Idaho

The last night near Glacier National Park was our last camping day of our trip.  While we enjoyed camping, it was nice that this was our last time having to pack up our camping stuff.  We fortunately had a bright sunny morning so we could pack up a dry tent.  This was the first time we were able to pack up a dry tent the entire trip.  Every other night it had either rained or the dew was pretty thick in the morning, so portions of our tent were wet.  While there has been rain some evenings we've had some great weather during the day so we can't complain.  

As mentioned in our last post, we left the campground and stopped by the visitor's center to get the kids their constellation/astronomy junior ranger badges and then headed to our next destination - Yellowstone.

While in route we decided it would be a good day to get an oil change.  Our car tracks the oil quality percentage so we know when to change the oil when the percentage gets to 10% or below.  That happened after driving around 7,000 miles.  We stopped at a Wal-Mart to get our car serviced and had lunch while we waited.  It was an effective stop.  

We have some friends who graciously let us stay at their family cabin.  It's about 30 minutes outside of West Yellowstone.  We typed the address in google maps and were directed to our destination.  As we got closer we were instructed to turn on a dirt road.  Since it was a cabin that seemed realistic.  It wasn't too bad at first and then there were larger troughs and uneven terrain.  A dune buggy passed us going quite fast and it did look like a great spot for four wheeling.  We eventually came to a section where pine trees hugged the road and brushed our car as we went forward.  At this point it didn't seem like we were on the right road, but all the roads had street names.  We eventually came to a fence that said no vehicles beyond this point.  We then knew for sure this wasn't the way to get there.  

This adventure reminded us of a scene from The Office when Michael drives into lake while following GPS directions.  We had a good laugh at ourselves.  Here's a picture of the road we were on.  It doesn't do the travel justice and we should have taken a picture at the end of the trail to show how close the trees were to the road.  

We eventually arrived at the cabin around 7 pm.  Patrick was looking at the map and noticed that BYU - Idaho, in Rexburg, ID, was only an hour away from the cabin.  (Side note:  Patrick and Emily attend the main BYU campus in Provo, UT.  There are two sister schools; one in Rexburg, ID and one in Laie, HI.)  We had planned on just relaxing at the cabin before going to bed and getting ready for Yellowstone.  However we weren't sure if we'd be near Rexburg in the future so we decided to make the drive for a quick visit.

We wouldn't normally drive an hour to visit a college campus for only an hour, but one of the buildings on campus is named after Emily's great grandfather, Spencer W. Kimball, in honor of his life of service.  There is a small exhibit about his life in that building.  We wanted the kids to learn a little more about their great great grandfather.

Here the family is looking at some personal artifacts.  You can see his and Camilla's 50th wedding anniversary picture and his favorite hat.

The boys really enjoyed the exhibit and Brian wanted to spend more time there.  Unfortunately, they were locking up the building and we had to leave.

Here is Brian next to some other artifacts.  Towards the bottom of the picture you can see President Kimball in front of the Washington, DC temple.

Here is Mia next to the display case.  You'll notice the shoes at the end of the case.  You can't see it well in the picture, but they are well worn and have a hole in the soles.  Spencer was a very hard worker and thrifty.  At one point a man gave him $40 to buy new shoes.  He hesitantly accepted the money and donated it.  Later, the same man noticed he had the same shoes on he was going to give him another $40.  Spencer told the man, "My life is like my shoes.  Worn out by service."  He was a great man, a hard worker, and a great example.

After walking around campus we went to the local Frontier Pies restaurant.

While we had another late night we had a great visit and were glad we went.

Glacier National Park

We left Banff around 8:45 am on Wednesday morning.  Here is the US Customs as we came back to the United States.

We got to Glacier National Park around 1:30 pm, but we were too late to get a campsite at any of the park campgrounds on the east side.  The park ranger provided us a listing of privately operated campgrounds nearby.  We went to the closest one called the Duck Lake Lodge.  When we arrived Emily quickly said, "We're not staying here."  Unfortunately we didn't take a picture and it's hard to describe the general feel for the area, but it wasn't for us.  We decided to live large and stay at a KOA that was pretty close to the St. Mary’s park entrance.  It turned out to be a convenient location.  We set up camp there and headed to Two Medicine to do the hike to Aster Falls.  It was a pretty easy hike, about 2.5 miles.  Some hikers told us a moose was near the marsh, but when we got there it was gone.  We were prepared for the hike with water and snacks, but we forgot to bring our camera.  Most of the hike was like walking through a prairie – not too exciting.  But the falls at the end were beautiful.  We grabbed a picture off the web to help remind us of the falls.

Here is a picture of the scenery as we drove to the Two Medicine area.

When we got back to the campsite, we went to the pool and took showers.  It felt nice to be clean. We had hot dogs and s'mores for dinner, which is the kids' favorite camping meal.

The camping spots at the KOA were small and our site had a slight incline.  When we woke up the kids had slid down towards the opening of the tent.  You'll notice Mia isn't in the picture.  She had sneaked into Emily's sleeping bag to get warm.

The next day we drove the Going to the Sun road.  It basically splits the park in half and is a winding switch-back road.  At times the road is on the edge of the cliff and there isn't much parking or viewing areas.  The motorcycle riders had it pretty easy.

The kids earned their Junior Ranger badges at Glacier National Park.  Here they are outside the St. Mary's Visitor's Center.  They got their packets the day before and finished them in the morning before our drive.  They really enjoy the workbooks.  They learn quite a bit, and they teach us some things, too.

Here are some pictures we took of the area.  We didn't have a guide and it was hard to identify what we were looking at, so we don't know what's in most of the pictures, but they were scenic views.

We saw quite a few mountain goats.  This was one we took from our car as we were driving on the road.

Notice the cliff to the right and the small guard rail on your left.  This road is not for the faint of heart.

Brian and Andrew taught Mia how to do binocular eyes.  It kept them occupied.  We also tried the game our friend suggested and had a contest to see who could keep a marshmallow in their mouth the longest. The kids loved the game.  Mia won the first round surprising all of us.  Brian won the second and last game since there were no more marshmallows.

One of the activities we planned was a horseback ride.  Mia was too young so we were going to split up and take turns, but there wasn't enough time so Emily went with Brian and Andrew on the ride.  The boys were excited, and Emily was happy to relive her childhood days at her Grandparents' farm.

Andrew getting on his horse, Casper.  Emily was already on Cletus.

Brian getting on his horse, Digger.

Some more pictures of them as they head off on their one hour adventure ride.

The boys loved their horseback ride and wanted to do it again.  Emily enjoyed the ride, too, but would have liked to see more things or ride a little faster.  Maybe next time.

This place will usually give the kids who can't go a pony ride, but that day they didn't have a pony so Mia got to ride a real horse.  She rode Hall for about 5 minutes as the guide walked the horse around. 

So what else do Patrick and Mia do while everyone else is on their ride?  Get some ice cream of course.

After the horse back ride we went to the Apgar Village, which is close to the end of the Going to the Sun road near Lake McDonald.  We were there to explore the lake, but on our way we saw the exhibit below. They had two solar telescopes, which allowed us to look at the sun.  We saw sun spots and sunbursts.  It was pretty neat.  They have an astronomy junior ranger program so the kids got new booklets to complete.  At night they have different telescopes to see the other stars in space.  The kids finished their books and we went to the area where the ranger told us they would be, but they weren't there.  I guess they got the time and place wrong.  The kids were bummed they didn't get to see the stars or get their badges, so we stopped by the visitor's center the next morning and they gave them the badges.

We were able to explore the lake on kayaks.  It was a calm day so it was easy to maneuver around the lake.  The weather was perfect and the water felt refreshing.

Mia was able to sit on a padded seat so we could fit three in one kayak and two in the other.

Mia getting her turn to row.  She did a great job.

This was a good pose for Andrew.  He liked to relax on the kayak while Patrick got a workout.

We saw the Avalanche Falls on our way back along the Going to the Sun road.

Some pictures from the drive back.

On the way back we saw a bear cub on the street.  We got a great view from the car.

 

A snow tunnel along the road.

A mountain goat crossing the road nonchalantly.

 It might have been going to its family that was close by on this hill.

 There were huge ravens everywhere.  They make a loud caw.  We usually heard them in the morning in Banff to help wake us up.

 We tried going to the Logan Pass visitor's center on our first trip down the Going to the Sun road, but the parking lot was full and many people were circling trying to get a spot.  We decided to try it on the way back and there a lot more spots then.  We went on a 3 mile hike to the Hidden Lake.  Here are some pictures from the hike.

 Brian spotted this goat.  It was well camouflaged in the snow.

 Notice the goat in the background.  It was probably 15 feet away.

Here's a close up shot of the goat.

Notice the two sheep on the ridge.

 It was Mia's turn to take a picture of Daddy and Mommy.  You can see Hidden Lake in the background.  This was our turnaround point.  There is a trail that allows you to walk down to the lake, but it was closed due to bears in the area.

 At the end of the trail we saw a momma goat and her kid.

Here the kids are enjoying this refreshing area that was blowing cold wind off the waterfall and snow in the shade.  It was really nice.

 The kids playing in the snow that covered a section of the trail.

Hopefully you can see the various colors in the rock behind the kids.  It was very pretty.

 

An animal we spotted on the trail, but we're not sure what it was - maybe a marmot?

 A big-horn sheep very close to the road.  It crossed the street in front of us.

 As we left the park we got this picture of Wild Goose Island in the St. Mary Lake.

When we returned to our campsite we quickly cooked a stew for dinner and headed back to the visitor's center hoping to see the stars through the telescope.  As noted above, that didn't happen so it was back to the tent to get ready for our next day.