We Love Yellowstone!

We've had a wonderful time in Yellowstone. The kids now call all bison "Gloria's bison" and elk are all "Noni's elk." We saw bald eagles flying up to their nests and a baby eagle peeking over. We saw a black bear foraging no more than 100 feet from the road. We've seen baby bison, moose, elk and dear (the kids especially love any baby animals). Today, we saw a coyote alongside the road, which Gloria said was "nearly as good as seeing a wolf, but not really." Gloria is enjoying her birthday binoculars from Grandma and Papa.

We visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, where Gloria became very interested in wolves. And she was a Keeper Kid at the Center; she and about 20 other kids went into the bear enclosure with a naturalist (while the bears were out, of course) and hid fruit and vegetables under rocks and behind stumps for the bears to forage when they came back out. We got photos of the bears finding her food. The 8 grizzlies at the Center were orphaned when they were too young to survive alone or were removed as nuisance bears (getting into trash, etc., they become too aggressive with people and property) and were taken to the Center instead of being destroyed. Bear management officials kill many bears every year, and there's tremendous emphasis here on being sure bears can't get to any human food: "a fed bear is a dead bear" is the slogan.

The girls have been great hikers--not always happy, but usually so. Gloria was all grins when we hiked to Mystic Falls, despite a pretty good knock on her shin from falling hard on a sharp stone in the path. (She expends a little extra energy while hiking.) Noni was very upset by a fall in the mud on the way to Mystic Falls. But she and Gloria made it down to Red Rock Point and back up the the top of the cliff you see behind them above the stairs. I was far more out of breath at the top than either of them. The view of the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is beautiful from Red Rock Point and the girls were very proud and excited when we got there. But getting back out is a climb! Dad looked at us like we were crazy for doing it. For her last full day in Yellowstone, though, Gloria wanted to go back to Old Faithful because "it is SO BEAUTIFUL when it blows up into the air." She was not disappointed either because, just before the eruption, the wind changed and we got sprayed. Gloria giggled and threw out her arms. Noni started to cry and hid her head against my neck. It was an exciting end.

Dad has put in our new furnace, and he is planning to install our new water heater tomorrow. In another day or two, we should be heading west. Next stop (a brief one) will be Craters of the Moon National Monument, then we continue west hoping to meet up with Carter et al.

By the way, Kevin and friends, I've used the crock pot several times and I love it. And the first aid kit has come out repeatedly. Adventure girls have to deal with splinters and scrapes pretty often, but we're prepared.