Wildflowers of Yellowstone

I'm working on a post about my in-laws coming to visit, and our trip to Yellowstone together, but it is going to be a long one and it is taking me forever to put it together.  We were in Yellowstone in the beginning of June and the wildflowers were amazing.  So until my other post is finished, go ahead and enjoy the wildflowers of Yellowstone!  (I tried to identify them as best as I could.)

 Hood's Phlox -or- Many-Flowered Phlox

Wax Currant

Moss on Tree Trunk, Wax Currant in Background

Prairie Smoke

Unknown Variety of Arnica, with Phlox

Showy Green Gentian (my favorite because it is so unique)

Lupine (bud)

Bastard Toadflax (yeah, really...)

 Possibly Rabbitfoot Crazyweed

Unknown Variety of Larkspur

Unknown (tiny yellow flower found in the thermal area at Mammoth Hot Springs)

Slimpod Shooting Star

Lodgepole Pine

Yellow Monkey Flower (found in what I believe is an old steam vent in the area around Old Faithful)

Fringed Gentian

Lupine

Isn't God such an amazing and creative creator?

"Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

 Psalm 8:1

No One Spoils You Like an Aunt

Continuing on with the catching-up theme...

Just a couple of weeks after my parents headed home, my sister-in-law came out to visit. (We've really been getting spoiled by having so many visitors lately... I love having people here!)

We had another storm move through the area while she was here, so we were able to treat her to some great wildlife-spotting as well! In fact, as you'll see from the pictures, it was snowing for much of the time we were out on our drive.

We saw some elk and mule deer hanging out in a field pretty near town. As we continued to drive, we came around a corner and saw... this:

Silly sheep. Laying in the road for the warmth I guess. We snapped a couple of pictures before slowly moving the car forward. Closer... Closer... I kept thinking that surely they would soon get up, but they didn't. Finally I had to stop. I saw another car coming up behind us. It was no use. Those sheep would have to be moved. I tapped on the horn once and that's all it took. They all hopped up and began moving off the road to the left, until a single dissenter went right. (Look! There she is!)

And they all followed her. Back across the road they went where they were confronted with a guardrail in their way. So, we sat and waited while each sheep walked in front of us, stepped up to the the guardrail and jumped over it from a standstill. 

They were fun to watch. After we left them behind, we came across many more groups of bighorns, several that were quite large. The scenery was great, too. Aspens are always beautiful, even when they don't have leaves on (they're my favorite tree).

We also saw a lot of elk.

Photo session OVER. :)

Heed the warning sign!!!

Here's my little mountain girl.

Aunt J. really wanted to see a buffalo. We didn't see any on the way up, but after we turned around and headed back towards town we spotted these big bruisers. (Heavy merge area – ha ha.)

And to finish our trip – some pictures of the snow.

The kids had a great time with Aunt J (after all, no one spoils you like an aunt, right?). They went to the park with her every day it was nice out. She also attended a friend's birthday party with us and accompanied us to the library. She dumped french fries all over the bottom of the oven while making lunch (hee hee, sorry J., just had to put that in). We had fun!

While she was here, I happened to see a recipe someone pinned or posted for single-serving cake that you make in the microwave. The only ingredients are cake mix and water, so we decided to try it out one night after the kids had gone to bed. It was supposed to be on the healthier side, low-calorie or low-fat or something. And it tasted like it. Bleh. However, feeling rather adept in the kitchen after the french fry incident (lol), we decided that we could certainly improve upon the original and proceeded to spend an undisclosed amount of time microwaving (and laughing hysterically) before we achieved... SUCCESS! (At the expense of some added calories and fat – but chocolate chips will do that, won't they?)

The hubby and I even got spoiled a little bit too. Aunt J offered to watch the kids while we went out on a date (for the first time in I-don't-know-how-long), and she even blessed us with some cash to pay for dinner! We enjoyed our dinner then decided to go for a drive. Ended up doing a little bit of four-wheelin'... We drove 20 some miles on a dirt road up through a mountainous area just outside of town. One hour of driving and we had only mule deer and antelope for our company. I was hoping to spot some wild horses as well (there is a large herd in the area), but no luck there. It was our first time driving this road and although I spent some of the time biting my nails (it was STEEP in spots!), I have to say that it was pretty awesome and we'll probably do it again some time. We ended up at the top of the mountain just before sunset. I was a wonderfully clear evening, and you could see FOREVER. We spotted a mountain peak that is over 90 miles away (driving distance – I don't know how far it would be “as the crow flies”)! I could hardly believe that I was actually seeing it, but it is a pretty distinctive peak and very easy to identify. I really wish I had brought my camera along, but it was a spur of the moment decision to take that drive. (And I don't typically bring my camera along for a dinner date...) After we got back into town, we decided to try out a frozen yogurt bar for dessert, which ended up being really fun.

Yup, we had quite the week. Thanks for everything, sis!

We Had Visitors

Well, so much for my “new-post-every-week” idea. That lasted all of one month. Ha! (I should have known better...) I've gotten a wee bit behind on posting here. We've actually had visitors THREE times in the last two months. My parents were here in mid-April, my sister-in-law came out two weeks after they left and my in-laws were here just last week. So, I'm backtracking here a little bit.  I've had this post about my parent's visit written up and ready to go for a while, but I just haven't had opportunity to get it online yet.  Here ya' go:

We only had a few days with my parents, so we spent a lot of time around the house just relaxing and enjoying each others company. But we also got out a bit! Did a little eating out, a little shopping (mostly of the “window” variety), spent a little time at the park and the library... The weather during their visit was interesting, to say the least. Up until a week or so before they arrived, the temperatures had been warm and the skies had been sunny. But, it seems like every time they come to Wyoming, it rains (or snows). And this time was no exception. The weather turned colder, we had spritzes of rain, and it snowed (at least a little) almost every day they were here.

Interestingly, the weather turned out to be a great advocate on our sight-seeing day! Because when it storms... the animals come down out of the high mountains to where they are easily spotted. Perfect timing! The evening before our planned excursion we were planning to stop by a local store just to get out of the house, but when we got there they were already closed. After a few minutes of indecision, we decided to drive up one of the highways out of town as far as we could before it got dark, just to see what we could see. We were much enjoying the beautiful views of the mountains at dusk and watching the lights come on at various outposts across the valley, but we decided to turn around and head back before the daylight was completely gone. As we headed back towards town there was just the faintest amount of daylight remaining – just enough to tint the sky a deep shade of blue in the west. We saw brake lights up ahead of us and began slowing down. (The highway we were traveling is notorious for deer in the road.) When we got up to the (fully) stopped vehicle, we saw large dark forms moving across the road in front of it. Lots of them. What were they? Deer? It was so dark it was hard to see them.

Elk! We watched them cross until there was a break in the group, then moved slowly forward. As we turned to look behind us for a last glimpse of them before heading home, we were rewarded with the sight of black elk bodies standing out against the deep blue of the western twilight sky as they waited on top of a small ridge to descend and cross the road. It was absolutely beautiful. (And none of us had cameras, so you'll have to picture it in your mind's eye.) A few minutes later, my husband memorialized the moment for us with the use of some odd vocabulary (not an unusual occurrence - lol). “It was great seeing those elk figurined against the sky.” Laughter ended the (almost) reverent feel of the moment.

Up until that point we had been a little undecided about where we would head on our trip the next day, but that settled it for us. We left town right after lunch for an afternoon go-where-we-might adventure. 

Straight up the highway, just past “Figurine Point” (haha), lo and behold... there they were. We pulled off the road to park so we could watch and photograph a herd of over 100 elk, just grazing and relaxing in a large pasture.

We stayed there for a little while before getting back on the road. After passing countless mule deer, we made our way up to where the highway enters the national forest land. Right at that point we ran across our third big game animal of the day – bighorn sheep (at this point also, it started drizzling rain). We spotted a few sheep way up on the hillside and stopped so we could get a closer look and see if any of them were rams. I was not expecting to see rams down from the mountain at this time of the year, but it seems that the snows had moved them down, because we quickly spotted this manly group:

A little farther down the road we came upon a smaller ram and two ewes right beside the road.

And a bit farther still we found a larger group of ewes close to the road. After this group of sheep, we also spotted several more large groups that we farther off the road. There were sheep everywhere! 

As we drove farther up, we also passed several smaller groups of elk.

There were quite a few birds out as well. Mountain bluebirds seemed to be all over the place. We also saw some geese, hawks and a bald eagle (picture is just of a raven, but neat-looking anyway).

At one point early in the day, I had asked our daughter what animal she would like to see. Her answer was “buffalo”. She was excited about seeing all the elk and deer and sheep (and the domestic horses we passed in the valley), and then we found “her” animal!

We passed five of these big bruisers right beside the road. I snapped a few pictures, but we weren't about to park our car right alongside them to get some better shots. I wasn't really interested in paying for bodywork (yeah - these guys have been known to total vehicles that get a bit too close). One of the bulls was so close to the road that we could have about reached right out the window and touched his shaggy hide as we drove past. We didn't, and we won't (because we know better). But I wonder what it would have felt like...

About when we saw the buffalo, or a little before that, it had changed from light rain to snow flurries. As we kept on driving deeper into the mountains, the snow kept getting heavier and heavier. Finally we decided to turn around, because it was snowing so much that we couldn't really spot any animals anyway (and besides, we were only a few miles from the end of the road). As we drove back towards town, I kept expecting the snow to change back to rain... but it didn't. We drove right with the storm all the way back into town. I love when it snows. (By the way, the big elk herd was still in the same place when we came back by. They must have stayed there all day long.)

 

The next day we had a birthday party for our now two-year-old little girl! It was actually a few days before her birthday, but we wanted to celebrate with Grandma & Grandpa while they were here. We had a fun lunch with some friends, followed up by cake and ice cream of course, then presents for the birthday girl.

The next day we had to take Grandma & Grandpa back to the airport for their flight home. It sure seemed like they weren't here long enough! That night, our daughter was protesting her bedtime. She stood near the doorway of her bedroom and emphatically said, “I want Grandma.” I tried to explain that Grandma had gone home, but that wasn't cutting it. “I want Grandma!” Then she stamped her little foot. “I want Grandma!!” Then she jumped up and down. “I want Grandma!!!” Hmmm... I guess it sunk in then that Grandma couldn't come and tuck her in, because she quieted down and went to lay down in her bed. As I tucked the covers around her, she looked in my face and quietly said, “I want Grandpa.”

Me, too, little girl. Me too.

Mountain Ice

A Question for You: When you see ice cascading down the side of a steep, rocky mountain like a frozen waterfall, what thoughts go through your head?

 

We'll come back to that later, but first...

When my hubby and I got married and moved to Wyoming for the first time, one of our favorite things to do was to go driving. We would take a day (or half a day) and head out in the car with the dogs and go exploring. We liked looking for wildlife, taking pictures, getting out and hiking with the dogs, picking out places we'd like to live and so on. We haven't done a lot of that lately, for a couple of reasons: 1) Gas costs $3.21/gallon (that figure is already outdated...) 

and 2) Kids don't sit in the car for long periods of time quite as well as dogs do. But, this past Saturday was just a beautiful, clear day, and we hadn't done a family activity in a little while, so off we went! In the car with snacks, boots, hats and coats... and The Wheels on the Bus cd... we made a stop at the store for batteries for the camera and a stop for gas and we were on our way.

I refuse to bring the portable DVD player along when we do stuff like this. Sure, we usually have to endure some degree of whining, but I feel like when we go for drives like this if we just stick the kids in front of a movie for the whole time then they aren't really a part of the activity. And if there's nothing to see in the car... they will look out the windows! It is amazing how much they notice, even with as young as they are. They will comment on stuff they see and ask questions about it, ask questions about stuff that we are talking about that we saw, etc. Our son is just over three and a half, and he knew that we were driving down a road that was unfamiliar to him, because about ten minutes into the trip he started saying that he didn't know where we were going, he didn't know this road, and he was worried because he didn't know how to get back home. (Of course we reassured him that daddy knew exactly where he was going and how to get home.) Lately whenever we get in the car and start driving, he'll tell us where a certain road that we're on goes (to the storage unit, to the post office, to his friend's house, etc.), and he's rarely wrong! They really do notice more than you'd think! On our trip this day, we had stopped at one point and I was taking some pictures of a group of deer that were pretty close to the road. I was not thinking about what our daughter was doing in the backseat, but when we started to pull away she waved and said, “Bye-bye, deer!” She's not even two yet, but she can spot a deer in the sagebrush like you would not believe! (We see them regularly right beside our apartment building, so she has lots of practice. She's even spotted them on days when I have missed them!)

I took this picture right from our apartment window a few days ago:

 

As we drove, we saw:

Bighorn Sheep (Just some ewes this time. At this time of the year most of the rams have started to move back up into the remote mountain regions since the breeding season is finished.)

 

Pronghorn (I caught these critters as they were going under a fence. It was funny watching them. They lined up single file and went through one at a time.)

Mule deer

 

Whitetail deer, red-tailed hawks and chukars. (Sorry, I didn't get pictures of these guys.)

We also picked out a number of places that we would really like to live! We dream of having a place with a few acres so we can garden and raise a few animals and give our kids the country life like we both had growing up. There's just something about it...

The scenery was just gorgeous, especially as we got back farther into the valley. It always is... but I love it even more with all the snow on the mountains.

 

It was a really windy day, and one tall snow-capped mountain was covered by a haze of blowing snow. It was really wild looking.

 

Coming back to our previous question about the ice, I personally would think, “Wow! Look at that – how beautiful!”, or something along those lines, and then I would probably take a picture of it. In fact, that's exactly what I did do. However, there are some people in this world that see something like that and say, “Cool! Let's climb it!” Which camp are you in???

If ice climbing sounds exciting to you, you might want to come to Wyoming in winter! You may not have known that our area is a popular destination for ice climbers, but it's true – we're not just known for rodeo! As we drove, we passed by a number of vehicles parked along the road and at the trailheads. We drove through a small campground and it was pretty full – including some tenters. I mean, it was a nice day... but it was still pretty COLD (especially up in the mountains), and it was snowy – not my idea of camping weather. When we got to the end of the road, the parking lot at the trailhead there was full of vehicles. Apparently it was a great day for ice climbing. (We did find out later that it was the weekend of the annual ice climbing festival.)

We stopped there for a little while so that I could get out and take some pictures of the mountains. It was a great day for taking pictures, too! As I was exiting the car, I mentioned to my hubby that it would be neat if we could see some people ice climbing (at first glance, we didn't see anyone on the mountain). While I was snapping away, he was watching the mountain. There was one large ice formation that we could see pretty good from where we were, and after a few minutes he rolled the window down and told me that he thought he could see someone moving up there. We had forgotten the binoculars, so I zoomed my camera in as far as it would go, took a picture, then reviewed it and zoomed in even more and lo and behold...

 

Climbers! I'm willing to bet you didn't spot them in the picture at the very beginning... but if you did – good for you! You must have eagle eyes!

 

Here's a zoomed out view of where they were climbing. Pretty impressive, I think!

Those guys look pretty tiny compared to that massive mountain. And the distance they would have had to hike from the parking lot is pretty impressive in and of itself! (And this was probably one of the closer climbs to the parking lot, since it was the only one we could really see.) I wish we would have remembered to bring our binoculars. I would have liked to sit there for a little while longer and watch them climb. But, we turned around and headed back home.

We had been planning to get out of the car and go for a short walk near that parking area, let the kids tromp in the snow a little, but our son had fallen asleep and it was pretty chilly out there so we decided to skip it. An hour later, when we got home and he woke up, he was horribly disappointed. I felt so bad. I didn't know he was counting on it so much. There were tears... We'll have to get out again soon. Unfortunately the kids and I have all been battling colds for the past week or two, so we've been spending a lot of time cooped up in our little apartment. I think we're all going a little stir-crazy. Time to get healthy already!!!

So, all in all our trip took less than three hours, we drove about 100 miles round trip on pavement and gravel, we saw gorgeous scenery, people involved in extreme sports, four species of big game animals and several different types of birds... Have I mentioned that I love where I live?!?

“For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods.

In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.”

-Psalm 95: 3-4 (NIV 1984)