Today was a great day and we started it at 7am. First time since we left on Memorial Day almost 2 weeks ago that we have even used an alarm to wake up. We were packed and ready to go and checked out at 8:30am and then headed for West Yellowstone .
This here is the road from Island Park to Yellowstone. Off to the left we drive past Henry's Lake. To the right my great uncle Don (Dad's uncle) leases/owns the meadow where he raises animals in the summer months.
Across from the meadow and to the southwest of Henry's Lake mountain with a military satellite. With the snow on top it would be impossible to get to, but if I had 4 wheel drive and it was August, it is supposed to be one of the tallest mountains in the area. I vaguely remember going up there once as a kid and the views are like that of what we had in Bryce Canyon. If only everyone could have views like this. It makes it so much easier to see and appreciate the majesty of God's creations.
About 9am we stopped by the Timberline Café and Shari ran in and got my hat before we stopped at the Chevron for gas. Then we went back into Yellowstone .
We stopped at the Great Geyser Basin to see some things that Shari had wanted to see, but because of the cold air and the steam rising off of the large pools we were not able to see most of what Shari was looking for.
We did learn some cool things about the microforests and how the bacteria form a layer that is like a canopy of a forest and that layer drops things down to the lower layer, much like a forest does, and that these layers continue to build on top of one another creating the “shelves” of many of the terraces that surround the geysers and hot springs. In some places the bacteria and build up of minerals reminded me of how marble looks and makes one wonder if at times the veins in marble and other rocks might have been formed in a similar way.
Here are some shots of the microforests.
Here are a few shots of the different bubbling ponds of the Midway Geyser Basin.
This is Turquoise Pool.
This is Opal Pool.
This is the right side of Grand Prismatic Spring.
This is the left side of Grand Prismatic Spring.
The entire steam cloud is the geyser that is usually a rainbow of color.
This is the hot water that flows from all the geysers and hot springs down to the Firehole river keeping it from freezing in the winter. The river is still cold so I wouldn't recommend taking a swim, even with the geyser water flowing into it.
This is the geyser water entering the Firehole River. It is amazing how many interesting colors bacteria come in.
This is the river to the left of the bridge looking upstream; where the geyser water enters the river.
This is the river down stream that stays warm all winter and doesn't completely freeze because of the geyser. It provides water to the animals that don't migrate.
From there we stopped at Old Faithful for a quick potty break before driving down to Teton National Park Teton Park
Driving further down the lakeside we saw . . .
Just before arriving at Teton national park, we stopped for a bit at Moose falls. The snow on the ground did not allow us to hike to the falls. I was a bit disappointed because I remember being able to practically hike out onto the falls when I was younger. They look cool from the distance we were at, but they are even cooler when you are right up next to them. Next time we come this way, we will have to do it in August, so that more of the trails are maintained and we can access more things that we have done this trip.
After a few scenic pull outs we finally arrived at Teton National Park
This is near the north end of Teton National Park. Here we are looking south over Jackson Lake at the Tetons.
About an or so later when we were closer to the center of the Tetons I took these four shots as a panoramic of the entire chain of mountains that are referred to as the Tetons. Starting to the north and working our way south. I don't know what the mountains in this shot are called, and I have done my best to correctly identify the mountains, but I could be off a peak here and there. Someone who has spent a lot of time there could tell me if I am right or wrong in my labeling (dad and grandpa burtenshaw).
Off to the left of this picture I think is Mount Moran at 12,605 ft.
In this picture, Mount Moran is on the right, I think that Mount Woodring at 11,590ft is in the center and Rockchuck Peak at 11,144ft is to the left.
In this one, from right to left you see Rockchuck Peak, Mount St. John at 11,430 ft., Symmetry Spire at 10,546 ft., Mount Owen at 12,928 ft., Grand Teton at 13,770 ft, Teewinot Mountain at 12,325 ft., Cloudviel Dome at 12,026 ft., and Nez Perce at 11,901 ft. Behind the tree on the left is where Buck Mountain at 11,938 ft would be located.
While we were at this very scenic spot enjoying the majesty of the mountains that rise like kings overlooking the lands around them, we saw this funny little bird. Smart, but funny. Not afraid of people, but I call him smart because he would hop up on the bumpers of the cars and eat the fresh bugs out of their grills. Hey, nothing like free meals, right?!
This was down near the south end of Jackson Lake at it was really cool to watch the wind blow the clouds around the top of this mountain. I want to say that we are looking at Mount St. John or Rockchuck peak, but I am not really sure.
As we were leaving Teton National Park.
Ya know, It only took us a few hours to drive the length of the entire park. There is a lot of hinking in this area, and I think it would be fun to come back and visit some time and spend a few days hinking round the bases of these mountains and going up some of their valleys. Maybe one year we will come up in August for hiking when it is a little dryer and has a smaller chance for rain.
After leaving Teton National Park , we headed back to Idaho Falls Teton Pass Shari and I both looked at each other like “wow that is really steep”. The steepest grade I can ever remember seeing on a road is 8% and that is only outside of Hurricane, UT. Anyway, we did not climb the hill very fast and as the car started to have a smell we pulled over at the top of the hill to see if anything is wrong. Nothing wrong, just the smell of a car working really hard.
As we went down the back side of the hill, we drove the speed limit of 20 MPH, especially since it was raining and the roads were slick. One local got so tired of my speed limit driving that he passed us in a double yellow no passing zone. The good thing, and somewhat funny thing, is about 1 minute later I looked in the rear-view mirror and saw these flashing lights, so I pulled over as best I could (road had no shoulder) which startled Shari. The officer went by, which is always a relief, and pulled over the guy who had passed us in the double yellow; as the officer was probably one of the 5 or 6 cars that were behind me coming down the hill. Hope that guy learned his lesson about following the laws no matter how impatient or ridiculous one thinks they are.
The weather cleared up really nice after that because we then took one of the scenic byways (SR 31 or 33) back to Idaho Falls 
So we are driving down the road, probably 35 or 45 MPH and all of a sudden something comes plummeting out of the sky and BAM! it hits the front of the car, rolls over the hood, up the windshield, across the top, and down the back of the car onto the ground. I then watched it bounce down the road a couple of times before coming to a stop. I don’t know if I was more startled by what hit the car or by the gasp of air that Shari took when we hit it. Come to find out it was a bird. I have never hit an animal before with a car, so this was a new experience for me. I shared this with Shari at which time she then shared with me that she had hit a tree recently. “A tree? With no dents in the bumper or scratches in the paint . . . was this a rubber tree?” At which point her giggle attack set in. “No” she said, “I had recently hit a bird on the freeway”. Did it do a suicide dive like the one we just hit not very long ago. . .
Yeah, so, this started the giggling attack. Ammon thought it was so funny that he wanted me to write it down. But I wouldn’t get out the piece of paper to write it down. We were driving for heaven’s sakes! He didn’t want me to get sick again! Anyway, Ammon really wanted to remember this incident (the part about hitting a rubber tree), so he threatened, “Don’t make me pull this car over!” Of course, that set me giggling even more, at which point I started to cry from all the giggling. Ammon threatened to pull the car over again and this made her laugh even harder, which he eventually did because he was crying from the laughing as well. (You should have seen the fit of laughter she had when I did pull over and told her to get out and walk) While pulled over I finally got out a piece of paper and wrote down our episode. I tried to calm down, but it just was too funny! (You have no idea. . . I think that it was 10 minutes before I could drive again, she just wouldn't stop laughing) It wasn't more than 5 minuets after we were on the road when she started up again. I almost had to pull over a second time because she was laughing about the suicide bird and the rubber tree she hit. It was a beautiful and fun drive to Ivy's.
Later we came to the flat farmlands in Idaho
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