We giggle at names given to mountains by French trappers

Ah, the Grand Tetons:

They are beautiful glacial gifts (well, I guess the glaciers and John D. Rockefeller are both responsible for allowing us to enjoy these incredible mountains today - thank you Mr. Rockefeller!)  Kevin and I have decided we'll go there to be seasonal rangers someday when we've ceased being useful for anything else.

We stayed at Signal Mountain Lodge - a collection of cabins inside the National Park on Jackson Lake.  Here's the amazing view we woke up to out our front window:

A pretty idyllic place. 

Our kids have been spoiled with beauty over the last few months, and chose to sleep in the first morning we were there, despite the gorgeous lake outside the front door.  But that meant Kevin and I could take a lovely hike around the quiet lake by ourselves, so we let it slide.

The second morning, however, we all got up early to follow an agenda planned by Sage and Henry as part of their bid to become Junior Rangers at the park.  We headed to Jenny Lake, a beautiful blue glacial lake at the base of Teewinot Mountain.  We hopped on a boat with Ranger Anne:

The boat took us the the head of Cascade Canyon where Ranger Anne took us on a gorgeous hike up past waterfalls and fall foliage:

to a place called Inspiration Point where she taught us about how Glaciers work and how the Tetons were formed (very cool).  Somehow, we didn't manage to snap a single inspirational shot from Inspiration Point - maybe because by the time we reached it we'd already passed Exclamation Point (where you mutter something about how steep the climb is) and Perspiration Point (where you peel off layers of sweaty clothing despite the Autumn chill).  At Inspiration Point you just collapse on the rocks and become docile listeners since you have no energy for anything else. 

The kids made it with the help of walking sticks (ski poles) although I don't know if they provided more help or distraction during the hike:

After the Ranger Anne show, we kept on hiking up the canyon for a couple of hours to explore

and take advantage of family photo ops in the mountains

before heading back down:

We hiked back around the lake rather than taking the boat across and everyone ended up happily exhausted - ready for dinner and early bed.

We only had a few days in the park, but one of our top priorities was to see a moose - we never caught one during our Yellowstone visit and we'd heard they were plentiful in the Grand Tetons.  We weren't disappointed.  In fact, we witnessed a most amazing and bizarre mating display that left us crying with laughter and bewilderment. 

It all happened when a boy

met a girl

during the rut, or fall mating season.  Here's where you stop reading if you don't want the gory details which include lots of rolling around in moose pee (by the moose, not us).

We were lucky to come across these moose as they were engaged in elaborate courtship on a river island - this meant that we could get relatively close (less than 10 yards away on the river bank) while maintaining a somewhat comforting body of water between us and the hormonally charged animals.

The cow had a calf from the previous spring with her:

and didn't seem overly aware of the bull wandering around nearby...until...  

The bull came down to the edge of the island and dug out a hollow in the sand with his hooves.  He then stood over the indentation like he intended to pee in it, but he seemed to have performance anxiety or some other issue because nothing happened.  Poor guy - we couldn't help laughing, his intense posturing was very funny at the time. He repeated this several times before finally finding success.  The moment he did, the cow immediately became VERY interested in the bull, running over to where he was and watching intently:

There must have been some very powerful chemical stimuli given off by the bull, because the cow started acting really worked up, panting and making strangled sounds in her throat.  The bull finished peeing and started furiously stamping in the puddle with his front hooves, which only seemed to distress (or turn on?) the cow even more:

Soon his muzzle was covered with fragrant mud (queue the squeals of disgust from my children) and the cow was making all sorts of frantic vocalizations and I started to feel like a bit of a voyeur... As soon as the bull moved away from his puddle, the cow rushed to lay on it, like she'd found a valuable treasure that she wanted to keep all to herself:

Her calf eventually joined her, although the bull tried to chase him away a few times:

We stood watching this spectacle for at least 45 minutes and it was still going on when we left (nope, we never saw them consummate their relationship).  I'm afraid I can't do justice to all we saw with a few photos and my feeble words, but trust me that it was A LOT better than a National Geographic special.  Oh that we'd had a video camera! 

Anyhow:  Moose? Check.

Junior Ranger? Check.  Sage and Henry finished their requirements, raised their right hands, swore to protect the natural world wherever they go, and they are now Junior Rangers, with all the glory and plastic badges the role entails. (and as a side note, the new ranger stations here and at Old Faithful in Yellowstone are spectacular uses of our taxes!)

Marvelous, relaxing mountain retreat? Check.  If you're interested in hanging out around this:

or this:

we highly recommend a trip to the Grand Tetons - despite the silly name.

Yellowstone Rocks

We haven't dropped off the face of the earth (or off the edge of the Grand Canyon - though we came close... topic for another post).  We've just been so busy seeing the world that we've had no time to write about it. Now we're determined to catch up.

About a month ago we visited Yellowstone for the first time as a family, and it was lovely:

(Here's proof that the stones are really yellow:)

This was the first trip after our hiking extravaganza at Glacier, and we naively expected more of the same - how could we have predicted the crazy wildlife we'd encounter as we visited one of the biggest North American ungulate preserves during fall rut?

We spotted our first bison herd shortly after entering the park and excitedly pulled over to take turns watching the distant group through the binoculars.  We needn't have exerted ourselves, as it turns out we couldn't help running into bison at scary close range every time we turned around:

We stayed inside the park at Yellowstone Lake Lodge Cabins, which web reviews (discovered after prepaying for the reservation) had warned us would be "seedy" and "dumpy".  We were so excited...  But when we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to see that our cabin had been newly renovated, clean, larger than expected, and right across from beautiful Yellowstone Lake:

On our first morning excursion, we were lucky to see a herd of bison crossing the river, steam rising off their backs in the cold morning air.  Once they were safely on the other side, we hiked down to watch them against a backdrop of steamvents:

We heard an elk bugle repeatedly and he finally came into view, wandering amongst the bison:

We were so engrossed in the views before us, that it took a minute for us to register the rumbling behind us and turn around to see one of the more nerve-racking sights of the trip: a much larger herd galloping out of the forest, down the hill behind us, and toward us and the river.  Fortunately, they passed to one side as we ran to the other, and we enjoyed being part of our very own Nature episode:

Close calls with nature ended up being the general theme of our trip. We saw countless big, lonely, male bison without herds holding up traffic wherever we drove:

The big guys were larger than cars and obviously very comfortable as they slowly ambled down the middle of the street while we watched from what we hoped was the safety of our car:

Once as we carefully drove past a couple of bulls, I rolled down my window to take a picture and was surprised just how intimidating it was to be so close without anything but air between us (especially after seeing how fast they can gallop and watching a couple of bulls fight over a group of females).  These are truly powerful animals:

We also met a friendly coyote who let Kevin take pictures before scampering away:

We saw grizzly bears and wolf cubs from a distance and sat on a hillside for 30 minutes watching a black bear's ears pop up from a bush occasionally where he was eating berries.

On our last day in Yellowstone, we went to see a pertified redwood tree and Kevin and I decided to hike to Lost Lake, a quick mile away, leaving the kids to dirt-surf down a hillside (Henry's favorite activity of the whole trip).  The black lake was stunning and peaceful (especially without the kids):

As we got close to the end of our hike back, we looked up the hill to where we'd parked our car and noticed a group of people watching us with binoculars and taking pictures.  I felt like I was on the red carpet until we looked over to our left and saw the beautiful big black bear beside the trail:

Good looking as we are, it turns out that Kevin and I weren't the main attraction after all...  We skirted around him and enjoyed a great 30 minutes watching from a safe distance.

Of course it wasn't all wildlife at Yellowstone - we also had a great time visting (and a slightly less great time smelling) the geothermal features like steamvents covering the side of a mountain:

Bubbling mudpots that kept us entranced for over an hour,

dripping mineral springs,

their tremendous artistic potential,

and the desolation left in their wake:

And of course the geysers!  We visited Old Faithful early to get good 'seats' and waited, and waited:

And then enjoyed the show right on schedule:

 At risk of running on too long, I'll mention the other highlight of our Yellowstone visit:

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was stunning - I'd take it over Old Faithful any day (though Kevin says you really need to see both).   It's a magnificent gorge cut out by a beautiful river.  We enjoyed it from above:

then decided to hike down to see the falls more closely.  After about a half mile, we hit about 380 steep stairs cutting down through the rocks:

Going down was easy, it took a lot of jelly belly incentives to get back up.  But the views so close the falls were gorgeous, including some fantastic rainbows:

All in all, Yellowstone delivered an unforgettable few days - we highly recommend the trip! 

Now, on to our next adventure...



Seeing Glaciers (before they melt)

Wow - life is good.  Here's one of the places we went last month:

Spending time visiting beautiful, remote places in the world should be a mandatory part of human development.  I can feel myself becoming more mellow and tolerant already (which is a good thing since it turns out that patiently homeschooling three children is harder than I expected...).

Our trip to Glacier was the first time we tried Vacation Rentals By Owner.  We stayed in a unique log cabin not far from the park entrance, with an enormous moose head looking down at us as we entered, bear skins and head mounted on the wall, and various other pelts and antlers used in every imaginable way. Most surprising: a large koi pond right in the living room.  The sheer volume of American kitsch was a bit overwhelming, but the kids announced that it was the coolest place they'd ever stayed, so we just enjoyed.

We arrived in Montana at 3 am (poor party planning), so we took it easy the first day, sleeping in, then literally stuffing ourselves at a local diner until we could barely move or even see straight.

Finally we got up the energy to visit Hungry Horse Dam:

though I mostly just sat on my hands to prevent myself from throwing the orange in my pocket over the dam wall.  It would have been so cool to see it bounce down 564 feet, pulp exploding all over the concrete... but Kevin kept reminding me that "setting an example for the kids" was important (he's such a spoil sport).

We finished off the day at Glacier, where we enjoyed lovely Lake MacDonald, which was so clear and beautiful it almost didn't seem real:

Scout and Henry threw and skipped rocks:

but Sage felt the need to reorganize the rocks (color, size, overall aesthetic appeal):

 



















Sadly, there's a rule against taking rocks home from national parks ("Wait, Mom, doesn't the park belong to me, as a citizen?"). So Sage cleared a patch on the lake floor:

to provide a resting place for the most attractive rocks she found (I admit, they were pretty):

Then we could move on.

The next day our mission was to hike to a glacier - the US Geological Survey says there will be no more glaciers in the national park by 2020, so it seemed like an important thing to do.  We chose a gorgeous 11.5 mile (round trip) hike to Grinnell Glacier - here we are starting out down at lake level:

We rose quickly on the 1800 ft ascent, and pretty soon the views were like this:

The weather and scenery (and the company) were so spectacular that it was one of my favorite hikes ever, which is saying a lot.  Here are a few pictures that demonstrate why,
like the gorgeous trail of lakes left by old glaciers:  



or the waterfalls and clouds flowing down the mountains wherever we looked:

Maybe the excellent people in the hiking party made it great:

and I'm always a sucker for cool dead trees:

 




 






Plus, we saw a ton of wildlife.  Actually, before we began the hike, we pulled over to the side of a road in the park where we saw a number of people with binoculars.  We joined them in watching a black bear eating berries about 200 yards up the slope.  We were having fun watching him, handing the binoculars back and forth, when I happened to glance over to my left - there was a huge grizzly bear watching us and moving through the bushes only 20 yards away!  Sorry, was too busy gawking to take a picture.

But during our hike we saw (and handled) snakes:

and a moose (look closely):

as well as woodpeckers, a mole, rabbits, squirrels and lots of chipmunks, one of which kissed Sage's boot.

About a half mile from our final glacier destination, we found a lovely spot where there were actually rough log benches and even a pit toilet not too far off the trail.  The kids, after hiking a little more than 5 miles at this point, and seeing that the last stretch went straight uphill, decided to enjoy the view of the glacier from there and snack and rest while Kevin and I ran up to the top and back.

On our way up, we passed a few hikers coming down who told us there were 3 grizzly bears also coming down, not too far away.  Decision time... do we go back with the kids, or continue up to see the iceberg-filled lake at the foot of the glacier?   We asked the hikers to warn our kids (who by this point were experts at making loud noises to scare away bears - actually I think they were born to make loud bear-scaring noises) and kept on going.

I'm glad we did because it was really cool:

You can't tell because of the clouds, but the mountain and the waterfall in front of Kevin were 3x as tall as what you see here. 

And then there was the lake with floating ice:

which was hard to capture in photos but very cool nonetheless:

By the time we got back to the kids, the skies were looking pretty dark and we literally ran the last several miles down the mountain:

The rain started about a mile and a half before we reached the trailhead - perfect motivation to keep us moving after a long day.  It was pouring and we were soaked, bedraggled and hobo-like by the time we reached our car, but the kids had set a new hiking record for themselves and we all felt great. 

As we drove back through the park in the dark, we came within an inch (literally) of hitting an enormous black bear who appeared in front of us as we rounded a corner.  It was a miracle that the car stopped/swerved sufficiently and we didn't even brush his fur in the end, but it was very cool to see a huge bear so close!

We took it easy on our last day, hiking a modest 6 miles round trip to see Avalanche Lake:

We then drove the amazing "Going to the Sun" Road, an engineering marvel (you're literally driving on a tiny lip on the side of huge cliffs):

that spans more than 50 miles, taking you over waterfalls:

and past goats :)   (If I were a goat, I'd want to live here too!):

As we drove past a visitor's center that was under construction, the kids got to visit with a little confused goat who was trying to eat gravel:

It reminded me of "Are You My Mother?", one of my favorite books.  We eventually left the little goat in the care of a friendly backhoe and moved on:

The Going to the Sun Road is considered one of the most scenic drives in the world (a river runs through it) and I agree:

I can't think of a better place than Glacier National Park for majestic scenery and incredible hiking opportunities without the crowds - but you'd better go soon if you want to see glaciers...  We'll definitely be back one summer to try out a few swimming holes we discovered - let us know if you want to come with us!