Fourth of July at the Tetons and Yellowstone

I guess I was having too much fun to take pictures. I had my camera strapped over my shoulder nearly the entire trip, but I hardly snapped any photos. Oh well. Here's what I do have from the 3rd, 4th and 5th of July with the Austins and Weavers at Teton National Park and Yellowstone.

We usually camp at Gros Ventre, mostly because we've never not been able to find a spot there and partly because it's located conveniently for popping over to the Tetons, Jackson and Yellowstone. The Austins headed there on Thursday and arrived in the evening only to find the campground full. That's unheard of, even over a holiday weekend. So they stayed in the Jackson Motel 6 for almost $200 and then grabbed themselves and us each a camp spot on Friday morning. We arrived Friday afternoon and headed over to the Bar J to get in line for our table (we reserved the tickets some time ago, but the seating is first come, first served).

Friday evening we enjoyed a chuck-wagon dinner and the entertainment of the Bar J Wranglers. Chieko and I figured we have been here every year for the past 28 years, maybe missing only two years, but we also came more than once during a few years. 

Babe Humphrey is the dad, who started the Bar J Wranglers. He retired about 12 years ago, so it's a real treat when he shows up to introduce the evening and sing a song or tell cowboy poetry. 

Babe's two sons, Scott and Brian now head the Wranglers. Brian plays bass, clowns around and yodels; Scott plays guitar and sings tenor vocals; Tim Hodgson has been the fiddler since 1989; Donnie Cook has played steel guitar and anything else with pickable strings since 1999; and Danny Rogers has been singing deep base since 2007. 

Saturday morning Sara, Jared and I rode our bikes on the great bike path from the Gros Ventre intersection to the horse pasture inside the park. We limited ourselves to 45 minutes out and 45 back so we wouldn't cut too much into everyone else's vacation time, and we didn't quite have time to make it to Jenny Lake. Even so, this had to have been the most enjoyable bike ride I've been on. 

The ride was pretty fast, for me anyway, which made it fun. The backdrop was spectacular. And when we paused at the horse pasture inside the park we discovered a moose and her calf meandering across the pasture. 

Here are Sara and Jared. Notice the moose (mooses?) in the back left. 

Sara and me. 

And our threesome selfie. 

Once back at the camp, we ate some cereal breakfast and headed to Yellowstone. This is our lunch break at Lewis Lake. 

I have never seen so many people in Yellowstone at each of the hot springs viewing areas, which we didn't stop at, so that was okay. Cars and RVs overflowed from the parking areas and were parked all over the sides of the road. We stopped at Old Faithful along with 10,000 other people, but the wait was about 50 minutes, so we decided to head for the Firehole River to swim. 

That was a great choice. We had a blast diving from the rocks, jumping into the rapids and swimming in the hot-springs-warmed river. 

Here's Sara with some of the kids swimming in the warm water. 

Jared jumping into the rapids with Jackson already in the water and Caleb and Brian lined up behind Jared. 

See Jared get sucked under the water. Then he'll be pushed back to the surface and carried in a pretty strong current for a ways. 

Jackson going in for the third or fourth time. I jumped in twice. The second time I was smacked by the current to the bottom like a bullet and whacked my tail bone on a big rock. The bruise will heal with time. 

Caleb jumping in. 

Here's a little video of the action. 

We then headed back to Old Faithful and despite what it looks like here, there were hardly any people. We also ate dinner in the Old Faithful Lodge cafeteria and then walked over to the Old Faithful Inn for ice cream. I've been to Yellowstone and Old Faithful more times than I can remember, but I don't think I've ever been to the Inn. It is a beautiful building of conifer wood. And the only place at Old Faithful where you can get huge scoops of hand-dipped ice cream. Try a double scoop of huckleberry and chocolate. 

Sunday morning was a drizzly kind of day, so we hung out in the visitor center at Moose for a bit, ate lunch at Bubba's and headed home through Soda Springs and then I-15, with a huge thunder shower hitting us near Tremonton. 

The visitor center has several furs for touching, such as black bear, grizzly and smaller animals. It turns out the linx has the softest fur, with red fox close behind.