The end of our vacation

So I realize that I haven't finished the description of our cross-country trip. For those of you who have been sitting at your computers for the last two weeks hitting 'Refresh', here (as Paul Harvey says) is the rest of the story...

Day two at Yellowstone. Our first stop was Mammoth Springs. I had been particularly excited to see the giant cascading hot springs I had seen on the web. We made a minor mistake in parking in the lower parking lot, which meant we had to climb up a long boardwalk, which, of course meant there would be much whining and complaining from Thing2 about how tired he was and how hot it was (did I mention it was hot, like, Africa hot?) We did manange to make it to the top, to discover that due to recent water flow, geologic conditions, whatever, only one part of it was actually flowing. Now I have to admit that, despite my disappointment at the limited flow, it was really cool (stinky, but very cool). The flowing water building these little pools, water cascading over the edges like a fountain, colorful streams of microbial mats - very beautiful.

We finished there close to lunch time. We had planned on doing another hike, to an overlook of the Yellowstone River, but had no interest in doing another hot, sunny hike like the previous day's. We drove down to the picnic area from which the hike started and ate. The Things had a good time climbing around on rocks while I scouted out the trail to see what it was like. I decided it wouldn't be a good idea to try it with the boys, so Sweetie identified another trail we could do, way down on Yellowstone Lake.

This turned out to be a boon. After a long drive down, we arrived at a shady, flat trail. After coddling Thing2 through his first experience peeing on a tree (he was very excited), we took off down the trail. We came to a break in the trees at the shore of the lake. We noticed some movement down the beach and saw a coyote about 40 feet away. We looked at it, it looked at us, then it trotted into the woods, crossed the trail behind us, and disappeared. Still awestruck by this close encounter, we noticed more movement in the bushes a little ways away, and saw a bull bison rolling in the dust, a little beyond where the coyote was. This was a little closer than we really cared to be to a bison, so we moved down the trail. We stopped to wade in the lake; the Things got their pants wet. Sweetie looked up the shore at some birds: an adult bald eagle and some white pelicans. Very cool. And then we saw the coyote again! It swam across a channel to a spit of land and started chewing on some piece of carcass it had stored over there. Like I said, this was a great hike! Then we were done for the day, and so it was back to camp.

The next day, we packed up camp and headed south toward Grand Teton NP. Of course, we had to stop for a hike, this time up to Harlequin Lake in the hopes of seeing some waterfowl or beavers. It was, you guessed it, a hot, sunny hike. Mercifully, it was short. The lake was a bit of a bust. We did see some grebes, but nothing too interesting, and despite several lodges there were no beavers about.

We stopped and did some shopping before we left the park (also got some ice cream). Then it was down to Grand Teton. We decided to camp there for the night (although I was feeling some serious vacation fatigue at this point). The Things attempted to fill up Jackson Lake with rocks while we waited for our dinner at a pizza place at the marina. The Things and Sweetie played a card game called Trash. Thing2 was playing for the first time and beat the pants off of the others. Thing1 at one point (he was having terrible luck) was literally laughing and crying at the same time. Very odd.

We awoke the next morning, packed up camp, and headed off in search of moose and Trumpeter swans, both of which had been spotted in the park. We went to where we were supposed to see Trumpeter swans and saw, of course, a bull moose. But no swans. Having accomplished half our mission, we drove down to Jackson Hole. Just outside town, and right next to the road, is a small river preserve. As we drove by we saw some large white birds; you guessed it - Trumpeter swans! Two pairs, one with two cygnets! This was very exciting, and we watched them for quite a while.

So that really was pretty much the end of vacation. We drove straight down I-15 from there. We did have some bonus vacation as we drove past Zion National Park, and when we visited Hoover Dam, and when we went to the beach in Long Beach.

I'll try to get some more photos posted, but we're playing musical computers here so there might be a delay. I'll also do some more posting about life on the island tomorrow. (Hopefully.)