Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Lots of pics - wildlife
Deer
Buffalo
Eagle
Goat (from Glacier)
Can't tell but this is a bear - also from Glacier - have GREAT video of this but our new camera has pitiful zoom - will post the vid sometime.
Buffalo
Eagle
Goat (from Glacier)
Can't tell but this is a bear - also from Glacier - have GREAT video of this but our new camera has pitiful zoom - will post the vid sometime.
Lots of pics - more yellowstone
Unintentional funny pic - Mari's hair is crazy, but not quite THAT crazy:
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone:
Our nice 'snacknic' on Yellowstone Lake:
A Specter lake picnic tradition - "Cleaning up the beach"
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone:
Our nice 'snacknic' on Yellowstone Lake:
A Specter lake picnic tradition - "Cleaning up the beach"
Lots of pics - thermal features
No smellovision here - but Faith's expression should give you some idea of the odor.
Obligatory Old Faithful pic:
Sure hope this is normal...
Hot springs don't translate well to photos - this is a pretty good one though:
At Mammoth Hot Springs:
Obligatory Old Faithful pic:
Sure hope this is normal...
Hot springs don't translate well to photos - this is a pretty good one though:
At Mammoth Hot Springs:
Explanations first, pics later.
Greetings from Arco. The world's first city to be lit by atomic energy. To get here we had to drive through a vast expanse of creepy "Idaho Research Laboratory" countryside - best left to the imagination I figure.
We are here a day earlier than intended. After 3 days of Yellowstone we were all drained and exhausted. We hadn't done everything, but we had done the major stuff. The original plan was to do Grand Teton as well, but hauling everyone 2 hours and then back again seemed like stretching it...and the food budget was starting to be stretched at Big Sky prices. So we thought we'd just chill. But the more Steph and I thought about it the more we didn't like the thought of sitting so close to all this and doing NOTHING. So we got the idea to bolt early and add a day in Salt Lake City, which would involve a change of scene and shorter drives.
Dad was a great sport and rearranged the reservations so we left early this morning for Arco. We visited Craters of the Moon National Monument - basically a big old lava field in the middle of Idaho. Very cool. Very hot though. The girls and I got to go a little ways into a lava tube which they liked a lot.
The Mountain View RV Park is nice. Got here early and got to choose our own space. Huge wide grassy area by the space, great view of the Arco "Number Hill" - look it up.
Tomorrow on to Salt Lake City for a day and a half, and then the haul home begins. Will take us most of a week to get home, all of them 1-night stays except for a day in St. Louis before we come home. The end is in sight. More thoughts on that as it gets closer.
I will get to work on uploading some Yellowstone pics ASAP. Thanks for stopping by!
Matt
We are here a day earlier than intended. After 3 days of Yellowstone we were all drained and exhausted. We hadn't done everything, but we had done the major stuff. The original plan was to do Grand Teton as well, but hauling everyone 2 hours and then back again seemed like stretching it...and the food budget was starting to be stretched at Big Sky prices. So we thought we'd just chill. But the more Steph and I thought about it the more we didn't like the thought of sitting so close to all this and doing NOTHING. So we got the idea to bolt early and add a day in Salt Lake City, which would involve a change of scene and shorter drives.
Dad was a great sport and rearranged the reservations so we left early this morning for Arco. We visited Craters of the Moon National Monument - basically a big old lava field in the middle of Idaho. Very cool. Very hot though. The girls and I got to go a little ways into a lava tube which they liked a lot.
The Mountain View RV Park is nice. Got here early and got to choose our own space. Huge wide grassy area by the space, great view of the Arco "Number Hill" - look it up.
Tomorrow on to Salt Lake City for a day and a half, and then the haul home begins. Will take us most of a week to get home, all of them 1-night stays except for a day in St. Louis before we come home. The end is in sight. More thoughts on that as it gets closer.
I will get to work on uploading some Yellowstone pics ASAP. Thanks for stopping by!
Matt
Change of plans
We are in Arco, ID. We left Yellowstone a day early, I'll explain why in a later post. Meanwhile, the internet connection went down at the Yellowstone KOA and never came back, hence the lack of posting on my part. "Struck by lightning" said the KOA staff. Not so sure about that.
Anyway, all is well. Yellowstone pics tonight, and a summary of the last few days.
Later,
Matt
Anyway, all is well. Yellowstone pics tonight, and a summary of the last few days.
Later,
Matt
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Yellowstone - Impressions
Yellowstone has been designed to be the centerpiece of this trip and as such, it is set up to be a major disappointment. Grand Canyon in 2007 was a kind of a let-down after so many other amazing parks. So I was ready for this to be a kind of a bummer. And the first day as we drove into the park with our first planned destination over 50 miles away and traffic inside the park at a standstill after a couple miles...things didn't look good.
But soon we realized that the traffic was slowing down as people viewed a bald eagle nest just off the road, and also to allow some buffalo to safely cross...and things started looking up.
I like it here.
It's weird...first of all, this whole place is nature's freakshow - there is so much bizarre and unique stuff in this place that it doesn't seem real. The mountains aren't as impressive as Glacier, but the thermal features alone are enough to make a whole park somewhere else, and we haven't even done half of it.
The other thing about Yellowstone is...it's one of the few places I've been where I do not feel self-conscious fanatically filming everything I see. I'm actually laid back compared to most of these people. I've seen 8 year olds with better cameras than me snapping pics right and left. This is family vacation Eden...and this KOA is the epicenter.
It's scary here. It's like Pleasantville...or the Stepford KOA...I keep thinking they're going to ask us to leave because we're not happy enough. Best way to describe it is...at all these campgrounds they have bikes and pedal cars you can rent...and usually they're laying idle. It's one of those "Oh what a neat idea...ride around with your family..." things...but no one ever does it. Well, here I reguarly see families of six...and I mean with 4 teenagers...happily riding along in a 6-seat tandem pedal car as if this isn't inherently bizarre and abnormal. It's frightening.
Then again, it might be a result of the pot I keep smelling about 3 spaces down...
Anyway, we did the obligatory Old Faithful today. timing worked out very well, got a good seat and only had to wait about 10 minutes. The girls were good and patient, if not entirely impressed. I had heard horror stories about the crowds at Old Faithful, but it wasn't a madhouse. Of course we left crazy early today and our eruption was around 10am...so maybe it's worse later on. Either way...not as overrun as Grand Canyon was.
Tomorrow we'll head back in to catch the stuff we've missed so far. Then on our 4th day here we're undecided. Grand Tetons perhaps...just chilling out perhaps...it's a long string of drive, camp, drive, camp, drive, camp to get home. Might need the day to relax.
Pics later. Almost caught up.
Matt
But soon we realized that the traffic was slowing down as people viewed a bald eagle nest just off the road, and also to allow some buffalo to safely cross...and things started looking up.
I like it here.
It's weird...first of all, this whole place is nature's freakshow - there is so much bizarre and unique stuff in this place that it doesn't seem real. The mountains aren't as impressive as Glacier, but the thermal features alone are enough to make a whole park somewhere else, and we haven't even done half of it.
The other thing about Yellowstone is...it's one of the few places I've been where I do not feel self-conscious fanatically filming everything I see. I'm actually laid back compared to most of these people. I've seen 8 year olds with better cameras than me snapping pics right and left. This is family vacation Eden...and this KOA is the epicenter.
It's scary here. It's like Pleasantville...or the Stepford KOA...I keep thinking they're going to ask us to leave because we're not happy enough. Best way to describe it is...at all these campgrounds they have bikes and pedal cars you can rent...and usually they're laying idle. It's one of those "Oh what a neat idea...ride around with your family..." things...but no one ever does it. Well, here I reguarly see families of six...and I mean with 4 teenagers...happily riding along in a 6-seat tandem pedal car as if this isn't inherently bizarre and abnormal. It's frightening.
Then again, it might be a result of the pot I keep smelling about 3 spaces down...
Anyway, we did the obligatory Old Faithful today. timing worked out very well, got a good seat and only had to wait about 10 minutes. The girls were good and patient, if not entirely impressed. I had heard horror stories about the crowds at Old Faithful, but it wasn't a madhouse. Of course we left crazy early today and our eruption was around 10am...so maybe it's worse later on. Either way...not as overrun as Grand Canyon was.
Tomorrow we'll head back in to catch the stuff we've missed so far. Then on our 4th day here we're undecided. Grand Tetons perhaps...just chilling out perhaps...it's a long string of drive, camp, drive, camp, drive, camp to get home. Might need the day to relax.
Pics later. Almost caught up.
Matt
Two Sisters
Two Sisters is the name of a restaurant north of St. Mary - near Babb. Our second night in St. Mary I wanted to get some pie. There was a place in town, but it was so small and cramped I didn't even want to cram my way through the door to ask. So I rememebered passing this Two Sisters place on the way to Many Glacier the day before. Looked neat, so I drove up there to get some pie for everyone. Let's just say the pie was so good that even Mari who has stubbornly insisted that she doesn't like pie is now 'a fan'. I brought back some Raspberry-Mango, some Blackberry-Peach, and some Peanut Butter Mousse pie. Yum. Kudos to the Two Sisters.
Then, the next day we went there for lunch. As with everywhere in St. Mary, the menu is not exactly eclectic, but the food was very good. AND got more dessert - which you will see below. At any rate, this place just had a cool vibe - if you're in St. Mary, I recommend driving the 6 or so miles north - can't miss it.
Faith is really into learning about the states and figuring out maps (I'm so proud) so she loved the license plate map they had:
A very Montana place:
Steph and mom got this dessert - Lemon-Huckleberry Bread Pudding.
I got stuck with this dumb old brownie sundae with caramel AND chocolate sauce. Poor me.
The girls had good old chocolate shakes.
Then, the next day we went there for lunch. As with everywhere in St. Mary, the menu is not exactly eclectic, but the food was very good. AND got more dessert - which you will see below. At any rate, this place just had a cool vibe - if you're in St. Mary, I recommend driving the 6 or so miles north - can't miss it.
Faith is really into learning about the states and figuring out maps (I'm so proud) so she loved the license plate map they had:
A very Montana place:
Steph and mom got this dessert - Lemon-Huckleberry Bread Pudding.
I got stuck with this dumb old brownie sundae with caramel AND chocolate sauce. Poor me.
The girls had good old chocolate shakes.
Funny pics from Snowgoose Grill (Glacier)
At some point in vacationing for a month with my family, the stress of micromanagement and microexplanation takes its toll and leaves everyone slap happy. So here we were having breakfast at the Snowgoose Grill in St. Mary. Faith as always thinks she needs to basically shout everything she has to say and Steph tries for the millionth time to explain to Faith why she needs to be quiet in restaurants. This time her tactic is questioning:
STEPH: Faith, why do you think it's bad to be so loud in a restaurant?
[Faith thinks for a moment.]
FAITH: Other people might get scared.
Well, for whatever reason this caused mom to lose it and crack up in laughter, and soon Steph was in hysterics too. Here are some pics of the result:
STEPH: Faith, why do you think it's bad to be so loud in a restaurant?
[Faith thinks for a moment.]
FAITH: Other people might get scared.
Well, for whatever reason this caused mom to lose it and crack up in laughter, and soon Steph was in hysterics too. Here are some pics of the result:
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