Kelsey: The Special Moose

After our long and extensive train ride from Colorado to Utah, we quickly picked up a rent-a-car on Wednesday morning in Salt Lake and headed north for Idaho. What's in Idaho you ask? Well, not a lot. But, we did see some pretty cool sights out the window as we went through a few of the natural forests located on the way there. As we went through Cache National forest, we weaved through canyons and said goodbye to the Appalachian-style mountains near Salt Lake and followed babbling brooks, log-cabin houses and fisherman galore. Not too shabby. After a few hours on the road, a miracle occurred. Poppa Tate decided that we were allowed to stop the wagon and restock our provisions! A miracle indeed. So, the Tate family jumped out of our clown car and sprinted for the local supermarket as we filled up on all the necessary essentials. No, I'm not talking about firewood, propane for a grill, or even anything related to camping materials. I'm referring to Doritos, granola bars, a case of water, a few sodas, and pre-made sandwiches. Yes, apparently that's all you need in life to survive, a few chips and a bit of agua to make it through. Needless to say, we were content.

After getting into the bulk of Idaho, we stopped at Bear Lake. This is a gorgeous stop in the Southeastern side of the state where the water changes colors from turquoise to dark blue, just like in the Caribbean. A nice overlook spot was where we took our family photo and where Kelsey and I acted like bears (a Kelsey Tate edit). Then we jumped back in the car to drive through small towns named "St. Charles," "Paris," and "Bloomington" just to name a few. Each of these towns had populations of less than 300, so Idaho's pretty spread out and small. We even passed an "original stop" (Montpellier) on the Oregon Trail, pretty sweet huh?

Anyways, after we get through Idaho, we cross back into Wyoming (that state goes on forever), and continued north until we reached the Jackson Wyoming and the Grand Tetons National Park. Jackson is a very unique and cool western town. It's definitely geared up for tourism and skiing in the winter time, but in the summer there are really interesting little shops, everything is rustic and made from wood like old fashion general stores and there are even archways made completely out of elks horns! After passing through Jackson, we pulled over at the visitor center at the Grand Tetons National Park to pick up a map and a park pass and while we were in the gift shop we ran into family friend Amy Gardner! She recently got married, and I must apologize I've forgotten her married name, but even so - it's wild that we run into to people we know all the way on the Western side of the country! So, we caught up with Amy for a while and then we took some photos in the welcome center. This included a photo in which I held up full-size moose antlers on my sister's head. The only problem was, I think we had two "left" antlers and thus one of the horns is rather upside down so it makes Kelsey look a bit, well let's just say that's how we got our title for today's blog: Kelsey: The Special Moose. After that, we got the low down on all the cool spots to see along our travels north, and headed through the National Park on a wonderful little wilderness drive.

We stopped off in a few different spots along the way through the park as we saw beautiful overlooks and sights. Jenny Lake was one particular spot in which you could see a lovely lake view set against the backdrop of the entire Teton ridge. Snow's still on the mountain peaks even in July and it makes for a great photographic moments. One photo, which I'll upload later I've entitled "Stoic Mother." You can just guess what that looks like for now, but I assure you, it's quite a deep and an introspective photo. I'm sure it will inspire you all. Ha. Anyways, a few more stops included driving up Signal Mountain (approx. 8,000ft elevation) to look at a panoramic view of the entire valley below the Tetons. Afterwards, we booked it through the rest of the park, and headed for the south entrance to Yellowstone.

It was getting later in the evening, and Yellowstone National Park is a pretty big place, but we gassed it and tried to make up some time. We came up from the south and into the national park, headed along the eastern end of the "grand loop" and straight for a known and promising wildlife viewing area in Hayden Valley. On our way there, you basically drive through mountainous and scenic roads, and every so often you will come across and handful of cars parked along the side of the road. Usually this means that there's something worth seeing, and so we pull over just like anyone does to check things out. The first one of these stops, we saw an enormous male bull elk (that is the correct term :-)) sitting in the shaded area resting as the sun was going down. I got a few good pictures and jumped back in the car, as mosquitoes began to attack me in the process. Our next quick stop actually was only about 20 minutes later and as we drove our car around a turn, I saw from my passenger window the gigantic face of a bison staring at me. Well other than yelling and causing Dad to almost wreck the lovely rent-a-car, I got my composure and jumped out about 20 yards down further and ran back up the road to the wooded area to see two adult bison grazing by the side of the road. I got photos from about 15 feet away, so other than risking my life (I don't think you're supposed to be that close), and dodging traffic too (nothing new - see an earlier post about Mt. Rushmore tunnels) we got a few good shots of wildlife for the family album.

Following that experience, we later saw more bison, elk, and even some hot springs and a mud volcano. Those were all exciting, other than the hot springs smelling horribly like way too many smoke bombs or a pit of sulfur. As dark approached quickly, I did grab a few great photos of another full grown male bull elk, and a herd of female elks grazing too. So hopefully those will all turn out well. By night, we headed out the western side of the park and drove toward Big Sky, Montana to stay in our hotel for the evening. Our nightly accommodations, known as "The Lodge at Big Sky" is actually a hunting/skiing lodge part of the larger Big Sky Ski Resort. I've never been in a lodge before that I can think of, but I have to say it was pretty nice and I enjoyed it. A worthy continental breakfast too, so once again, I was pleased. Well, that about wraps it up for yesterday. We're now fully caught up on the blogging, and today's adventure includes a more thorough trip through Yellowstone and heading back toward Utah to catch the train overnight to Sacramento California. As Phantom Planet would say, "California, here we come!"

~Josh