What's Up with Michael: Fourth of July Weekend 2011

Jennifer cajoled us into going to the Grand Tetons and the Bar J Chuckwagon for the Fourth of July weekend or risk the guilt of not attending the "family reunion." Just kidding. Actually that was her strategy, but we wouldn't miss any excuse to go to the Tetons, Yellowstone and the Jackson Hole fireworks. Many of the Melvin Astle family collected at the Gros Ventre campground and in Teton Village. They included Melvin; Nancy and Cecil; Janet; Michael and Chieko; Paul, Cindy and Marcus; Jennifer and Stanton; Jamie, Brian, Kali, Caleb and Emi; Sara, Jared, Jackson, Tanner and Annie; Heather, Jason and Parker; and Tiffany, Mick, Addy and Owen. Did I miss anyone? Sorry.

The Tetons have a lot of snow for the first of July. When we saw the Gros Ventre River running very high and muddy, we worried that our trusty Gros Ventre campground might be flooded. It was open, but we arrived just in time on Friday afternoon for a choice of camp spots. The campground filled up quickly and stayed full over the entire weekend. The first time I've ever see that campground full.

Plenty of bison roamed the Tetons and Yellowstone.

This cow moose bedded right in the campground just a few feet from the camp spots across the road from us.

This baby moose was with her mother on an island in the fast-moving river along the Gros Ventre road.

We cooked Dutch oven for dinner on Friday night. Sara and Jared cooked a really good chicken-and-rice thing in two ovens. One turned out perfect. One was a little over-cooked. My bad, I think. I added a couple more coals near the end of the cooking because the original charcoal was looking pretty lame after an hour or so. The hardest thing with Dutch oven is trusting the number of charcoal briquettes you need to cook at a given temperature. It always feels like we should add more coals. Anyway, I love Dutch oven. I'm always amazed at how good the food is.

I thought I had taken a picture of Sara's chicken main course, but I guess I was too focused on my pineapple upside-down cake. So, sorry. No main course photos. I also forgot to bring brown sugar, so I mixed pure maple syrup with some ground-to-powder Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. The mix had a consistency close to brown sugar and actually worked just fine.

Here we are enjoying our dinner.

Tanner in the campground before the kids discovered the black dirt around the fire pits.

Emi.

Friday night's campfire with roasted giant marshmallows and s'mores (the kind with plain chocolate--someone brought Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on Saturday night, when we were at the Bar J).

Roasting marshmallows.

Breakfast on Saturday morning, or was this Sunday or Monday morning? I think we cooked pancakes, bacon and eggs on Saturday morning. There would have been a Coleman propane stove on the table end.

The bunch that was afraid of a few mosquitos ate breakfast inside the trailer.

On Saturday morning, if 11 a.m. is still considered morning, we hiked up to Phelps Lake, where the Rockefeller's JY Ranch that Chieko worked at in college used to sit. Today there is a small parking lot (it's small to limit the number of people), a nature preserve building and a 1-1/2-mile trail to Phelps Lake. Cecil said he hiked to Phelps Lake from the Idaho side through Death Canyon when he was a Boy Scout. (Cecil wasn't on this hike. He, Nancy and Dad drove to Jackson on Saturday and stayed in a Condo at Teton Village. Then they took 85-year-old Dad on the Alpine slide. Really.)

The Phelps Lake hike.

More hiking.

Sara, Jared, Jackson, Tanner and Annabelle at Phelps Lake.

What kind of birds are these on the lake? I think they're common mergansers.

What the heck are these caterpillars? I think they're eastern tent caterpillars.

On Saturday night we made our pilgrimage to the Bar J Wranglers' chuck-wagon dinner and show. Jamie's, Sara's and Tiffany's groups stayed in the camp, swam in the pollywog pond near Kelly and made peanut-butter-cup s'mores, because their kids are too small to enjoy the show. Jackson chose to go with us to the Bar J, which he really enjoyed, especially "Granny."

On Sunday three cars headed to Yellowstone. (Us, with the Austins; Sara's group; and Jennifer with her mom and the Blacks, who split up to get Jennifer's and Sara's cars into the park free with their Senior Passes. Chieko finally qualified for her pass this year, too. Hooray for getting senior.)

Tanner and Stanton became best friends. Here they are heading to see Old Faithful do its thing.

Here's the crowd waiting for Old Faithful.

And there it goes.

This spring at Midway Geyser Basin is on the cover of the Yellowstone Newspaper this year.

Also at Midway.

Next we headed to Canyon to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone falls with more water than we've ever seen pouring over the brink.

This is the brink of the upper falls.

This is looking upstream right at the brink.

I think this is Hayden Valley. We wouldn't normally stop to look at elk, but people were sitting here with lawn chairs and spotting scopes. Apparently there is a pack of wolves that lives here and comes out from time to time to hunt and play. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to sit for a few hours until they showed, but Brian and I agreed that next time we'll bring our chairs and a book.

I didn't take this picture, but I did see this same view just past Jackson Lake Lodge on the way back to the campground. Apparently the speed limit didn't go back to 45 after we passed the lodge. Yes, I got pulled over for doing 45 in a 35 zone. And I had been carefully setting my cruise control so I din't go over the speed limit on every road from home and all through Yellowstone. The ranger lady let me off with a verbal warning and a lecture about all the bison and other wildlife that get hit along this road.

On Monday morning (July 4th), Jamie, Jared and I got up at 5 a.m. and drove in Jared's car, where he'd slept all night with Annie, to the cabin up the road that goes to Slide Lake above Kelly. The skies were threatening rain, but the Tetons were clear, and there was a clear spot to the east for the sun to shine through. However, just before the sun poked through, the clouds moved in from the south. Still, I like the pink clouds and reflection on the mountain snow, which is usually mostly melted by this time of year. We didn't get a lot of pictures or any classic shots, but I really like what we got.

Oooo, where are we going next?

I don't know, but it sounds exciting!

We decided to visit Lower Slide Lake on Monday. This lake was formed when the mountain above Kelly gave way in a wet 1925 spring and dammed the Gros Ventre (pronounced groh-vahnt) river.

Caleb on the rubble that forms the dam to the lake.

The girls on the hike.

In the distance you can see what is a massive hole in the side of the mountain where the mud, rocks and trees slid from. In the foreground is some of the rubble that came down and blocked the river.

The dam partially gave way after a couple years, dropping the lake 60 feet and killing six people in Kelly.

Hiking to the bottom of the dam to check out the brown muddy runoff water in what is normally a clear lake.

Janet on the dam.

Jackson with his patriotic hat on the Fourth of July.

Emi and Jackson on the dam.

The roudies figuring where they can skip rocks near the boat dock.

Brian skipping stones.

Caleb skipping stones.

After the slide, we headed to Jackson Lake Lodge, where Jamie worked for a summer. This is taken from the top of Lunch Tree Hill.

Kali taking a picture.

Emi, Jackson, Caleb and Kali.

Enjoying the view of the meadow and mountains.

On Monday night--it is the Fourth of July, remember--we headed to the base of the Snow King ski run for the fireworks. Paul's and Jason's families came early and saved spots on the ball field for our blankets. A whole lot of fireworks pictures follow. If you get tired of looking at them, keep in mind that there are a few pictures of the Tetons and Jenny Lake at the end of this blog.

Tuesday morning. Chieko on the trail to our traditional beach on Jenny Lake, where my mom and dad used to sit in their camp chairs while we swam in the cold lake.

With the spring so late this year and the water so high, there was no beach, but Jackson and Tanner wanted to skip rocks.

They had fun.

Jackson, Tanner and the Tetons with a lot of snow for July. Sara, Jared and Annie went home on Monday, so these cute guys stayed with us until Tuesday.