Yellowstone July '08

We went to Yellowstone for the 4th of July weekend! What a blast! Asher had such a great time and loved sleeping in the tent. We left Thursday evening and stayed in the west at the Madison campground. Asher loved seeing the stars (he usually goes to bed before it's dark enough to see them). He slept in his own sleeping bag and was such a trooper. Our airbed had a slow leak so we had to refill it several times throughout the night... not fun! The next day, we tried to swim at the Firehole River, but the river is running too high so it was closed... bummer! We were really looking forward to having Asher swim in the river again. Maybe later this summer? We headed down to Old Faithful and got some great photos there. Asher took a nap in my arms inside the amazing Old Faithful Inn and then we headed to the Lamar Valley. We stopped on the side of the road on the way and saw a black bear (that was brown). It was relatively close and it was fun to see. We got to the Lamar Valley and stopped where some people had pulled over. There was a Brown bear (Grizzly)! It's pretty rare to see one of those and it walked closer and closer to us. We got great views of it and even took photos through a spotting scope! We headed to the Pebble Creek campground to ensure we got a spot and set up camp. I had decided that we should pack breakfasts and lunches, but to eat out for dinner. I just don't like having to wash all the dishes in the freezing cold sinks and make sure you get all the food off to not get eaten by a bear! So we headed out the northeast entrance to Cooke City, Montana and ate at a restaurant there. Asher made lots of new friends (as always) in town and we enjoyed our time there. We headed back to camp and on our way, we saw two bison in the road. Jeff stopped the car to let them pass. Well, they passed all right... about one inch from our side mirror! Jeff almost touched it, but I wouldn't let him! Close call! Asher got so excited when it was time for bed. He crawled all over Jeff and me and giggled like crazy! He sure loved the tent. He tried to eat my nose, cheeks, forehead... whatever he could get his mouth on! He finally settled down and we all slept well (except Jeff... he's a pretty wimpy camper! =) ) The next morning, Jeff woke up early and went out to see the wolves. He went to the normal spot and nothing was happening so he headed back to camp. On his way, he saw 3 wolves off the side of the road... very rare! He rummaged through the car trying to find the video camera and they started howling! Two more wolves popped up out of the grass and he still couldn't find the camera! He raced back to camp to wake us up and we all headed back. We missed the roadside show, but saw them through spotting scopes. They are amazing animals and we've been lucky to see them as much as we have. We headed back to camp, ate breakfast and packed up. There wasn't any action on our way back through the valley so we headed to our next campsite. We stayed at Bridge Bay campground and we got a good spot with a view of Yellowstone Lake. We set up camp and let Asher play around. We took a walk through a meadow and into a forest on the other side. It was a great day and we enjoyed the sunshine. Asher and I took a nap and then we headed to dinner at Lake Lodge right by the lake. We hung out there for a bit and let Asher meet new friends. We had a fire back at the campsite and headed to bed. Asher had another hyper session and crawled all over until he collapsed in exhaustion! We woke up fairly early, had breakfast and packed up. We wanted to spend some time in the Tetons on the way home. Unfortunately, we caught the traffic of everyone else headed home so it took longer than we expected. We picnicked right by Jackson Lake and had a great view of Grand Teton and Mount Moran. We headed home... what a drive! It took us 6 hours total! We were very ready to be home and shower up! All in all, it was a great trip and Asher is a true camper... good thing he got my genes there! Just kidding Jeff! We love Yellowstone and feel very blessed to live so close. Love to everyone, MK