A Camp Story

We had a really long, cold, and particularly snowy winter here in Wyoming. It’s finally warming up, and we’re all super excited for camping season! (And also gardening!) Last year, we started our camping season off a little less than ideally. 

Here’s a story about that. I like to call it:

The Tale of the Tick

To be sure, he did not start off his day in a bid for fame and notoriety. He was just a small, unassuming American dog tick going about his usual business – looking for a bite. It was a cool and rainy day, and in the course of events, he happened to brush up against a young human girl who was trying to catch a fish. He thus began climbing up, searching for the perfect spot to hide and begin to feed. He didn’t make it… but he became a storied creature in the process.

Our family was all set to enjoy our first camping trip of the season. The weather forecast was rather foreboding (cold temperatures and around 2 inches of rain expected between when we were arriving and when we were heading home), but we opted to keep our reservation anyway. We arrived and got everything set up just before it started to rain, thankfully. The evening was cool, gray, and drizzly, but not too bad overall. 

The fishing crew.

PJ and the kids spent a good part of the time fishing, then we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over the campfire for a late supper before getting ready for bed. We were all feeling pretty damp by then, but the camper was dry and warm and everyone fell asleep fairly quickly. It rained overnight, too. I know because one of the dogs woke me up at 3am and I could hear it on the roof. Fortunately, I was able to convince her to lay back down, because going outside to wander around in my pjs in the cold rain at 3am trying to find her the perfect spot to relieve herself (she’s picky…) didn’t sound appealing at all. I eventually got up with both dogs at 6:30 and took them out for a walk. It was still just drizzly when I left the campsite, but by the time I got back, the rain was picking up.

Now, it typically doesn’t really rain very much in Wyoming, especially in the summers. So, while we’ve had rain while camping before, it has always been a shower that lasted a few hours at most. We camp in a pop up – all six of us and the two dogs. It’s normally enough space, because we don’t really spend much time in the camper other than to sleep, and if need be, we can all hang out around the table and play games while the inclement weather moves on. This day was different. Once it picked up around 7-7:30am, it didn’t stop all day long, except for some brief times where the weather would tease you into coming outside, only to proceed to soak you again.

Met some of the locals.

It was a holiday weekend, and the campground was pretty full when we arrived. By mid-morning, almost everyone had cleared out – chased off early by the rain. In fact, besides us, there was only one other camper in our section, and it was right next to ours.

The park was putting on a kids’ wildlife/outdoor event in one of the pavilions, which we attended, then went for a drive before making a late lunch. 

Little bit of sunshine on a rainy day (Western Meadowlark).

After we ate, PJ started in making hot chocolate for the kids, who were all sitting around the pedestal-style table playing games. I was having second thoughts about this arrangement – mostly because the aforementioned table is about as steady as a toddler who’s trying to stand on one leg – but anyway, it was cold and dreary and hot chocolate sounded good. Two or three of the kids had their drinks setting on the table, and PJ was making the rest, when Mountain Girl (our older daughter) felt something crawling on her neck, asked her brother what it was, and proceeded to stand up out of her seat and scream bloody murder upon the reply, “Oh, it’s a tick!”

Abject. Chaos. Ensued.

MG was screaming at the top of her lungs and didn’t seem to be pausing to take a breath at all. The younger two kids were also shrieking and/or crying (from the shock of it all, most likely). Our oldest son was shouting for everyone to calm down. PJ was removing the tick (which wasn’t even attached). I was shouting, “What’s wrong?! Are you hurt?!” because somehow I missed the proclamation of “tick” and thought that she had burned herself with the hot chocolate. Next, MG begins wriggling and squirming because now she thinks she feels things crawling all over her and is just freaking out about it. I’m all, “Everyone hold their hot chocolate!” because I know what’s going to happen if the table gets bumped even one time… but in trying to pick up the hot chocolate, youngest daughter knocks hers over, and then another one spills, too. There is hot chocolate on people, on the table, on the games, the floor, and the seat cushions. In the course of cleaning things up, I decided to pitch the chocolate-soaked games, which set off a whole new round of wailing. It took a while for things to get back to normal…

The next day, our site neighbor joined us at our campfire for some conversation. Of course, someone asked her if she had heard the screaming the day before. She did (not sure how she could have missed it). In fact, it was enough to cause her and her friend (a nurse, incidentally) to leave their card game momentarily and check out the window of their camper. They said that they were concerned that someone was hurt, but after a moment they heard laughter and decided that everything must be okay. We were all okay… but also, none of us remember laughing. Hysterical wailing, yes. Laughing, not so much. 

In spite of everything, we stayed for the entire length of our reservation. Made a lot of memories for sure, and learned a few things (I think this is when we first realized that we’d begun to outgrow our compact little camper, which we bought several years ago when the kids were quite a bit smaller). As we were leaving, the sun finally started to peak out from behind the clouds (of course).

Larkspur.

It has been almost an entire year now since that fateful day. We just recently went on a hike in the Black Hills this spring. I warned everyone ahead of time, because I had read that the area has a lot of ticks in the spring and early summer. They weren’t kidding. The ticks were so thick that you could actually see them hanging onto the blades of dry grass along the trail. Got through the “I want to go back to the car!” freak out of the first half-mile with NO screaming, and went on to hike about six miles total. Picked a couple ticks off of our clothing that day, but not even the dogs had one latch on, so that was a plus.

Enjoy all your summer adventures, and try to stay calm in the face of ticks! 😉

 

Watch Your Step!

Our family logged quite a few miles on foot during the last week and a half. We had visitors in town and took the opportunity to get outside and go exploring. Our wanderings took us from the mountains to the prairies and various places in between. 

 

We had been doing 2-4 miles at a time, but (unintentionally) saved our longest hike for the last day of the visit. By the time we hit the trail yesterday we had already logged more than 15 miles, and we added 5 more by the end of the day. The kids did great overall, but we definitely noticed signs of tiredness from our youngest in particular. By the time we got back to the trailhead in the afternoon, she had tripped, stumbled, and fallen down countless times, and needed to be carried for some of the journey to give her tired legs a break.

 

Today we're getting back into our usual routine, but I've still got hiking on the brain. In between the everyday stuff, I've been going through the many, many photos I took on our expeditions. This one has got to be one of my favorites. I love how the path winds through the grove of aspens. It was even more pretty in person.

 

Whether speaking of hiking, or of life in general, it's vital to keep watch over where your feet are headed. Our daughter's fatigue contributed to her stumbling as we got farther down the trail because she was less careful about where she was stepping than she had been at first. In our lives, sometimes we get tired, too. Or we just let down our guard, or become complacent. Sometimes we even intentionally overlook the hazards in our path - our misguided thinking convincing us that it will still be okay if we head that way. I love how this verse from Proverbs reminds us to choose our path and place our steps with care; and I'm grateful for the promise of God's redeeming grace for the times when we do stumble and fall.

 

Christmastime in Wyoming

We have been in our new house for more than a month now, and we are finally past the worst of the unpacking-after-moving stage. Only a few unpacked boxes remain, and I also have some organizing to do in a few rooms. The office/school room is seriously a problem right now, as is the master bedroom. Ugh. However, having gotten most of it behind us, we’ve been able to take some time off for family fun again. A few weeks ago we went into the mountains to cut our Christmas tree. Cutting a wild tree has become a family tradition for us, and it’s one of the things I love about living here in Wyoming. For $8-10 or so (depending on the area), you can buy a permit from the National Forest Service to cut a Christmas tree.

This year we went to a new, unfamiliar spot, so we ended up hiking for a much longer time than we usually do to find our tree. It was a gorgeous day, though, and considerably warmer than some other tree hunts we’ve been on, so we didn’t really mind.

After we had selected a tree, and were just starting to cut it down, our oldest son asked if we had straps to tie it to the roof of the vehicle. “Yes,” I answered confidently, “Dad has straps in the car.” He got a stricken look on his face… then asked if they had been in a cardboard box. “Yes, in the back of the car,” PJ said. As it turns out, PJ had a bunch of empty moving boxes in the back of his car that he was going to haul away but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So that afternoon, before we left to go to the mountain, he had asked our son to get ALL the cardboard boxes out of his car and move them over to my car. Which he did... and consequently, we now had no straps! Oops! Fortunately, with some creative jockeying, we managed to get our 8-foot-tall Christmas tree INSIDE the car and home we went. 😁

It’s been fun getting our new home all decorated for Christmas. We put up the tree, and some lights, and other decorations. We set up our nativity and the Christmas advent/countdown calendar for the kids. We hung the stockings on the wall (had to give up our nice fireplace mantle when we moved). It feels all comfy and cozy to me. I love seeing all the decorations. Sometimes I wish I could leave them up all year, but then they wouldn’t feel as special, either.

Earlier this week we wrapped up another pre-Christmas visit with my in-laws. They’ve been able to come out to visit us every year at this time, and again in the summer, for a good number of years now. We also got to see my parents twice this year, most recently this fall shortly before we moved. The kids always look forward to seeing Grandpa and Grandma! We were supposed to travel to spend last Christmas back east with everyone, but changed our plans and decided to go in the spring and then, for various reasons, that trip actually never ended up happening. So it was a real blessing to get to see them all, especially with the craziness that has been 2020.

This was our first time hosting anyone in our new home. It was definitely different, as we do not have a dedicated guest room at our place anymore. Despite that, it was comfortable and actually felt less crowded than it did when we had guests at our former residence. This house has a more open floor plan, and more space in the kitchen and dining area, so I think that’s a large part of why it felt less like we were bunched together all day.

PJ’s parents hadn’t really spent any time in this part of Wyoming before, so they were looking forward to exploring the area a bit. The weather was cold and snowy for much of the time they were here, and we had lots of inside activities to do (like making Christmas cookies!), so we didn’t do a whole lot outside. We did, however, take them to Devil’s Tower on one of the nicer days. Our family had been to Devil’s Tower once before, though the younger kids were pretty small and didn’t remember it. Our guests had never been there. If you’ve never been, you should definitely take the opportunity if you’re ever in the area. The tower is much more impressive in person than it even is in pictures. Signs on the trail explain some of the geology and history of the area. It’s very interesting. It is also located in a very pretty part of the state (watch for deer on the roads, though, there are a LOT in the area).

It was cold the day we went, but the trail around the tower was clear of snow and ice, and it was still a nice day despite the temperature. (Last time we went it was around the same time of year, but the trail was icy and slick so it wasn’t as nice.) There was only one other car in the parking lot when we pulled in. When we were partway up the trail we saw a couple other cars pull in, but those people must have only gone to the base of the tower because we never actually saw them.

We walked about 1 ¾ miles from our car, around the tower trail, and back. We took about 45 minutes to do so, because we stopped a lot to look at things and take pictures. During that time, we saw five whitetail deer, a few red squirrels, some birds, and only two other people. It was really nice! We felt like we had the place to ourselves.

We saw another car or two just as we were leaving. I think this National Monument is open all year round, but I’m sure it’s much, much busier in the summer than it is in the winter. We saw some more hiking trails we’d like to check out when it warms up, so we’ll be back again.

One of the things I like best is how different the tower looks from all sides as you go around it.

You’re up on a hill, so there are some great views, too.

Lots of people come to climb the tower. I never intend on doing that. Yikes! I’ll keep my feet on the ground, thank you. This is an old stake ladder that you can see through some viewing tubes along the tower trail.

Can you imagine going up that thing? It’s not close to the ground, either. It’s partway up the side of the tower.

After you go past the entrance station, as you come into the area around the tower, there is a prairie dog town there beside the road. We had planned to stop and watch the critters for a bit, but we didn’t see a single one. This caused the kids to wonder if prairie dogs hibernate. No one in the car knew the answer for sure, which led to the kids doing some spontaneous research when we got home. (Spoiler alert – they don’t hibernate, but they also don’t come outside much when it’s too cold.)

There was a big storm predicted for the east coast right when our guests were supposed to head home, so they ended up staying for an extra day to avoid the worst of it. None of us minded the extra time with them! Now that they are back home we are working on getting back into our regular routine, and I am catching up on a bunch of laundry that I let go while they were here. My poor washing machine… 😵

The Christmas season is one of my favorite times of the year. I love seeing the decorations and lights. I like listening to Christmas music and taking part in various holiday activities. I look forward to celebrating advent with our family. It can be a time of mixed emotions for many people though, myself notwithstanding. This year has been especially challenging. Having just moved, I am missing friends and being involved in some of the local activities we traditionally participated in. Last Christmas was also a pretty tumultuous time for me personally, and I can often be triggered by unhappy memories these days. This past Sunday, our pastor said something in his message that really struck me. He was talking about a time when he had to make a long drive through a white-out blizzard. He wanted to stop, but had to press on because it was more dangerous to pull over than it was to keep going. All of a sudden, he drove out of the storm and it was a sunny day. He could see the storm clouds in the rearview mirror. He said that having driven through something like that and come out of it, no one would willingly turn around and go back into it – they’d keep driving forward on the good road. Yet often times when we go through a storm in our lives we keep going back and reliving it. Essentially, his point was that there’s no reason to go back. We should continue moving forward and moving on with our life. Leave the storm behind. Walk in the sun. He also talked about how sometimes we can pray and pray and pray for something and feel like we’re never going to get an answer, and then suddenly God moves and does a miracle. Our circumstances can change in an instant and suddenly the storm is over. His message was an advent message, and I can’t hardly even tell you how this story related to all the rest of his message because it’s just the one part that stuck with me. While I cannot stop myself from remembering things from the past, I can choose how they affect me. It’s just too easy to let a memory cause me to turn around and mentally put myself back into the stormy place. Painful experiences in the past don't have to result in a lifetime of misery. I need to make a decision to see the memory through the rearview mirror of my mind and move forward anyway. Some days are better than others. Some memories are easier to move on from than others. It’s a process, and I’m learning (slowly). I'm so thankful that God empowers us to walk in freedom if we will set our mind on Him.

"For to set the mind on the flesh is death,

but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."

- Romans 8: 6 (ESV)

Awesome Antelope

This year PJ and I were blessed to be able to go antelope hunting for the first time. We both harvested an antelope buck, but this post isn't really about the harvest - it's more about the experience and about the animals. It's about getting outside in the high desert of Wyoming and seeing plenty of wildlife. PJ and I enjoy hunting, but even more than that, we hunt mainly to provide meat for our family. Game meat provides a lean, healthy, and fairly economical source of protein for us. We butchered both antelope ourselves and all the meat is in our freezer now. Hunting gets us out into God's creation, enjoying areas we might otherwise just drive right past. So, regardless of your views on hunting, I hope you can enjoy this post!

PJ has hunted archery before, but this was my first time going out in archery season for any animal. (PJ harvested his buck in archery, but I got mine in rifle season.) It won't be the last time for me! Archery season is so much quieter. You can hear so much more. I've seen antelope plenty of times - driving past them in the car. But I never, ever HEARD an antelope before this fall. You'd think these animals are completely quiet, but get close enough and you'll discover that they sure make some really interesting noises! They have a call (that apparently means "something isn't quite right") that sounds like a buzzing honk/wheeze. That's the best I can describe it. You'll just have to come hear it for yourself!

The animal that we call "antelope" is technically not a true antelope. It's proper name is Pronghorn but not too many people out here actually call it that. In fact, if you want to hunt one you will apply for an antelope license, not a pronghorn license. Among many people here they are somewhat affectionately known as "speed goats". Males (bucks) have horns (not antlers). Females (does) can have horns too, but the horns on the doe are typically very small. A buck is identified by his large, pronged horns and black cheek patch. One thing that makes an antelope unique is that it actually sheds its horns each year, where horned animals typically do not shed their headgear. The horn is actually compressed hair. Pretty interesting.

These are a couple of shed horn sheaths.

We took a crash course in field judging antelope from our friend who was hunting with us. From what I can tell, this is a pretty good buck:

Definitely larger than the average bucks that we saw. You can see the "prongs" on the horns which give them their proper name. Each buck can be pretty unique. You can have individuals like that guy where the horns curve towards each other in the center, nearly touching each other. You can have ones where the horns stand more straight up, or ones where they are laid out more towards the sides.

You can even have some like this fellow below!

In this picture (below), you can take a pretty good look at another interesting physical feature of this animal - its mane. The mane on an antelope is a line of darker, longer hair that runs up the back of its neck.

These are very wary animals, and they see danger pretty much everywhere. And they are fast. Sneaking up on one is no easy task! One part of what made the hunt so fun is that we saw so many animals! Probably hundreds of antelope just in the relatively small area in which we were hunting. Get too close too quickly and this is the view you'll get:

This isn't a super good picture, but if you look you can kind of see that they puff out their white, uh, bottoms when they are alarmed. I'm assuming this is an alarm signal to other antelope, much the same as the way a whitetail deer flags its tail when it is running away from a perceived threat.

You'd think, until you actually get out there and start walking it, that the area in which these guys live is fairly flat. It looked mostly flat where we were hunting. But as you start walking across that "flat" landscape you start to find hills and valleys and ravines that you had no idea were there. And there are usually more antelope around every corner too.

The antelope fawns in this picture (above) are already a few months old. Really little antelope fawns are my favorite wildlife babies. They are just really, really cute. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of a really small one, so you'll have to consult the internet if you want to see one. :)

We also came across a den of fox kits. They were awfully cute, and not really afraid. We happened to spot them while we were driving and we sat in the car and watched them for a minute or two before they decided they'd better head for cover. Three of them went down into the den. The fourth got spooked when we started driving and took off the opposite direction from the den. We were driving on the road, but he must have thought we were coming right behind him through the sagebrush because he was ducking and weaving all over in an attempt to get away (from something that wasn't even chasing him). It looked so funny. Their tail is as big as their body and we could just see that big, fluffy tail darting around wildly between the sagebrush and weeds.

I apologize for the quality of the next two pictures, but the yawn and the stretch were so cute (even if they turned out horribly out of focus and the color is all wonky).

Thankfully I did get a couple of better shots, too!

We saw lots of birds too, and heard even more than we saw. One time when we were walking we spooked a great-horned owl out of a tree. They are so amazingly silent when they fly. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get a picture.

Our hunting trips this year were the first times that PJ and I left the kids with someone else overnight in at least five or six years (maybe ever), and it was great. I love being with my kids, but it was definitely nice to have some time alone with my husband again. We spent a lot of time talking, and we realized that it was the first time in a really long time that we had been able to carry on an extended conversation without being interrupted!  It got me remembering a little of what life had been like during the first few years of our marriage... What was that, like, a century ago now? Haha.

We spent one night camping in the back of our truck. It was really uncomfortable and cold, and the moon was so bright that we had a terrible time falling asleep. And I should have thought to use the facilities before I got into the back of the truck, because trying to crawl out of the back window was even worse than crawling in had been. (PJ was laughing at me mercilessly.) But as I stepped out of the truck and into the silence of that place at night and took in a deep breath of that fresh, crisp air... it was as if I was breathing in peace itself. I just stood there and let it soak into my soul. Breathe out, and the tension went with it. There is just nothing like a quiet wild place to restore your soul - a place where you can actually be still, and the pressures of the world and of your daily life can wait until tomorrow while you relax and connect with God in the glorious wonder of His creation. Take in a sunset. Take in a sunrise. Breathe. And know that God is good.

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, 

the livestock according to their kinds, 

and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. 

And God saw that it was good.

-Genesis 1: 25 (NIV)

 

A-Hiking We Will Go

As of this Monday, Yellowstone's roads (well, most of them) closed to vehicle travel. Now they'll let the snow pile up and sometime in December the park will open to oversnow travel. Someday I'd love to go to Yellowstone in the winter. It would be a whole different experience than driving it! You can ski, snowshoe, snowmobile, or travel by snow coach. Some friends of ours went in by snow coach recently (within the last year or two) and they said it was amazing. I guess, from what I've read, that you actually can drive into the Park in winter from the North Entrance (Gardiner, MT) and you can go down to Mammoth Hot Springs and drive through the Lamar Valley and go as far as the Northeast Entrance. I'm not sure if that would be worth it, though, for the distance that we would have to drive.

While winter in Yellowstone is on my wish list, for now I will just have to settle for seeing the Park during the warmer months of the year. The last time we were there for the year was while my family was out to visit in September. I know I already shared a bunch of pictures from the time while they were here, but I've still got more! (That shouldn't surprise you at all...) If you're not into another post chock-full of pictures then you might want to skip over to another blog. :) Not all these pictures are from Yellowstone, so I captioned them for you.

These first two pictures are some of my favorites! These two (plus the three after them) are from a short hike we took with the kids and my parents. We didn't have to go far from home, and we had a ton of fun exploring.

 A few days later we headed off for Yellowstone and the Tetons (see more about that here and here). We didn't even make it into the Park before we saw this fellow:
(Remember? I promised you more bear pictures! Here you go...)

 She (or he) was running around right by the side of the road, and was clearly agitated (though the pictures don't really show it). I was glad to be IN the car and farther away from the bear than these zoomed in pictures would lead you to believe. I think this was a young grizzly, as it seemed to be on the small side. I'm guessing one of last year's cubs, but that is a totally uneducated guess.

This bear seemed to want to cross the road, as she started across a couple of times, but there was a lot of traffic and she kept turning back around. You could tell by her body language that she was getting really worked up. Eventually (after a few minutes) she took off running in the opposite direction and disappeared into the forest. Neat to see, but soooo glad I was in my car and not on foot or horseback for the encounter!

These two pictures are from Lake Butte Overlook in Yellowstone. Thus this body of water would be Yellowstone Lake. So much blue!

I love this picture, too! This is from the Tetons of course. Sometimes you feel so small...

We also went on a hike in the Tetons! This sign was at the trailhead... making sure everyone that goes hiking there is prepared for surprise encounters. We had multiple cans of bear spray with us. We definitely weren't hiking alone. And with six kids along we totally had the "make noise" point well covered. (Trust me.)

While in Yellowstone we also went to see Old Faithful. This is Old Faithful! Zoomed way in from where we were sitting at the viewing area, this is the geyser cone. The eruption prediction was a little off this time, so I was playing with my camera while we waited. Look how you can see the heat vapors in the upper right corner! 

Here is the cone again, just zoomed out a little farther this time. As we were waiting, the sun kept getting lower and lower in the sky. We thought maybe we'd get to see a sunset-lit geyser, which would have been cool, but then the sun sank below the edge of the hill and it started getting dark fast.

So this is what we ended up with! The last remaining sunlight just caught the top of the steam plume. Still pretty cool. :) Old Faithful is always a favorite with the kids.

We went out of the Park and returned a couple days later, this time via the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway and the Northeast Entrance. When you go that way you can stop and check out the Clark's Fork Canyon! (It's much more impressive in person. The picture just does not do it justice.)

 Something to keep in mind if you're out driving in Wyoming... some areas are still open range. Which means that it's not just wildlife and sightseers that you have to watch out for on the road, but livestock as well. Drive carefully!

We stopped at a picnic area just inside the Park entrance for lunch. Not only was the scenery pretty awesome...

...but the neighbors weren't bad either! Right across from the picnic area was this rocky mountainside. It's a little hard to see, but there are four mountain goats up there (three close together and one by itself)! We also saw eight other mountain goats in the area, but those were all much farther away and I got even worse pictures of them.

After lunch we drove down to the Canyon area, to Artist's Point. Isn't this a great picture? It really makes you feel like you're all alone with nature. Ahhh...
(Not pictured: the crowd behind me that you could barely walk through, brought there in part by a dozen or more tour buses. It seemed like a crazy amount of people for the off season! It was nearly October, for goodness sakes!)

Well, for this view I guess it's worth fighting the crowds (at least once in a while).

We left all the crowds back at Canyon and headed towards the East Entrance. What a way to top off the day! We found this big griz down by the shore of Yellowstone Lake. We stopped to watch him, and were able to stay for a while because there weren't too many people stopped there, or too much traffic.

He crossed the road and went walking right out into the lake.

Just taking a bath? There was a big shallow area there, and he just ambled along through the water for a long time with no apparent purpose in mind.

 The geese didn't seem concerned by his presence at all. We enjoyed watching him for a long time, but eventually we had to leave him where he was (still in the lake) and head for home. Until next time...

"How many are your works, Lord!
    In wisdom you made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures."

-Psalm 104: 24