CL Day 17

Friday 26 June 2015

We hiked to Cascade Lake from the Dunraven Road. It's a nice flat trail and lovely walk. Flowers galore! Peaceful. Quiet. We loved it!

CL Day 16

Thursday 25 June 2015

Drove the rental car to YELL. After my pedicure. Stopped at Costco in Pocatello.

Unlike TR, I can make it to YELL with one stop. In Idaho.

I drive from here all fueled up. I sing along with pop songs on the radio. When I get to Poky I gas up at their fuel pumps and then I use the restroom in their tire service center (really clean). Are you stalking me now? Then I shop for fresh food to haul into the park. After I check out, I buy the hot dog and drink for $1.50. I always get the 5 calorie lemonade after filling up my entire cup with ice! I sit down for a moment to devour my hot dog. Plain. Then I refill my cup with lemonade because there wasn't much in there to begin with thanks to the volume of ice. Then I load the cooler and dump a bag of crushed ice over the top of everything. Off I go to see my Sweetie!

He acts kind of excited to see me, but I think he's most grateful for the Costco-sized bag of Peanut Butter M&M's.

CL Day 15

Wednesday 24 June 2015

Summer Vacation is one third OVER! Or possibly MORE than one third!

Hiked to my beloved cave today. Gave a tour! Snapped photos of the way they're painting the danger zones now, the new safety fences, and the new doors inside the cave. Little changes here and there. They now have a telephone AND internet in the Ranger Room! And for a couple of years now, the maximum number of tours any ranger will do is 4, but some do 3. All those 5 tour days...these new kids are wimps I tell you! Jay came toward me with arms outstretched saying, "There's my sweetie!" We love our ranger family. So many of the "seasoned" rangers were there today.

CL Day 14

Tuesday 23 June 2015

I went to the temple today and it was nice. I saw three people I know: my next-door neighbor, a former teacher teammate from when I taught fourth grade, and a woman who used to be in the third ward with us!

Three of my Facebook friends have died in the last three to four weeks! One was expected, the others were surprises. It's a lot to process sometimes.

I did dishes and laundry. I ate well--nutritious food in healthy portions. I watched Alex Boye on America's Got Talent.

My husband asked, "Would you like to hear the bear story of the day?" A woman and her husband and grandson (from Alabama) were fishing on the shore of Yellowstone Lake behind the visitor center. Actually, the men were fishing and grandma walked into the trees a bit to take a closer look at some flowers. She knelt down to snap a photo when she felt hot breath on her neck. Today is her birthday so she thought her husband was teasing her. She said, "Elmer, stop doing that!" That's when the grizzly ran away. Elmer got a photo of the backside of the bear as it headed down shore toward the river. YIKES!

TR had the Storm Point hike today, so he headed out there with his group. He met up with these folks from Alabama who were now fishing at Storm Point, not knowing it was them. As he chatted with them, they mentioned their experience from the morning. His eyes widened as he asked, "Are you the one that got BREATHED on?!?" Yes, the very same. He said, "Ma'am, I am so impressed you're out here fishing! Most people would be in their car or inside a building after having such a close call with a grizzly." She responded, "Well, I just LOVE the outdoors!"

CL Day 13

No photos today, Kids.

Kneader's Bakery, Toyota, Post Office, Salon, and Costco.

TR had a MUCH more exciting day: he and his visitors were surrounded by bison on the Mud Volcano trail. They had to wait about ten minutes for this situation to resolve itself. There were more bison later but that situation was more manageable. Then...as he's talking about a fumarole, a visitor informs him "there's a bear around the corner." So he informed his group their hike was done.

The grizzly was fifteen yards from the boardwalk. He radioed seven hundred and Kass showed up to help manage saying, "You're my hero!" I asked why Kass would say that and TR told me it's because he's so calm on the radio. So they babysat the bear and when it ventured CLOSER to the boardwalk, they sent people back to the parking lot. TR texted a couple of photos of the bear earlier in the day, but I didn't get to hear the full story until tonight. Does your spouse text photos of grizzlies fairly regularly? It's an interesting life!

So much excitement!

Whereupon Jody Gives Angie the Storm Point Tour

Saturday 20 June 2015

Well, that's not entirely true. TR gave a lot of the tour PLUS he showed us some secrets on the trail!

First up, geology. We saw the outlet of Indian Pond and explored some geologic layers of ash that Harlan showed to Ken. Then TR showed us some wire stuck in a tree. This is left from an old fence put up back in the day to keep the cows in. Yes, folks, they had dairy cows penned up to provide fresh milk for the Lake Hotel! And then...super coolness...he took us off trail at another point and showed us a circle of rocks in a clearing. They don't know how long it's been there, but it's at least fifty years old. Could it be a more ancient geologic site? Perhaps. A teepee ring? perhaps. We don't know.

We drove out to Lewis Lake and Lewis Falls. TR has to touch "new" water so there he is dipping his hand into the Lewis River. And then we finished our excursion at West Thumb. I'm slightly addicted to photographing West Thumb. Again, the light was different in the evening.

CL Day 12

Friday 19 June 2015

We tried to show Ang a nice time in the park on today. We hiked up to Natural Bridge and true to the Animal Whisperer she is, upon seeing a marmot with hopes of photographing it, the marmot began to scamper away until Angie said, "Could you please stop for a picture?" And it STOPPED!!! :)

We also stopped at LeHardy Rapids where the cutthroat trout are spawning. Boy, the May Flies were SUMPTHIN' ELSE! Then we went to Canyon to show her some of the hot spots there. On the way back to Lake we stopped at Mud Volcano. The light is so different in the late afternoon than when I hike in the mornings for exercise! We found Mohawk Bison (he has all of his winter coat nicely scraped off except for that one little patch on top of his back...does he realize?) meditating in front of Mud Cauldron. Fun day!