here is the aftermath right after the attack. Notice the elk sticking its tongue out. It is probably thinking stupid tourist & I showed you. The poor dog on the left is the one that got pummeled with the elks legs.
So the highlight of the trip for me was seeing 2 moose. I have never been able to get this close to one before. They are huge. September 1st & we have snow in the mountains. This picture was taken right outside of Jackson Hole on the way home.
Maybe it was a good thing after all that we didn't have the side panels on the Jeep. It kept the air circulating since all 3 of us stunk to high heaven. Peww!!!!Huge rainbow that was welcoming us back into Colorado. This has been a great trip.