Fun at the Beach

We headed to a nearby reservoir a couple weekends ago to cool off in the water. We've had lots of hot afternoons lately, interspersed with thunderstorms. The dogs were delighted to romp in the water.

The kids love to play in the sand anytime they can!

We went with some friends, and they had been there the night before playing in the sand. No one else uses these beaches, and we don't have tides, so their names were still in place.

Soon it was time to bury some kids. Ava was first. She wanted to be a mermaid.

My husband thought it might be fun to go fishing. Nothing was biting, though.

We helped bury Evan and Ryleigh.

Desert Girl became a mermaid.

It turned out that getting out of the sand pit wasn't so easy. But that didn't stop all the kids from wanting their turn!

Desert Boy and Ava were next.

Ah, relaxing in the nice cool sand.

They weren't so happy when we told them to get out by themselves.

Finally they succeeded.

Smiles again! They're such good kids, wearing their life jackets everywhere.

We still had more burying to do. The littlest kids always have to do what the bigger kids do! It was a fun afternoon.

You can imagine what the shower looked like when we got home! Nevertheless, we headed back to the lake just a couple days later for another adventure...to be continued...

Day 6 - Jenny Lake Hike

The next day of our vacation, we decided that it would be fun to take the shuttle boat across Jenny Lake and hike from there, saving us about two miles of hiking each way. We all enjoyed the boat and feeling the cool water.

It was about a half-mile hike up to Hidden Falls, which wasn't really so hidden as we were hiking with boatloads of people.

An extremely habituated marmot looked for handouts.

So did this ground squirrel. I was a little afraid that the rodents would bite the kids, as they got so close.

We kept hiking higher, and Ed took a break out on a sunny ledge.

Then we got to Inspiration Point. We had passed some rock climbing classes, and Desert Boy decided he just had to do some climbing on the nice granite. He went up without any problems.

The view was great, and we took some time to snack and enjoy our surroundings.

Fun times.

I was surprised how many people did the hike over the rocky, uneven path. Here's a view of the human traffic jam. Many people had no water and some even did the hike in flip flops. Ouch.

While we were waiting for the boat back, the kids asked if they could play around on the rocks next to the water. I said yes, and they had a good time. Then Desert Girl fell in. She took it in stride and continued playing. I figured it was a good way for her to cool off on a warm day. I expected Desert Boy to fall in, too, but he managed to just get slightly damp.

We noticed clouds out to the east. These turned out to be from a huge fire, the Fontanelle Fire, which has burned over 60,000 acres. Although Yellowstone and Grand Teton were definitely wetter than the Great Basin, they were dry, and all sorts of fire restrictions were in place.

This was the end of our Grand Teton experience, so we said good bye to the beautiful mountains and clear, blue lakes and headed south.

Day 4 - Geysers and More

 We started off Day 4 going to the Midway Geyser Basin, one of my favorites. We got there before it was really busy, and the steam coming off the hot pools made an incredible fog.

 The highlight of this basin is the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in Yellowstone, and one of the most colorful. You can see some of the colors reflected on the steam.

 The patterns the hot water and bacterial mats make are fascinating. I could spend a lot more time looking at them!

 Off in the distance is even more steam rising, giving hints that this is a hot place.

 The kids were good about posing for a photo. What sweeties!

 And another, with the fog behind them.

 Desert Girl fortunately was very good about staying on the boardwalk. She did get on her belly to get a closer look.

 We saw a dragonfly dead on the bacterial mat.

 We also saw some bison tracks. I guess they didn't read the signs about staying on the boardwalk.

Next we headed to the Old Faithful area, which was a zoo. We went to the new visitor center and signed Desert Boy up for the Young Scientist program. We checked out a backpack with an infrared thermometer, stopwatch, magnifying glass, and rock samples. Then we headed down the path on our bicycles. The kids loved a change from hiking. So did I!

 We found that Riverside Geyser was supposed to erupt soon, so we waited, and in the meantime Desert Boy started measuring the temperature of everything he could find. He didn't really know what the numbers meant, but it was a cool gadget. He shared with a family that was waiting in the shade with us, and they enjoyed it too.

 He used the magnifying glass to get a closer look at the rock samples. It was a fun program, and I think he might have learned a little from it.

 Then Riverside Geyser began spewing water. It was beautiful! The eruption lasted more than 20 minutes, but folks watching it mostly lasted half of that before they started wandering away.

 We went to the end of the bike path and saw the beautiful Morning Glory Pool.

 On the way back it looked like Castle Geyser was going to go off, so we stopped. Desert Boy walked around to the side to get a better vantage point to draw the geyser.

 Little splashes of water teased us.

Finally it went off in a minor eruption. It seemed big to us!

It was a fun morning, and the bikes made a big difference. We had ample people-watching time. So many people looked like they just hung out for one eruption of Old Faithful and never went further back into the geyser basin where the more interesting geysers lay. The kids had had their fill of geysers, so we headed off to new adventures.

Weekend Adventure--Part Two

After our fun eating and dancing at the Border Inn and photographing the full moon, it was time to start our camping adventure. We pulled to our camping spot under the full moon and found a level place. We transformed the seats into beds, brushed our teeth, and quickly laid down. We were tired, and it was late. But the wind blew, rattling the trailer. My husband got out of bed.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I better turn off the pivots," he said.

It was cool enough and with the wind he was afraid they might freeze. Some folks down the valley had a pivot fall over due to ice. It costs about $10,000 to put a pivot back up, and my husband did not want to have that kind of trouble.

We hadn't separated the trailer from the vehicle, so he did that and took off. That left me thinking about what I would do if the wind blew so strongly and the trailer started rolling towards the lake. Especially because the door is really hard to open. Finally I told myself to stop worrying and go to sleep. And I did.

But my husband said he kept thinking the same thing all night long, so we decided next time we won't leave the trailer pointed towards the water. We had the wheels chocked and knew the tongue would drag in the mud if it fell off the blocks, but one's imagination can go a little wild once in awhile.

Fortunately the trailer didn't move during the night, except when the wind blew or someone rolled over. It was a little wobbly. Okay. It was a lot wobbly. My husband has already bought another jack to try to make it more stable.

We woke up early as the sun streamed through the windows. I mentally added curtains to the long to-do list for the trailer. We transformed the beds back to seats and put up the table. The kids thought it was fun.

We haven't had a chance to hook anything up in the trailer, so my husband cooked over the little camp stove.

Henry had his breakfast, too.

Then it was time to walk around the reservoir.

We all had coats on, but Henry was eager to go for a swim and continually chased sticks that we threw out for him to fetch.

The water level is really low right now. We've had a dry winter, plus water is being used for irrigating the first crop of alfalfa. There's a lot of concern that there won't be water later in the summer, so there's effort to try to get the early crops as good as possible.

It's kind of neat to see all the shorelines. It makes me think of Lake Bonneville, that ancient lake that once covered so much of Utah.

The reservoir looks a little puny. I'm sure some folks wish that it was warm enough to do our annual triathlon with this low water level!

The west side of the reservoir has willows and the inlet, which meant good adventures.


With the low water, it wasn't too hard to swing the kids across the creek.


From the channel, it's clear that the inlet sees some more turbulent times. It was a little muddy in areas, but fortunately we didn't sink too deep.


Desert Boy found some "dinosaur" tracks.


We also saw some tracks that looked like skunk tracks to us.

With the low water levels we noticed a lot of trash. We had two big trash bags with us and filled them both up. Beer cans and beer bottles were the most common trash. Hopefully the reservoir will stay a little cleaner this summer.

The dried mud was fascinating to Desert Girl.

"Look what I found!"

When we got back to the trailer my husband wanted to eat lunch. As it was only 10 a.m. I vetoed the idea, but conceded that we could eat early in an hour. We played cards, read books, and relaxed. It was cold enough that if we had been in a tent we probably would have just gone home, so we appreciated the trailer.

By 11 a.m. the wind was strong enough we didn't want to build a fire, so we roasted our hot dogs over the camp stove. It still gave them a good taste. Then it was time to pack up and head home.

Mission accomplished. The camp trailer is lots of fun, but still needs a lot of work!