Ma 'n Pa

When I last wrote, I was very excited for the impending arrival of my parents. Well, they have come and gone since then and I miss them so much! We truly had a wonderful time!

Tuesday was a fairly uneventful day. As I try to remember the events at work, I truly can't remember much. All I remember is working the Wildlife Olympics in Mammoth and almost having the tent blown away by winds. We were literally holding onto everything as the winds blasted. 

After work, I went to my house and met up with mom and dad! It was so exciting. They had landed and were driving to Gardiner from Bozeman. I hoped in the car and met them at the Raven. So delicious. We spent a ton of time catching up, hearing about Yellowstone and their elaborate Mediterranean adventures. Not jealous. Not jealous. A little jealous.

After dinner, we walked around Gardiner a bit. Then we ran to Mammoth, I showed them my home, then I said farewell for the night. 

The next morning, I went out with Bill Wengeler. He is a wildlife specialist in the park. He travels around, stopping at animal jams and helps people keep moving. He also specializes in wolves. The funny thing is that we spent more time stopping, talking to people, crashing a Tower Junction fourth of July dinner for staff and doing a touch table then actually looking for animals! At the end of the day, we set up a touch table at the Tower General Store. While Bill was giving a wonderful talk about wolves in the park, who do I see but mom! They had unintentionally run into me! It was great because they got to see me in uniform and on the job! Yay!

After work, we took a short little walk on the Grizzly Lake trail. It was really fun to go explore the wilderness with mom and dad! After that, we ran to the Lighthouse restaurant. It was really interesting. I got a dish called Bengal Beef, which the chef found at Disney World. Imagine that! They also had the most delicious, free refill, chai latte! Yummy!

Following dinner, we decided to celebrate our fourth of July in a Hot Tub as we watched the sunset over the mountains! It was glorious! Then it was back to Mammoth and then to sleep.

The next day was spent with me in one room with 4 other people getting certified in CPR and First Aid. After being a lifeguard for many summers, taking an 8:30-5:00 certification course was SUPER boring. Luckily the other 4 taking the class with me were really fun. We had a good time.

After work, I snagged my parents and my friends and we all went to the Iron Horse for dinner. Luckily they had their full menu again, and it was GLORIOUS! It was so fun to introduce my parents to Christina, Udeitha, Eric and Matt. They loved my friends and my friends loved them. It was wonderful. We could have stayed there the entire night, chatting and conversing about life. But, we resisted and left after two hours because I really wanted to show my parents Lamar Valley. 

On the way to Lamar, we came across a Black Bear. It was so exciting to be there with my parents as they saw their first bear, this time around, in the park. As we finally reached Lamar and drove the entire length we unfortunately did not see any wolves. What we did get to see was a glorious sunset. We hiked out by Lamar River and watched the sun dip below the mountains, shooting vivid colors across the sky and dipping the mountains in delicious hues. When darkness began to overtake everything, we headed back to the car and out of the valley. 

As we got to Mammoth, mom started to transfer to the other car. Dad jumped out to go get her shoes. And, in the midst of the hustle, mom let out a quiet gasp. "GRANT! THERE IS A BISON!" I looked out past her, into the darkness, and saw nothing but blackness. But, then I saw the light peeking around far to her left and right. And I realized the darkness RIGHT NEXT TO HER WAS THE BISON! We are so lucky that mom was not attacked. Oh, daily life in Yellowstone!!! 

The next day, we all met at the Tumbleweed for some breakfast and coffee. It was super chill. We definitely left later than we intended (and it was my fault!). The destination: visiting mom's cousins, aunt and uncle in Jackson, WY. On the way down, we stopped at the Lake Hotel because I heard it was delicious. Delicious, it was. It also had a BEAUTIFUL view of Yellowstone Lake. We took some time to take in our surroundings: Yellowstone Lake Lodge, the beach, Fishing Bridge and several shops. Eventually, we dragged ourselves back into the car and continued on our way. 

Finally, we entered Grand Teton National Park. Those mountains are just spectacular. Probably one of the most majestic ranges in the world. This is attributed to the fact that the Grand Tetons do not have foothills around them. They just seem to jut straight out of the ground into the air. Mix that with the razor defined peaks and you have pur majesty. 

Before reaching Jackson, we stopped at Jackson Lake to meet up with my mom's cousin David. We met up with him and several members of his immediate family for the most enormous nachos one could ever imagine. Literally: MASSIVE. Dad's head looked a tiny blob compared to this monstrous mass of cheese slathered food. After catching up and consuming massive quantities, we went with David and his wife Ellen out on Jackson Lake. I love riding on boats. I placed myself on the front of the boat, despite the fact that it was a bit chilly. We rode around looking for wildlife, gaping in awe at the glorious mountains all around us and watching David catch a Lake Trout. One of dad's life goals has been to catch a lake trout, so David partially fulfilled that for him by catching one in dad's presence. It was pretty cool. David said 'we'll give it one more cast' after spending about an hour trying, and there it was. Boom. Lake trout. 

With our mission accomplished, we headed back to shore. We loaded up the boat and headed home. We stopped by David and Ellen's to see mom's aunt and uncle, Walter and Gladys. David and Ellen are caring for them full time. It truly is a wonderful setup. Walter and Gladys are able to have their own home! After stopping by and saying hello, we had to run. It was getting very late and we had not even seen the cousin we were staying with. 

We entered Jackson and followed our directions to Rocky Mountain Lodge (I think this is the camp's name). This is the Youth for Christ camp that mom's cousin, Don, owns. Upon our arrival, we felt really guilty because we were so late. Fortunately we ran straight into Don. Immediately after, Don's wife Bev stumbled upon us. They quickly showed us our rooms (which were SOOOO cool). We were thinking of moving toward bed, but Bev and Don invited us to talk in their house. And it wasn't one of those 'we are going to invite you to be sweet but don't really hope you say yes' kind of invite. It was genuine. So we went to their house and talked for about an hour to two hours. Bev was quite the talker. Definitely never a dull moment. But so fun. Unfortunately, sleep does beckon, and we had to go to sleep. Saturday was bound to be a big day!

The next morning, it took me forever to roll out of bed. Once again, it was a later start due to moi. :/

But, Bev had somehow managed to be free and decided to spend the day with us. And oh, what a day it was! We all piled into the car and drove across the road to a delightful coffee shop called Elevated Grounds. We all got delicious coffees and morning pastries. Mine was a feta and spinach stuffed puff-pastry. YUMMM! We spent quite a bit of time talking at the coffee shop, catching up on all the family on mom's side of the family. 

After talking, we decided to head over to the Teton Pines golf course. Background information: the land that the Youth for Christ camp that mom's cousin Don owns was donated by Dick Cheney. With this information, it makes sense that Bev and Don know Dick. They also know that he lives in a house in the golf course and that Mitt Romney was in town for a fundraiser. As a result, we thought we could go incognito and see what we could see. Alas, no one was at the Pines. They must have gone somewhere else for the day's events. But the golf course was beautiful!

From the Teton Pines, we drove to Jackson Village to ride the Tram up to the top of Rendevous Mountain. When we arrived, I went scouting for some backpacking supplies I had been wanting. What I found was advice to go to Teton Mountaineering in Jackson's downtown. We will keep this advice for later in the story. 

Eventually, we got our tram tickets and hoped in line. And when I say tram, I mean BIG tram. A tram that can fit 60-100 people! HUGE! We crowded into the tram and ensured window seats as the ride began. Once at the top, I began to frolic around. Enjoying the high altitude and beautiful views. We got some excellent views before heading down below. 

Once below, we ran to the Mangy Moose for lunch. It was super yummy. Delicious grill food. Don was able to join us. He had been at the car auction, checking out the vehicles and the snazzy antiques. But it was at lunch that Bev realized she needed to get back to camp. So, after finishing our food, we decided to take advantage of one more thing. The tram ticket also allowed us to go up the ski lift. I really preferred this ride to the tram ride. It is open-air and four person intimate. Much better than 60 people in one massive lift. It did not go up nearly as high, but I didn't mind due to the open air and intimacy.

Once at the bottom, we ran to the car and got Bev back to the camp. It was sad to say goodbye, but we had a couple of things we needed to get to. We decided to drive by a house that mom wanted to see and then it was off to Teton Mountaineering. For my birthday, mom and dad geared me up with some backpacking cooking pots, a 90 lumens head lamp and an Osprey day pack with a 2 liter camelback. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD! I have already used the lamp and Osprey. I can't wait to use the pot this weekend!

From there we stopped by a place called Dolce for some Organic Frozen Yogurt. So delicious. I got the Tart FroYo with blueberries, blackberries and coconut. While at Dolce, we made our plans. Our goal: Jenny Lake. We hopped into the car and began our drive. Unfortunately, (actually, more like fortunately) we came across four bull moose. That's right. Not one. Not two. FOUR! Since moose have rapidly left Yellowstone due to the loss of Old Growth forests after the fire, it is virtually impossible to come across these guys. As a result, we spent over twenty minutes observing these dudes. They were SO COOL! Finally, we pulled ourselves away, and decided it was time for us to head over to our dinner plans. 

For dinner, we met with David, Ellen, Walter and Gladys. Ellen had found time amidst her incredibly busy day to make a delectable lasagna, dinner roles, salad and homemade eclairs. It was so wonderful to sit around, eating and conversing. To hear stories from everyone. To observe. To listen. To learn. It was just great. Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. Walter and Gladys are super cute! Walter really reminds me of my Grandpa Landis (they are brothers). We even had them call each other on the phone while we were there. 

Eventually, we decided Walter and Gladys needed to get some shuteye. We moved over to David and Ellen's house where we looked at pictures, watched some home videos and enjoyed their immaculately beautiful home. After a long while, we decided sleep was necessary and made our way our comfy cozy beds.

In the morning, Ellen and David helped Walter and Gladys over for a delicious breakfast. Ham, Eggs and funny cake. Yum! We had such a wonderful time talking that we almost were late getting off for Church. Finally, Ellen and mom realized what time it was and we threw ourselves into the car. We barely had time to say our farewells and thank you's!

We were at the Church that Don pastor's in no time. It was a really great service. But the sad part was that we had to say goodbye to Don and Bev at the end. Hopefully I can come back next year and can hang out with them again!

For lunch we met with Steve and his wife Debbie at the Bunnery. Steve is another cousin of mom's. But he is not brother to Don and David. I really enjoyed talking with them. Very down to earth and real. I wish we could have spent more time with them, but we had to run. Mom and dad needed to get to Bozeman, MT that night to fly out the next morning. Bozeman is roughly 6 hours away from Jackson, WY. We said our goodbyes, grabbed some coffee at the place Steve recommended, and we were off.

We only made a few stops on the way home, per recommendation of cousin David. We stopped at the Glacier and Oxbow Bend Overlooks to get amazing photos of the Grand Tetons. At Oxbow Bend, there were some painters trying to capture the same images. It was so cool to see them working! Once back in Yellowstone, we also stopped at Isa Lake. This is a lake on the continental divide that the West side eventually drains into the Pacific Ocean and the East side eventually drains into the Atlantic Ocean. How amazing to be in such a place. It was probably a good thing that it was raining, otherwise we would have wanted to stay for a longer period of time.

Eventually, we made it back to Gardiner. Mom and dad needed to get on the road, but we decided to take the time for one final meal. We went to Rosie's to grab some grub. It was such fine food, but we found out we weren't really that hungry once the food arrived. That means: YUMMY LEFTOVERS! Hooray!

But, after dinner, it was time to say goodbye. We gave our hugs and kisses and then it was time to go. We parted ways and I headed back to Mammoth. I miss them already and can't wait to see them in Omaha!

Back in Mammoth, I quickly unpacked, got my stuff together and was quickly intercepted by my friends to come out to a campfire. I love my friends here! And I'm so glad my family got to meet them!

Many things have happened yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday), but I am going to save that for the next post, otherwise this will be more overwhelming than it already is.
Night all! Until next time.

Mommy and Daddy!

Momma on Grizzly Lake

Dipping in the creek

Dad checkin' it out

Lighthouse Restaurant

Where mom and dad stayed

Sunset

Hot Tub on the 4th of July

CPR and First Aid Training

At the Iron Horse

Blurry picture...but these are my friends. Christina, Udeitha, Me, Eric, and Matt

Lamar Sunset

Looking for wolves

Mommy and Daddy

Lake Hotel

Yellowstone Lake

Nachos!!

Taking the boat on Jackson Lake

Grand

Lake Trout

The boat

Moran with guitarist

Rocky Mountain Lodge

Elevated Grounds

Teton Pines

Magpies

The Tram

Paragliders

At the Top of the World

Jackson Hole Tram

The deck of the Mangy Moose

Taking the Ski Lift

Moose

There are three moose in this photo. See them?

David and Ellen's incredible view

Walter and Gladys

David and Ellen

Lunch at the Bunnery

Glacier Turnout

Oxbow Bend

Family!

Painter!

Moran

Isa Lake

Bye mommy and daddy!

Sky Rim to Big Horn Pass: An Epic

What an incredible weekend. Just about the time I think my experiences here in Yellowstone can't get any grander, something like this weekend happens!
After leaving the Tumbleweed on Friday, I travelled back to the amazing Potluck put together by Udeitha's mother (and uncle). Oh. my. goodness. Platters upon platters of delicious Indian perfection. We all gorged ourselves on the extravagant foods. Even the superintendent of the park and his wife came over to eat. It was that amazing! Thank you Udeitha for being born to your mother and coming to Yellowstone!
After dinner, we chilled out around Eric's amazing campfire. But, due to my 4am wake-up exhaustion, I hit the hay pretty early. But, in that time, it was decided that we would be backpacking the next day. Beyond that decision, nothing was final. I could not wait to wake up and find out the official plans!
I slept in the next morning. When I finally woke up, I was informed that we were backpacking the Sky Rim Trail and leaving in about an hour and a half. I immediately set to packing.
Since I had never been backpacking before, I had to borrow everything. From a backpack, compact sleeping bag and single-person tent, everyone covered me. I am so lucky to have such accommodating friends here!
As we were preparing to go, one of the guys backed out and the other seemed to go the same direction. When we seemed perplexed, they showed us the official hiking guide and what it had to say about the Sky Rim Trail. Basically, Sky Rim Trail is one of the only Class-H hikes in the park (that is the highest level). Furthermore, they HIGHLY recommended no one actually take packs on this trail. With sheer cliffs constantly on one side, the other, or both, heavy backpacks would be intensely dangerous (let alone insanely difficult). We finally revamped our plans. We would hike in about 4 miles, set up camp, leave all our stuff at the camp the next day, and hike back to our camp after hiking to the rim. With this decision, our entire party of six was back together and we were off.
We stopped briefly in West Yellowstone to pick up sandwiches and camping food. We finally reached the Daly Creek Trailhead, grabbed our bags and hiked the four miles into our campsite. Once at camp, we threw up our tents, grabbed some food and hiked to the nearest peak. There we cooked up our food and watched the sunset. I was able to use my own camping stove (the one thing I do have! Thanks family!) to cook carrot ginger soup. I threw some almonds in to simmer and add some protein. It was delicious! We had a fabulous evening.
But, as we moved back down toward the campsite, it quickly became dusk. After a frightening run-in with a grouse exploding from the woods right in front of me, we began to grow wearing of bears. Back at camp, we all decided to move our tents closer together and consolidate. I was actually the only person in an individual tent, but I made sure it was placed in between everyone else. Needless to say, I felt safe and quickly crashed.
The next morning, we awoke semi early, packed up our tents, distributed our food and water into daypacks and began our journey. A couple of miles up the peak, we stopped for lunch. I ate my small bag of carrots, mini bagels with crunchy peanut butter and some fruit trail mix. Nom nom nom. Luke even had Turkey Jerky. It was delicious.
As we continued forward, the trail grew increasingly arduous with snow, mud and steep inclines. Eventually, due to weariness and blisters, three of our crew decided to head back. Christina, Matt and myself decided to continue forward, at least to the Big Horn Pass. (This is supposedly the highest point in Yellowstone that you can HIKE to without climbing gear). If we thought the inclines were tough before, the continued inclines were monstrous. But we tore through them.
One of my favorite parts was when we got to the top of a lookout point and it was this gorgeous meadow on the top of a step rise. Yellow flowers carpeted the ground along with soft grass. We spent a few moments frolicking around. Christina did some cartwheels. Matt and I tried falling into the wind to get a feel for how strong it was. (Really strong). Eventually we just crashed in the grass for a while, enjoying the incredible 360 degrees view all around us. Every direction you looked: breathtaking mountain ridges. Vast valleys. Snow capped peaks, lush forests and glittering lakes. It was almost too much to take in. We couldn't decide where to look. So laying on our backs and staring into the sky seemed the best option.
From here, we had to decide if we should turn back or continue forward, doing a massive loop back to camp. If we went back, it would only be a 5 mile hike to camp. If we continued forward it would be about 9 miles back to camp. Despite the distance, we decided to continue forward. That way we could reach Big Horn Pass and see new territory almost the entire way back.
Then came the incline of all inclines. The mothership. The ridge to Big Horn Pass. Yikes.
Christina and Matt joked that I only had one speed: fast. When it comes to steep inclines, I'm not good at pacing. I just have to plow or die. The two of them decided to take it easy and pace while I plowed. Apparently, at moments, they could see me running. I would argue it was more of leaping to a preconceived 'rest' point so that I could collapse on the ground. But, I will let them continue to say I ran up the ridge. ( :
After leaping up the hill, pausing to rest and take pictures, and continuing to leap up the hill, I reached the summit a bit before the intelligent pacers. To my, surprising, astonishment, stood a massive herd of Big Horn Sheep. For some bizarre reason, it had never dawned on me that Big Horn Pass was actually named because it was, in fact, a pass...for Big Horn sheep. Dense, right? But this is what happened.
I proceeded to quietly place myself behind a little rock and snap pictures. Eventually Matt and Christina snuck up behind me for their own photos. We probably spent a collective forty minutes observing these amazing creatures and snapping photos. We were so stoked. We were standing on THEIR ground. We thought it amazing to think that no one gets to see these creatures on this turf unless they really haul to this isolated spot. We felt proud, rejuvenated and super excited.
After finally tearing ourselves away, we proceeded to follow the completely downhill, 6 miles, on BlackButte Trail. This was such a wonderful change of pace. But I must mention that the breathtaking views along the Sky Rim Trail were like nothing I have ever seen before. They made the arduous nature of the trail MORE than worth it.
BlackButte was a pine forest that broke into occasional open meadows. It was gorgeous in a completely different way. I couldn't get over the potent aroma of the pines. It was heavenly. Somewhere along the way, we seemed to go into a zen-like mode. We couldn't stop talking about our senses and their interplay with the world around us. We were so aware, so happy and content.
Finally we reached to Daly Creek Loop. 4 more miles back to base camp. Unlike BlackButte, this was either flat trail or small inclines. It was pretty nice. Mostly meadows and some Douglas Fir forests. Finally, back at camp, we grabbed our packs and hit the four mile hike back to the car. We made a bet: since none of us had watches, we would each guess the time upon our arrival at the car. Whoever was closest bought drinks at the restaurant we would eat at in West Yellowstone. My only frame of reference was that the 3 guys had left us around noon.
The hike was on. And let me tell you. After 18+ miles of hiking, throwing on a backpack was not ideal.  My inexperience with backpacking really showed through, at this point. Matt and Christina were content to stroll, chit-chatting about life, while I found myself charging ahead so that I could get back to the car as soon as possible. This actually worked out, because halfway to the car, I couldn't see them behind me anymore, and my legs felt like jelly. I decided to take off my pack, take off my superman hat (which I'd worn all day) and snag some water and fruit trail-mix. By the time they reached me, I was rearing to go.
Back at the car, Christina guessed 9:31pm, I guess 9:12pm and Matt guessed 9:00pm. When we started the car, it was 8:55pm. Matt had won. Boo! But, I was actually happy, because that meant we would arrive in West Yellowstone a little after my guess and before Christina's.
On the drive, I stuck my head out the window. So refreshing. When we finally pulled into West Yellowstone, we were ravenous. We found this patio dining called Serenity. We didn't realize it, but we had placed ourselves in the finest dining experience in West Yellowstone: wearing grungy clothes and smelling awful. Oh well. Despite high prices and a Russian waitress who spoke little English, we were able to order and have the most extravagant dinner. Thai Calamari Appetizer, Delicious Drinks, refreshing salads and decadent entrees. Christina got a blue-cheese butter glazed rib-eye. Matt got a vegetable and grilled chicken pesto, and I order an orange chicken curry called Chicken Panang. We were in Heaven. By the time we finished eating, it was 11:00pm. We dragged ourselves to the car, I climbed into the back and promptly fell asleep and we drove the hour and a half back to West Yellowstone. After unpacking and showering, I was in my bed by 1:30 am.
Needless to say, today has been an adventure. BUT, I am far less sore than I thought I would be. I actually FEEL great. But it is the lack of sleep that has gotten me today. I had to Skype with a 2nd grade class from Wisconsin today at 8:30am. It was really fun, but channeling enthusiasm and gusto was much harder than usual!
At the end of the work day, Alexis and I went to Jim Halfpenny's Track Education Center to finally make plaster molds of animal tracks. We only had an hour and a half (he wouldn't schedule us more time), but we managed to make 10 molds: Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, Wolf, Coyote, Mountain Lion, River Otter, Elk, Moose, Bison and Pronghorn. A good sampling, if I say so myself.
After traveling back to Mammoth, I was quickly snatched up by Udeitha, Christina and Eric. We met up with Matt and Molly at the Iron Horse for dinner. I love that place. They discussed their fourth of July plans: going to a car-camping site out of the park to have a extravagant cookout and camping experience. It sounds like fun, but I'm super excited for my fourth of July plans: mom and dad's arrival! That should happen tomorrow. So...the next time I will write, I will be relating our adventures!
Until then, enjoy an excessive amount of photos below!

Momma's spread

Thank you Udeitha's mom!!

Ready to go at Daly Creek Trailhead!

The hike in!

Our campsite

My lil tent.

Putting up the bear bag. ANYTHING with a sent goes in. Food, toothpaste, deodorant, bugspray, etc.

Cooking my delicious soup!

Sunset from our primo dinner venu.

Morning!

Our bags hanging. We all followed Christina on this. She finally realized her bag-hanging habits come from backpacking in New Mexico to keep scorpions out of the bags. 

The hike begins. 

Stopping for a pose.

The group (sans Matt taking the picture).

The guys chilling for lunch.

Indian Paintbrush

Pretty. I have literally hundreds of breathtaking shots like this from all directions.

And then there were three.

Glorious

Snow was constantly covering our trail.

Precipice shot!

( :

We made it to the flower-covered Overlook!

I was happy.

Paradise Valley

Bighorn Pass is up there.

The climb up to Big Horn Pass is at the top right of this photo. 

This shot gives you an idea of the incline.

How the trees grew on this incline was crazy!

I made it!

And then I saw them.

The Big Horn Sheep herd

With a vast and beautiful mountain range behind them.

Mommy with babies!

So cute!

I loved this.

Now we are going down! Through the woods!

TALL trees!

Oops!  A tree fell on our bridge!

Back to the Valley we originally hiked in on. We had to backtrack through this valley to get back to our campsite.

After we grabbed our bags, we hiked out and the sun began to hide behind the ridge lines. 

Thai Calamari. Best food ever.

Panang Chicken. So good.

Alexis pouring in some plaster!

Track Education Center!

Holding a pronghorn and moose mold!

A raven chasing a golden eagle while we ate dinner at the Iron Horse!

Sorry to plague you all with so many pictures!!!!