Cage and I set out on an adventure to see the great sites that our National Parks have to offer. He flew into Denver and we drove up through Grand Teton and Yellowstone on our way to Glacier where we had planned to do a three day backpacking trip.
The base of the Grand Teton's over looking a lake, lots of clouds though.
Old faithful came through yet again.
We saw lots of wild life as we were driving through Yellowstone. Deer, elk, possibly a moose, a wolf (ran across the road in front of us, so just a quick glimps) and buffalo. This guy was just walking down the middle of the road.
Bowman lake trail head.
Here we are at Bowman lake all happy and full of energy. We are about to set off on a quick hike up to a ranger station lookout. Out and back, the hike was 11.4 miles with an elevation gain of nearly 3,000 ft. We got up there in 1hr 50min (hauling, without packs so it was no problem) and back down in about the same time. Coming down was the problem...that is when the feet started to hurt a bit.
View from several hundred feet below the lookout. Once we got to the top it was so cloudy (we were basically in the clouds) that we couldn't see much.
We made it back down to the car, grabbed some lunch, threw on the packs and headed out to the campsite. Very cheerful and ready to go.
We hiked 6 miles with an elevation gain of 1,800ft and a loss of 1,000. Coming down was rough on the feet with the extra weight of the pack. We stayed at Quartz lake, this was the view outside our tent...pretty incredible.
About to get our oatmeal on for breakfast.
The next day we had a 6.4 mile hike with another 1,000+ elevation gain and lost to get back to the car. Then we planned on going to the next camp site along another little lake that was about 5.8 miles from the car. However, when we finally made it back to the car we were both pretty miserable. Blisters, TONS of mosquitoes that we had been dealing with for the past 2 days, and it started to rain pretty heavy. I am convinced that Cage could have gone on, but I had nothing left. That first hike up to the lookout killed my feet. Hiking 18 miles on the first day was not smart; we should have taken things a little slower, but we are young and dumb. Needless to say, we sat in the car as the rain came down and debated weather or not we should continue on...it was not a hard decision. We said "hell no" and went back to town where we stuffed ourselves with pizza and drank a pitcher of Moose Drool (a local brew).
One last picture of paradise...
All and all it was a great trip. Good company, great views, saw lots of wildlife, stayed away from the Grizzly bears (still would have been cool to see one, but some dude did get attacked early that week, so maybe it was a good thing) and came away with some good pictures.
Hello family and friends! Its been a long time since we updates our blog...sorry! Where to being?? Ellie's adoption was finalized in April!! We were so excited and had a fun celebration, my mom and Skylar's family came out for the finalization! Ellie has her 1 year birthday in October, I can't believe how fast she is growing up! We have Skylar's little sister's wedding in October, where Ellis is her flower girl:-) Who knows she could be walking by then, she is such a fast learner!
