Yellowstone (Katie)

Old Faithful!

For the past week I’ve been in Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately, we leave tomorrow. This is the 2nd year I’ve come and the 4th year that my family has. Last year was super neat because it was a first time experience. This year, there wasn’t so much shock and awe and Brandon and I were able to navigate through the park without having to stop at every turnout. We saw EVERY animal we could have except a wolf; we made sure to stop at Old Faithful; and we found the hidden geyser, the Chocolate Pot, again. My dad and my little sister fly fished like crazy people. I can’t think of a single morning they slept in, but Kimmy managed to catch the biggest fish I’ve ever seen.

We went to the alpine slide and flew down the mountain, or, they flew. I went slow because it was my first time which was probably a mistake since my little sister came flying behind me and almost hit me. Let me make this clear, it’s not my fault that she wasn’t going slower.
My mom, Kimmy, and me at the top of the slide

Brandon and me back at the top after the 656 stairs

We did a small 8-mile walk in to a place where they fished for 4 hours. It was absolutely gorgeous, but very painful the next morning. I had that “God, did I get hit by a truck?” feeling. We saw a weasel with its lunch, which was kind of neat. It reminds you that the circle of life goes on even if you find dead animals hanging out of other animals’ mouths disgusting. It was also on this hike that I discovered that my mom singing makes the hike last longer than anyone could ever imagine. She wasn’t even singing for fun. She was singing just incase there was a bear, it could hear us coming, and hopefully run away. I would have rather the bear ate me.

My mom, Brandon, and I also did a hike down Uncle Tom’s Trail. During this hike you loose about 500 feet as you climb 328 steps into the canyon. It was such a pretty view, I almost didn’t want to go back up. Whether that was because the view was so pretty or because, oh yea, you have to hike back up those 328 steps, remains undetermined. I swear, those 328 steps feel more like 5 million when you’re coming back up. With Brandon leading the way (he was so far in front of me and my mom he had time to get fruit snacks to revive us) we made it.
My mom and me at the bottom of Uncle Tom's Trail

The one thing that ALL of us were looking forward to was white water rafting. We went white water rafting on the Snake River and got soaked. For the first couple rapids only the right side of the boat got wet, which means, my sister, Brandon and I were all fairly dry. OK, pause for a second. My mom looked at me weird because I wore swim suit bottoms under my shorts instead of underwear. What would you all wear? Seriously, have you ever gone in a water ride and got wet and thought, “damn, I shoulda worn a swim suit”? Because how comfortable is a wet thong? I will tell all you boys and non-thong wearers, not comfortable at all. OK, un-pause. Towards the end of the trip we hit a rapid and all got completely soaked. Then, me, myself, and I, had a single wave hit me, and only me. Overall, it was really fun.
Brandon and me white water rafting

I have also discovered that I REALLY love farmers markets. The fruit and vegetables are fantastic! We stayed in a town called Jackson Hole and they have a great farmers market. We bought some garlic scapes while we were there just to try them out because we had never heard of them. Apparently garlic scapes are removed to focus all the energy into bulb growth (I thought this sounded a little hippy-ish when the lady said it, but it must be true, Wiki says it too). They aren’t sold very often in the U.S. however. You cook them kind of like you would a scallion. They have a mild garlic taste compared to regular garlic. So I guess for garlic wimps, this is a good plant for you. We are going to fry them with some onions to put on top of steak tonight. SO excited!
Black bear
Beaver that swam right by us
Baby buffalo
For those that are curious, I’ve made a very accurate animal count. The final animal count comes down to something like this:

2 Black bears
2 Grizzly bears
2 Grizzly bear cubs
3 Bald eagles
3 Deer
3 Buck elk
1 Fox with its dinner in its mouth
1 Weasel with its lunch in its mouth
1 Beaver
A shit ton of buffalo and baby buffalo
A shit ton of mom elk and baby elk
A shit ton of geese
A couple of ducks with babies

-Katie

**NOTE**
I own all the rights to these pictures. I took them with my camera, and in many cases, I hiked my ass of to get them. Don't take them and post them anywhere else as your own or I'll make you hike everything I did. K?