Our Cabin

Graham's aerie and Patrick's cave.

More Yellowstone Photos

Here are some more photos from our Yellowstone trip. The boys really enjoyed the geothermal features, and you can't really go to Yellowstone without seeing Old Faithful, can you?

I love visiting Yellowstone, but I don't think I'd ever choose to go back in July. There were just so many people.

Luckily, by getting off some of the main drags and getting on some trails, we managed to find peaceful places without hordes of people.

Yellowstone

The first day, we drove through part of Yellowstone on our way to our cabin. You forget how huge Yellowstone is! With nearly 2.2 million acres, it's just an enormous park. Even with three days, we didn't see everything.

Of course, that was partially us taking our time and trying to really enjoy those things we were seeing, rather than rushing to try and see everything. The highlight of Graham's day, though, was getting to see and photograph a bear.

In his words: "I like a Yellowstone traffic jam, because it means there's a really good animal up ahead."

Beartooth Highway

This lovely scenic Highway runs from Red Lodge, Montana to the northeast entrance to Yellowstone, with stops up and over the beartooth mountains, and a few dips into Wyoming. It's really pretty amazing, living up to its billing as one of the most scenic drives in America. Up there, you really do feel like you're on top of the world.

Glacier fed lakes, snowfields in July, Alpine environment above the timberline, incredible vistas and a lot of twisty windy roads. You really do end up feeling like you're on top of the world. Graham continued his interest in photography, wanting to stop at almost every overlook so he could snap another pic.

And, in case you're wondering...the snowball fight ended like you might think, with Graham taking a face full of ice from his brother. Isn't that the way?

South Dakota

We drove over 400 miles yesterday, across a wide and varied Wyoming. Lots of it was scenic (and therefore slower). We got into Custer, SD late last night and laundry was a more pressing issue than downloading photos (we were completely out of clothes). Today we're seeing Mount Rushmore and some other Black Hills sites, then onto the Badlands.

The kids are watching TV, so happy to have one after so many days without.

Will post more pictures later on...Paul just downloaded them this morning while I was taking a luxurious hot shower.

Happy Birthday Allie!

This picture was taken earlier on the trip--we're way up above Santa Fe, at an overlook in Hyde Memorial State Park.

Thermopolis, Wyoming to Red Lodge, Montana

After the rafting trip, we were ready to hit the road and head to Montana. Our first stop was Legend Rock, a petroglyph spot near Meeteetse, Wyoming. You have to check out a key in the Hot Springs State Park as the site isn't manned. Luckily, you can drop the key off on site.

The Petroglyphs are in the Dinwoody style, meaning they're often fully pecked (completely filled in). No one can say for sure exactly how old the petroglyphs are. There were people in the Big Horn Basin 11,000 years ago. Best guess is that they were made over thousands of years. The boys are sort of petroglyph enthusiasts, so they were eager to visit this site where you ccan see more than 300 in one spot.

Graham is very into photography. He likes to take pictures of wildlife and natural formations. He has a great picture of a diamondback rattlesnake on his camera that I'll try to post sometime. Ruth, if you're reading this, we were thinking of you.

From there, we drove up through Cody and then up to Red Lodge Montana. We didn't stop in Cody, as we're coming back that way later on. Red Lodge is gorgeous! This picturesque town features a very cute downtown with lots of bars and restaurants. The boys will also tell you that there is a great store called the Montana Candy Emporium where you get a paper sack and walk around the bins and put one and two of whatever you want in the sack. You then weigh the sack and pay by the pound. Huckleberry candy will take the place of pie for today.

After dinner, we headed out to Wild Bill Lake for a walk around the lake and a little creek crawling and rock skipping. Living in rockless Houston as we do, the boys love every opportunity to boulder scramble and play around with rocks.


We were going to go on another short walk, but a rain shower got us. Of course, a little while later it's sunny and clear, but we had already settled into our motel.


As I type this it's 8:30 pm and as bright as day. Paul has gone off to Red Lodge Ales to fill up the growlers for when we're at the cabin. I tried their Glacier Ale at dinner and can highly recommend it.

Tomorrow we're going to drive the beartooth highway and head into Yellowstone. We'll be staying at a cabin just outside Yellowstone. I know we don't have cell service, but I'm not sure about Internet. My guess would be no, but if we can, I'll try to upload some more pictures. If not, I'll post again on Thursday.