Sawtell Peak - Day 2

So this is the sweet cabin we stayed in. You can kind of get an idea of the size of it from my two nephews on the left side of the picture. There were two bedrooms on the bottom floor (Jeremy & Alissa and Krysta & Paul) and two at the top (mom & dad and Bryan & I). The middle level is the kitchen and large living area where the kids (&Ali) slept. 

Ali and Jordyn hanging out on the upper balcony. Right inside the screen door is where Bryan and I stayed. We slept each night with the door open - good sleeping weather! I swear we heard a bat flapping around out there one night... it could have just been a ginormous mosquito though. My dad went on and on about a giant rock chuck(?) that was staring him down the first night we arrived but I digress...

The kids put up and took down the flag each morning and night. That was cool.

Grandma came prepared with lots of crafts for the kids to do!

   

The neighbors came by and told us about a "scenic" drive up to Sawtell Peak and so naturally the kids, Bryan, Ali, Jeremy & Dad wanted to go. We could see the mountain across the valley and there was a huge globe shape on top. I normally do NOT do "scenic" drives because unfortunately I get car sick ridiculously easily. Somehow I was talked into going on this trip.

I found this description on BigSkyFishing.com: The Sawtell Peak Scenic Drive is a short, twelve-mile route that climbs to the top of the 9875-foot summit of Sawtell Peak. The route follows a well-conditioned gravel road (ha!), called Sawtell Peak Road, between the town of Island Park, Idaho, and Sawtell Summit.

From the summit, the views of the surrounding area are magnificent. (True, true!) From the top, the visitor gets superb views of Yellowstone National Park, the Centennial Valley in Montana, Henrys Lake in Idaho and the Madison Valley in Montana. The Grand Tetons in Wyoming and the Pioneer Mountains in Montana are also visible way off in the distance.

The Sawtell Peak Road, while in good condition, does climb quite steeply (Really?) and has many sharp turns and switchbacks (You don't say?). Due to the steep nature of the climb, cars with trailers, while not prohibited, aren’t advised. A normal passenger, however, will have no problems (Ha!!) driving the route except during periods of extremely wet weather.

I was definitely in full freak-out mode on this well-conditioned gravel road. I'm pretty sure Cara has some incriminating video of me on her camera phone... However once we got to the summit the views were spectacular. It was gorgeous!! And windy.

Did I mention windy??

 

Apparently  the FAA operates a flight traffic control radar station from the summit. This is what we could see from way down at the cabin.

It was all fun and games until this happened...

 and this...

 
Everyone but me thought that posing like you were falling off of a 9,000 ft tall mountain was the funniest thing ever... I'm a fuddy-duddy... They were on a ledge... It scared me. Moving on...

After enduring the high winds and taking in the majestic views on all sides we set off back down the mountain gravel road. But we had to stop for a quick snowball fight! Who doesn't love playing in the snow in July??

 

 

It was a fun adventure and I am glad they talked me into going!

Yellowstone Day 1

My dad's secretary has a cabin located in Island Park, Idaho and she graciously let our family stay there for the entire first week of July. Island park is about 20 minutes from the West Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. All of my siblings, their spouses and kids were able to come which is awesome! (Jill, Jared & Maya weren't able to join us until Wednesday night so they won't be in any of the first 3 days of photos.)

This is at the Yellowstone National Park Information Center. They had many hands-on things for the kids to attack each other with look at and we learned what kind of animals we could expect to get to see while in the park.

 Various animal pelts... (yuck!) Tyson, Cara, Jordyn, Thomas, Rusty

The West Entrance of Yellowstone. It was quite a busy time for the park!

Our first stop was the Lower Geyser Basin. There were many small geysers and paint pots here along the walking pathways.

This is what the kids thought of them... They did smell of sulphur...

This one sounded like a jet plane when it gurgled and burbled.

  

 

We stopped for a picnic lunch break of sandwiches, chips, and fruit.

 The see-saw the girls made from two logs after they were finished eating! Clever!

Love this picture!

 The next stop was at the Midway Geyser Basin. This is the Firehole River running past. You can see the walking pathways that lead up and around the geysers to view. 

The orange color is caused by bacteria.

 Aunt Alison and the kids.

 The Boyer clan and Ron Washington (on Bryan's shirt...)

 After we hiked Midway Geyser Basin Bryan snuck up behind Cara at the edge of the river and scared her to death. It was pretty funny.

 Moving on to Old Faithful, the most well-known geyser in the world. We had to wait only 20 minutes after arrival for the geyser to erupt. There are bleacher seats all the way around the front of Old Faithful.

 Before Old Faithful blew it was smoking a bit...

 Getting started...

 Whoa!

 We learned that if Old Faithful's eruption lasts under 2.5 minutes it will go off again in about an hour but if the eruption is longer than 2.5 minutes (ours was) then it will be an hour and a half before it blows again. After we watched Old Faithful blow we went to the Visitors Center where there were many exhibits and interactive displays. We picked up a Junior Ranger booklet for Jordyn to complete and dropped some bank at the gift store. We all got t-shirts and hats and Bryan got a hoodie. The temperatures were AWESOME during our entire visit!

We stayed so long at the visitors center/gift shops we got to see Old Faithful erupt for a second time. It was just as impressive!