Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone


First of all, let me apologize for not putting up all the great pictures I have. I spent 30 minutes trying to download 7 pictures the other night and I finally gave up. The Internet connection here is horrible. Sadly, we leave here tomorrow and head for Mt Rushmore, so I am going to wait until we get to what will hopefully be a better WiFi connection and then put up all the pictures. There are so many great ones! I didn't post yesterday because of the frustrating Internet connection, but we went horseback riding in the morning. It was really fun, we went up some steep trails and came to a meadow that was just full of wildflowers and there were thousands and thousands of all kinds of butterflies! It was beautiful! We rode for about 2 hours (plenty for me!) but Courtney could have stayed out there all day. She rode in the front and chatted with Ross, our personal cowboy certified in CPR and first aid, and at the end of the ride he let her"take the lead" and lead us across the road and down the trail a bit while he attended to a problem horse in the back. She thought that was very cool. After our trip, we headed downtown to Buffalo Bill's for lunch, where Brandi and Mark had a buffalo Burger. Not me, I went with barbecue, but the buffalo was OK. We hung out in town and picked up some souvenirs. After all the chatter on the comment section, I figured I better make sure I was all set. I will be passing out souvenirs at my welcome back party, being planned by Steve Swartz and Colleen Bouchard! (Just kidding, guys!)
After dinner we took the kids to an IMAX movie on Yellowstone. It was interesting, but the screen was not as big as ours in Richmond.
Today we spent the day in Canyon village, viewing the Grand canyon of Yellowstone, then headed to Lake Village to see Yellowstone Lake. The Grand Canyon was so pretty, with two waterfalls, the upper and the lower, the lower being the bigger of the two. It is more than twice the size of Niagara Falls! The kids hiked down to the bottom, but Mark and I stayed up at the top with Carli, who thinks she is some kind of daredevil rock climber. The kid has no fear whatsoever. She climbs the fence when there is a 4,000 foot sheer cliff on the other side. I would rather look from a distance than have to pull her off of another cliff ,rock or fence. The pics are great, I will put them up tomorrow.
We headed over to the lake after that, and it is a great view, but not a lot to do over there. The kids got out and waded around and Alex looked for rocks to add to his mounting rock collection. This kid has added about 300 lbs of rocks to their towing weight with his rock collection, but he knows what he is doing, he comes home everyday and cleans and classifies them. Brandi and I try to help him pick up rocks, but he is usually not overly impressed with our finds!
The scariest thing happened to us today! We got out of the truck to check out the mud volcano, which actually turned out to be kind of gross, but Alex and Courtney went one way, the rest of us went the other, it was a big circle. Mark and Brandi and I heard this big commotion going on on the other side, where the kids were, and there is this huge buffalo walking down the boardwalk, and he is kind of stuck on it because it has hand rails on either side! He is walking down the trail right towards the kids and he was getting mad because he couldn't get off. The boards were breaking, people were screaming, and Courtney and Alex are intently staring into some steaming geyser or mud volcano. We were yelling "Courtney, Alex-run the other way!" and they turn around in slow motion and go "What?" and the buffalo is getting closer and closer and he was walking so loud and hard you could feel the vibration on our side of the circle! They finally look down the boardwalk and by now he is maybe 30 ft away from them and Courtney throws her arms up in the air and screams like she is in a cartoon! She looks and us and we are yelling "Run! Run!" and she starts to run, and Alex starts to run, but then he has some kind of brain fart and forgets all the signs we have read about Buffalos goring you, and he turns around and takes a picture! The Buffalo stumbled off the path (lucky for Alex, they run 30mph) and was trapped in the fenced in circle. He seemed okay there for awhile, but then he started trying to find a way out. People are so stupid. They are posing next to it, getting way to close. Finally he got pissed and kicked at the people around him and jumped at least 4ft and completely cleared the fence. He was PISSED. He was snorting and kicking and people were running and screaming. We were still on the boardwalk, so we were safe, but all the people in the parking lot were trying to get in their cars as quick as they could. The funniest thing was watching the tour bus people trying to quickly load single file onto the bus! Anyway, no one was hurt and the buffalo just walked away. It was all very exciting. A little to close for comfort for us, but still entertaining!
We have seen hundreds of buffalo today, tons of elk, and one grizzly bear sunning himself in a big field. We heard about a pack of wolf cubs, but couldn't see them. There is so much to see here, it is impossible to see it all, we will have to come back! I feel like I have to keep reminding the kids, "this is not an amusement park, these are wild animals, the water is dangerous, the cliffs are steep, you could really get hurt here!" I hate to go, but I must say, this part of the trip has not been the most relaxing! The kids think it is great though, and Carli has added a new word to her vocabulary-"amazing!"and it really and truly is!

4 comments:

Colleen said...

Yeah Souvenirs!!! I don't want any meat but bring my buddy Steve some Buzzard burgers. I will see to it that he is all over that party idea to welcome you home. :)

I would love to see the wildflower and butterfly photos. Sounds very cool. I also LOVE the wild west photo. You all look great. I have a feeling you will be sticking with the cowboy theme for the next Halloween party.

I enjoyed our visit to Yellowstone...I wish we didn't have to leave.

swartzmd said...

I have the party all arranged. It is at Colleen's and she will be providing all the food and drink (I'll bring some CR for Mark- I know he's a top-shelf guy). We invited the whole neighborhood to review the vacation photos and hopefully the rock collection.

I think it's refreshing that there is still a place in this country where you can have a dangerous vacation. We have sanitized most danger from our world which takes all the fun away- nothing like a buffalo on the boardwalk to get your pulse up. Now THAT'S aerobic exercise!

See you when you get back. We're going to Philly tonite for the wedding, won't be home until you are.

swartzmd said...

I just looked at that cowboy picture more closely- why is everyone's mouth open and what is Mark doing to that bear?

friends o-chock said...

Unbelievable ... an adventure of a lifetime. Glad you and the kids are getting up-close and personal with nature (although pausing to pose with a charging animal on a bridge may be pushing it). Our daily lives are so insulated and protected ... as evidence - traffic on the Powhite is noteworthy on the evening news.

I'm certain after this trip you will have a greater respect for nature and all of its' beauty and fury.

So how long will this "down with nature thing" last? Any plans to disconnect the electric and live like pioneers? I think you may be in luck, Ann Taylor is planning a western theme for their fall line.

Let us know when to come to Colleen's for buzzard burgers - sounds like a blast.

Stay safe, and stay together.
-friends o'chock