The events of Monday, July 26, 2010

                This morning we slept in. After two late nights (at Mt. Rushmore and the Cody Rodeo) our crew was exhausted. We enjoyed English muffins for breakfast, leisurely showers and a bit of RV pick up and clean up. Then we were on our way. Our first stop was the Sierra Trading Post Outlet store. Seems our tickets to the rodeo entitled us to free T-shirts. So what if they are just blatant advertisements for the store? They say Cody, Wyoming on them and the Taylors are not ones to pass up a free souvenir. Then it was off to get gas and then to Wal-Mart to stock up before heading off to Yellowstone National Park. We have juggled our itinerary a bit and as Jim and I headed out we realized we were headed to the busiest national park in the nation, at the height of tourist season, with NO reservations. Looking through some of the books Shannon Crawford lent us (Thanks, Shannon!) we read that we should have made reservations 6-12 months ago. But we didn’t know exactly when we’d be headed where then, so that didn’t make any sense. So as I drove, Jim got busy on the phone. He managed to get us reservations in Yellowstone NP for Wednesday and Thursday night. Nothing was available for tonight and Tuesday. So we drove on and discussed our options. We decided to drive through Yellowstone, stopping to check in at different ranger stations to check campground availability, but continue on to the Grand Tetons NP. Jim had called the two places in the Grand Tetons that took reservations – one was full and one wanted to charge us $5.50 for each kid. Now we love our kids, but paying $75 for a campsite was too much. AND we also wouldn't be permitted to use our generator. Jim politely said thank you but no and we decided to try our luck on the 5 campgrounds in the Grand Tetons that are on a first come first serve basis.

 

Driving through Yellowstone was breathtaking. (My kids kept giving me a hard time because I kept referring to it as Yosemite, you know, that other “Y” NP.) The wildflowers along the road were gorgeous and every color of the rainbow. I counted 4 or 5 different shades of purple. Lindsey saw several shades of blue. Abby noticed the yellow, red and orange flowers and Caitlin chimed in that there were several different shades of white represented in the flowers. We stopped for lunch by a little lake and I was a bit unnerved by the sign, nailed right to the picnic table, telling you about how well bears smell and how they might want to join you for lunch. We finished up quickly with no bear encounters and were on our way. As we rounded the bend and saw Yellowstone Lake, I was speechless. The kids busied themselves reading about the history and wildlife of Yellowstone and I learned we were driving through the caldera of the largest ACTIVE volcano in the United States. We stopped at a visitor center to gather some information about hiking and camping, but camping wise things didn’t look good. Everything in Yellowstone was full and most of the campgrounds in the Grand Tetons filled by early morning. So we drove on.

 

Soon we entered the Grand Tetons. The drive across the valley floor with Jackson Lake abutting the granite peaks was beautiful. There were only 2 campsites that weren’t full - the one that wanted to charge us $75 for a parking spot and one little campground at the southern end of the park that still had a few slots. So on we drove. After passing two large herds of buffalo, we finally arrived at Gros Ventre Campground and, praise God, there were a few spots left. While I cooked dinner the kids went to a ranger talk with Jim and came back with a whole lot of knowledge that is not found in your typical school curriculum. They can now tell a male bison from a female, knew the proper name was bison, NOT buffalo (as those are only found in the southern hemisphere) and the prong-horned antelope we had been seeing are called pronghorn, not antelope (same reason as before), that buffalo can jump fairly well, but the pronghorn cannot. Caitlin really liked the ranger’s accent and how he described the pronghorn shimming under the “bobbed wire” (barbed wire). But the piece de resistance was they learned where the Grand Tetons got their name. It seems the French trappers were the first to lay eyes on these mountains and called them the “tres teton” – the three breasts. Don’t you just LOVE new knowledge? Who knew my kids would be learning French on their travels? As I type this a rainstorm has moved in and is gently tapping on the roof of the RV. It is a pleasant, lovely sound in a pleasant, lovely place that God provided, just like He always does.