Bears! Bears! Bears!

On Friday Mom and I picked up Keri and we took off to see Yellowstone. We went to Mammoth Hot Springs and then down to Old Faithful and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone we also took a quick stop to see Yellowstone Lake and some of the geysers and hot springs. On our way back to their campsite we went through Hayden Valley and we saw 4 black bears. Most of the bears were close to the road and one was actually crossing the road.

On Saturday after Dave was finished working we loaded up the tent and camped with Keri & Bill at Mammoth Campground. On Saturday evening and on Sunday the boys went fishing and the the girls were off to do more site seeing. We went to see Tower Falls, Lamar Valley and we went up the Beartooth Highway which has the most impressive views south of Glacier Park. We also got to see mountain goats, 5 grizzlies and at least 4 more black bears.

Grotto Falls

Keri & Bill took off for Yellowstone to do some fishing. Mom, Cassidy & I took a picnic lunch up to Grotto Falls. If you go back into the Hyalite Canyon about 3 miles past the reservoir you will come to the trailhead and the hike is around 2 miles back to the falls. I was definitely breaking Mom in on the whole high altitude thing but she was a complete trooper. Cassidy is loving her backpack hiker and I am finally getting used to hiking with her on my back. We climbed up to the top of the falls and I conned Mom into standing at the edge for a couple of pictures.

Fairy Lake

On Tuesday the 19th Mom, Keri & Bill finally arrived! Yeah!!! On Wednesday Bill took off to go fishing in the Gallatin Canyon. Cassidy & I took Mom & Keri on a hike around Fairy Lake. Fairy Lake is on the other side of the Bridger Mountains and you have to take a brutal dirt road back about six miles. It was a gorgeous day and the lake was nice and clear. I always forget how beautiful this lake is and how horrible the road is. Oh well, the trip was definitely worth the trouble to get there.

Birthday Girl

I can't believe that our little girl is a year old. This last year has gone by so quickly. We had a pretty low key weekend at home. We took Cassidy over to the park and she had a blast on the swings and on the slide.

We decided that we are going to have a belated birthday party for Cassidy while Ken and Merry are here in July. That way everyone can see the new deck that Ken and Dave are going to build.

Wildlife Sightings

Tony and I took a drive up to Big Sky to do a quote for a job and had a great wildlife day! First we had the best run in with a young grizzly. He was hanging out on a private road and didn't seem to mind at all that we were stalking him. We took a ton of great pictures all from the safety of the truck. Neither of us were willing to get out just in case there was a big momma bear hanging out in the area.

About a 1/2 hour later we were at the job site and looked up the hill to see 2 bull moose hanging out in the customer's front yard. How great would it be to have a front yard that attracts moose and grizzlies?

Hopefully we will have a couple of days like this when our visitors are here. We are counting the days until everyone arrives. Mom, Keri & Bill will be here around 6/18 and Ken, Merry & Geneva will be out on 6/30. We can't wait!!!!

Hidden Lakes

The Hidden Lakes are a series of 5 or 6 high mountain lakes that are about a 2 1/2 mile hike back in the Gallatin Canyon off of a Portal Creek trailhead. Because the weatherman told us that the temperature would get up to about 65 and that there might be some isolated showers we decided that this would be a good day to try it. He lied! We made it back about a mile into the hike and it was about 40 degrees with a steady cold rain. We ran into one of Dave's skiing buddies on his way out (What are the chances that the only other person back there would be one of Dave's friends?) and he told us that we might make it another 1/4 mile before the snow would be too high to hike through. Because Dave & Tony were silly enough to believe the weatherman they were wearing shorts. All of us were getting a little bit too cold so we decided to turn around and try this hike again a little later in the summer.

Lava Lake

On 6/2 we hiked back to Lava Lake. It was a 3 mile hike that was all uphill. The last part of it was all switchbacks and I seriously thought that I was going to die before we made it to the lake. I was totally embarrassed when our group was passed by a little old lady about 2 miles in. I have got to get back into shape!

I couldn't believe what a gorgeous day it was, the temperature made it up into the 80's but there was a great breeze the entire time. There were so many great places to stop and the entire trip had great views of the creek. The trip was definitely one of my favorites.

Cassidy had a blast, every time that we would stop and take her out of her pack she would try to climb back into it. She also seemed to think that she needed to put every pine cone she could find into her mouth. I carried her most of the way back so that I could get used to carrying her. I am starting to second guess all of the extra helpings of food that she thinks she needs.