Our trip to the moon

After making one last drive through Grand Teton National Park and Jackson, we crossed the Teton Pass and entered Idaho (state 43 for me). We enjoyed the drive through Targhee National Forest and the eventual transition into beautiful farmland. We stopped in Idaho Falls for a few supplies and then decided to find a local place to have lunch. Dixie's Diner fit the bill . . . It is a 50's themed diner with great atmosphere and incredible food. We can personally attest to the quality of the burgers, fries, and chili.




After waddling back to the car, we once again headed west. We soon crossed into the Idaho National Laboratory Site. I immediately flashed back to memories of my hometown. INL is the sister Department of Energy site to the Savannah River Site in Aiken. I can remember as a kid hearing about competing with Idaho Falls for various projects. It was interesting to see the site and it was a very obvious location for such a plant . . . remote and desolate.
Our real destination was a little known, but fascinating part of the National Parks system called Craters of the Moon National Monument. This is an expanse of other worldly looking lava flows that covers about 1100 sq miles of southern Idaho. The entire Snake River Valley from southeastern Oregon, through Idaho and to Wyoming are former locations of the volcanic hotspot that currently sits under Yellowstone. Most of these locations are now dormant, but Craters of the Moon has remained active erupting lava flows about every 1000 years. The most recent flow was about 2000 years ago and still looks very fresh with very little vegetation growing. We hiked several trails, including hiking to the top of one of the cinder cones (Infernal Cone) and through the lava field to Indian Tunnel, a massive lava tube. We thought this would be just a drive by attraction, but in the end we spent almost 4 hours exploring this place and probably would have hiked a few more trails if we had more time.






Our extended stay at Craters (among other things) meant we didn't have time to check out the nearby Hagerman Fossil Beds (so we'll have to save that one for next time). We are now checked into our incredibly posh $70 hotel room in Twin Falls, ID. Tomorrow we will cross Nevada and pick up our friend Emily at the Reno airport!!!



- Posted by Shawn from my iPad

Location:Harrison St N,Twin Falls,United States

Westward-ho

After a long day in Yellowstone yesterday we all slept in today. We had good intentions to spend a little more time in Cody, but we ended up hanging out with family. I haven't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with my brother and his family in the last few years and we had a wonderful time catching up. We are leaving today to go back towards Jackson Hole so we can begin the second leg of our journey towards San Diego. We will miss Don, Alisha and the kids, but we have vowed to make these family vacations a more common event.







- Posted by Sara from my iPad

Location:Towgotee Lodge

Guest Blogger Cassidy Husted

Our trip with aunt Sara and uncle Shawn was great. It started off with them arriving here tuesday night around 11pm. Then Wednesday we took the tour of Cody Wyoming, saw museums, went shopping, went to the candy store, and ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Thursday we toured Yellowstone National Park. While we were in the car traveling we made up a game called "yellowstone adventure". We got to see many different animals but no moose!!! My favorite animal was the mommy grizzly bear and her two cubs. However, we did almost see a bison attack 2 cars and a motorcyclist. This trip has been really fun and I can not wait for many trips to come (:

Cassidy Husted
Ps thanks for everything(: keep In touch with me too



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Yellowstone/Cody, WY

Boots

On this trip I discovered that my boots were wearing out...ok so maybe that is an understatement.


Turns out that Cody, WY has a Sierra Trading Post, so goodbye old and busted.....hello new and shiny!



- Posted by Sara from my iPad

Location:Cody, WY

Chief Joseph Highway

After some late evening wildlife viewing in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley, we headed back toward Cody via the Beartooth and Chief Joseph Highways. The Beartooth begins in Montana's Gallatin National Forest at Yellowstone's northeast gate, immediately passing through the tiny town of Silver Gate and then the slightly more developed town of Cooke City. We didn't stop, but they seem a cute towns driven almost entirely by the tourist economy trickling through this most remote gateway to Yellowstone. The drive then enters Wyoming and the wilderness of the Shoshone National Forest, passing no more towns until Cody (about 80 miles).
The route is a renowned scenic drive, but I'm sad to say that I can't confirm this because the sun set a few minutes before we left Yellowstone, so beyond some scenic mountain silhouettes early in the drive we didn't see much. What I can confirm is that the Chief Joseph Highway has a section that is insanely curvy. The attached map doesn't even do it justice as it has smoothed out a lot of the curves. At several points I glanced at the Garmin to see a route that resembled very closely a small intestine.


The pitch dark along with my level of exhaustion from a busy day exploring the park made the drive a challenge, but I can only imagine what the views must have looked like. I'm putting this drive on my list of things to do again, but the next time during the day.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Cody, WY

Yellowstone Adventure - The Game

Yellowstone Adventure

50 bison
20 deer
240 moose
75 bear
250 mtn lion
250 sheep
30 elk
70 antelope
10 small birds(swallows, robins,...etc)
30 medium birds (ducks, geese,ravens/crows)
50 large birds (eagles,pelicans,etc...)
300 wolves
20 small mammal
150 coyote
BONUS
+100 for baby animals NO BIRDS
+20 in a group of five or more

RULES

Game does not ever stop unless you are not in yellowstone.

If you see animals in groups you can not count each individual animal.

The person that has most points wins.

CREDITS

Clancy James
Cassidy Husted
Sara & Shawn Polson




- Created by the yonguns as we drove through Yellowstone

Location:backseat of the car

The wild life

Last year we saw a moose in Newfoundland. There is a post here about it in fact. We were hoping this trip to see a moose in Yellowstone. Alas, no moose were spotted. However, what we did see was nothing short of thrilling.






We saw tons of bison (even calves) and occasionally even shared the road with them, we saw more elk, deer and antelope. We did see a couple of black bears, and more grizzly bears. The highlight of all of our wildlife viewing had to be when we came up on a mother grizzly bear and her two young cubs.



The best places for viewing wildlife are the Hayden Valley and the Lamar Valley. Both of these boast vistas that are among the most beautiful I have ever seen.


In the Lamar Valley we even saw some coyotes. On Thursday we drove through these valleys with our niece and nephew in the back seat and as fun as it was to see the bison, elk and bears, the best part was seeing them with family.


- Posted by Sara from my iPad

Location:Yellowstone NP