Yellowstone Part I

We made it to Fishing Bridge. We are all sung in our camp site for 2 nights. We explored the visitor center and got the jr ranger booklets for the kids and found out about a few different hikes.

The next morning we meet the ranger at Storm Point and took a fantasic hike along the shore of Yellowstone Lake, throught dried up hot springs, past some marmots, throught an awsomely old pine forest, and ended walking in a medow. It was about 2.5 miles and the kids were awsome.

This was just the beging of our awsome 7 days in Yellowstone.

Almost Yellowstone

We drove to to Yellowstone but it was to late and we couldn't get a camp site. All the first come were full and the reservation campgrounds were full too so we got a reservation for Saturday and headed to Cody WY.

We spent 2 days in Cody. It was a pretty fun town. The first night we went to the Irma Hotel (named after Buffalo Bill's daughter) and watched to hookiest western gun fight in the street with Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp and just some savory western cowboys. The kids loved it and it was totally entertaining.

The next day we went to the Buffalo Bill museum. It was fantastic, stuff for the kids and adults. There are 5 wings. One is largest gun collection in the country, one of Buffalo Bills Show, One on Yellowstone, one on the people of the plains and Western Art. We only saw the first three and ran out of time.

Grand Tetons National Park

Each park is so spectacular, with their own unique attribute. We spent 4 days here. The kids are really into the Jr. Ranger program and we learn so much from helping them complete their booklets. One of the high lights was hiking to Phelps Lake. It was so peaceful and quiet. We didn't really see to many people which was odd considering we got one of the last camp sites in the park. Whew...

We are no longer talk about rattle snakes but are bear aware. This means do not under any circumstances leave food out or anything that smells like food. It will attract Bears and that means trouble for both people and bears. We did a little research and the chances of being attacked by a bear are really slim I mean you are more likely to be attacked by your dog or bit by a spider than attacked by a bear. Yet we talk about it daily.

Wishing Jackie a speedy recovery.

Your a warrior with unending courage and strength. We love you.

Fossil Butte National Monumnet

We met a family that told us about fish fossiling in Kremmerer WY, about 2 hours from Salt Lake City. You get to go to a quarry and dig for fish fossils. We thought it sounded good but didn't know anything about it. We headed out to Kremmerer to find out how to go fossiling.

We decided to stop at the Fossil Butte National Monument first, where Dean and Morgan became Jr Rangers right away. It was so interesting there is a very large lake bed that has a layer of fish fossil preserved. One of the scientist say it is so unique because they can study the fish, plants, insects, reptiles as a community. Not just one dinosaur here one there. I mean we saw a picture of one fish eating another fossil version. We watched a ranger using a dremmel tool and vacuum cleaning stone away from the bones.

So now we wanted to go fossiling on our own. The place we decided to go was Warfield Fossil Safaris also the one recommend to us. We found their website http://www.fossilsafari.com/ with a map to the quarry. In keeping with our track record we had a really hard time finding the place. But we did and man it was so much fun. We found tons of fossils all fish we kept the best ones. The rock is pretty soft and you just spilt it layer by layer and BAM there are fish.

It will defiantly be one of the highs lights of our trip. We only dug for an hour or so and could have stayed for eight. If your ever in WY or looking for a great out door fossiling trip this is it.

Salt Lake City

We headed out about 6pm for Salt Lake City, it was hot and we wanted to head north. It wasn't much cooler but it was north. We stayed just outside the city. We managed to get a pretty bad crack in the windsheild of the RV and were staying put until it was fixed. We spent a week. We have a little teeny tiny crack in the jeep windsheild too. The camp ground had a pool so the kids were happy, and we were definatly back to civilzation. We got supplies, did a little shopping, worked out at the gym (that was nice, running in 96 degree heat dry or humid is not for me),went out to eat, had a massage, a peticure, and even did some sight seeing.

We went to The Great Salt Lake via Antelope State Park. It was erily beautiful. I know that doesn't make sense. There weren't many people at the beach mabye 10-15 . Once we got by the water the flys swarmed us so we kept walking into the water and out a ways. The just seem to cover the water, erie. They move out of your way as you walk or swim. The water has no movement so the top layer is really warm but when you put your feet down it's cold, erie. I think the only thing that lives in the water are brine shrimp so I thought that was erie too. Beautiful to look at and the fact that it is what is left from a prehistoric lake. Oh and floating its like your on a raft without a raft, that was fun. It has double the salt contect as the ocean. My joke of the day was you don't have to wear a life jacket since you can't sink :)

We also went to the Bingham Canyon Copper mine, largest copper mine. You can see it from space. Who knew? It is very impressive. They have been mining copper since 1906 and going strong. Their by-product is half a billions dollars in gold & silver a year.

Zion National Park

We entered from the east side of the park. We decided to leave the RV in the campground after hearing about the road construction and the mile long tunnel that would require an escort and a $13.00 fee (our RV would only fit if we drove down the center of the tunnel). The jeep was the way to go. Once we got to the visitor center we did the shuttle bus. Way better for sight seeing. We stopped at the museum had a picnic and heard a very informative talk about dessert plants. After we went to the river walk hike. It leads into the narrows of the canyon, if you desire you can hike another 5 miles up the river. It was perfect, we hiked in the water and on the path. It was 106 degrees so it was great to be able to get in the water. Did I mention the kids are great hikers.

I find it incredible that 5 national parks (Canyon reef national park - we drove through with out stopping) in one state, shaped by the same forces are so distinctly different.