Montana and Wyoming

On our way across Montana (July 25) we stopped at the Madison Buffalo Jump State Park and learned of Native American hunting ingenuity. To get the bison all moving in the right direction (towards the cliff) a couple of young boys would dress up like another animal and start running ahead of the leader of the herd.  Keep in mind that bison can run up to 30 mph! Thanks, Mike and Stephanie, for the tip to stop in and see one of these amazing sites.  We made another stop at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman. The museum featured some of the finest dinosaur fossils in the world…Jackson was in heaven to say the least.

We drove into Yellowstone (July 26) under sunny hot skies which prompted a swim at Firehole falls then onto a few geysers and, of course, Old Faithful. We broke up our visit to Yellowstone with a couple of days in Jackson Hole.  The Tetons and Snake River Valley were as beautiful as ever.  We must have taken 50 photos of the mountains and 50 more of the bison! So much wildlife  everywhere in this wonderful corner of the US.  Driving to our campground at Gros Ventre in Grand Teton NP we saw pronghorn antelope, moose, and bison all at the same time! The boys enjoyed swimming in Jenny Lake and in the Gros Ventre River…this is becoming a theme of our trip…how many natural swimming holes can we find. What they did not enjoy as much was the mountain bike ride we took.  At a bike shop in Wilson I asked about local trails suited for a 9 and 11 year old who have done some moderate trails and would enjoy about 2 hours of riding.  Let it be know that the Teton Pass trails are a bit more difficult than that.  They stuck out the 5 hour ride not without letting me know they were not having fun anymore.  Other fun in Jackson included visiting with Kevin, a college buddy of mine who lives in JH and watching the shoot-out on the square. 

As we headed north (today) we took in the rest of the main sites in Yellowstone including the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Upper and Lower Falls, and Mammoth Hot Springs.  Some facts I learned this week are  that Yellowstone (almost the entirety of the park) is one big volcano that has had three major eruptions in the past.  Also, moose will dive down up to 18 feet and stay there for up to a minute eating underwater vegetation. God's handiwork abounds in this park and we never ceased to be amazed at the wonders of His creation.  I think we will come back here (on the shoulder season!) and spend more time exploring.  

Don't forget that you can see many more photos of our trip on the Picasa link on the right side bar.