Picturesque Yellowstone

This past weekend, we headed down to Yellowstone with a few of our friends (Neighbor and her Fiance). We stayed one night in West Yellowstone and then we were taken into the park, where we stayed one night in a cabin near Old Faithful. I'll post more about what we did and what we saw in future posts, but to begin, here are some of the scenes and sights that we were able to enjoy :)

 Even in the middle of winter, when everything should be white and blah... color was bountiful in Yellowstone!

 Steam/fog/mist was everywhere as heat came out of vents and geysers and even rivers.

 Old Faithful was as amazing as ever - during the day, at twilight and from the Observation Point trail.

 Bison. Bison. Everywhere. Those future posts of mine will describe a few run-ins with them while we were on the trails, but here, let's just enjoy the steady serenity they seem to posses as they calmly dig through the snow for food.

 Last but not least, a few quick details... it has been awhile since I've had such great lighting while using my camera, so I couldn't pass these moments up!

Yellowstone Post #2
Yellowstone Post #3

Snowy Time Of Year

In our neck of the woods, we get snow and then it melts the following week... then we get some more snow and it melts again (even if 15 inches fell!). We both grew up getting snow and then it would stay so cold that the snow would stick around all winter, so this snowing and melting stuff has taken some getting used to! Thankfully, we're only about an hour away from a few different mountain ranges where the snow (usually) sticks around!

 The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Neighbor, Neighbor's Fiance, Grizz and I all took a drive to the national forest nearby... it was time to get our Christmas Trees! It was perfectly a winter wonderland that day with the snow lightly falling as we searched and searched for the perfect trees. Then, just two weekends ago, Grizz invited a few coworkers to go snowshoeing in a different mountain range. Only one took us up on the offer, and there wasn't enough snow to snowshoe. However, we still had fun just hiking around. Plus, it was perfect snow to make a snowwoman! (That's Barbara the snowwoman in the bottom corner!)

We hiked near a ski hill, which hasn't opened yet. The lift still made a great photo!

Here we are on the tree-cutting day. We love snow :)

While waiting for Neighbor and Fiance to cut their tree down, we attempted a bump picture. Sure, I have a fuzzy vest on top of two thin layers, but I will still claim it :) This was taken when I was almost at 20 weeks... today marks 22 weeks completed! Woot woot!

 Finally, here are a few pictures from Giant Springs, a local state park that is just gorgeous... especially after the first "big" snowstorm of the year that happened about a month ago. Again, we love snow :)

Retrieving the Game Cam

A week ago, he went with a co-worker to install a "Game Cam" in some nearby mountains (he has an archery elk tag in the same mountains that he hopes to cash in on in a few weeks). The archery elk season starts this coming Saturday and the camera is not supposed to be used during the season. Because Grizz is gone all this week to a training, we had to go retrieve the camera yesterday... therefore, we spent a few hours hiking together :)

 While hiking, we spotted this freshly-roughed-up tree... courtesy of an elk who is still shedding his velvet antler coverings! When Grizz and his co-worker went to install the camera, they saw four bull elk. We saw one cow elk ourselves yesterday. Add that to all the droppings (fun word, huh?!) we saw, and we know that there are definitely elk moving throughout the area!

Without any further ado...  the game cam pics... you can click on them to enlarge them!

 Just the antlers

 I think he's sniffing the camera...

 I spy with my little eye... a butt :)

 Ohp, there's the butt again

 Eight hours later.. still the same guy?

 Hey, we have color now (one minute after the previous pic)!

 Just a deer.

And Bambi says... "Wait for me, Mom!"

Just in case if you are not the hunting type, but you made it through this entire post... here's a pretty picture, just for you :) Thanks for reading!

Glacier Weekend: Many Glacier Hotel

Many Glacier Hotel is one of the premier hotels in Glacier National Park. We've never stayed there, but after our hike, we decided to walk around and explore it a bit! (This picture is taken from the Grinnell Glacier Trail).

This was pretty great. Heidi's Snack Shop had ice cream - pretty fitting for this ice cream lover! It actually ended up looking just like a convenience store in the basement, but hey, my name was on it, so of course I loved it!

I didn't take any pictures inside (except, of course, the Heidi's sign), but know that is worth the look-over! The rooms are pretty average, but the common rooms are beautiful! I loved sitting out on the balcony drinking our Cokes, but we went back inside once Grizz got cold :p

We especially enjoyed walking down the main hallway toward the restaurant and looking at all the glacier pictures and reading about how the glaciers have changed over the years. As for the restaurant, we didn't eat there, but we did look at a menu... for a restaurant in a huge hotel in Glacier National Park, the prices weren't as bad as we expected them to be! We just weren't that hungry yet after our meal on the trail. We hope to eat there another time, and maybe even stay there with friends :)

Another adventure safely complete :)

Glacier Weekend

Camping at Two Medicine

Two Bear Sightings

Grinnell Glacier Trail

Trail Closed

Many Glacier Hotel

PS: We drove home through Cut Bank, just because Grizz wanted me to see this bridge... it is a pretty fun railroad bridge!

Glacier Weekend: Grinnell Glacier Trail Closed

We knew when we started that the Grinnell Glacier Trail was closed toward the top due to snow hazards. This sign shows up about two miles after the Grinnell Lake turn-off. It just explains that there are snow hazards ahead and if you are smart you would only try to cross them with crampons and an ice ax :)

We continued on after that sign just so we could see how far we could go. We went around one small snow hazard, but we stopped when we came to this spot. This stream/waterfall was easily crossed, but it was a great place to eat our 10 o'clock meal (can you blame us for eating early after waking up so early?!).

We boiled water on Grizz's backpacking stove and ate one of those dehydrated meals. This one was Beaf Stew... it wasn't horrible!

Grizz enjoyed exploring that little snowbridge, but right after that stream/snow bridge the trail goes right under this waterfall. It is something that is crossable, but only if you want to get soaked!

 Plus, after you get passed the waterfall, you have to cross this. Doable with crampons and and ice ax for Grizz, but even with an ice ax, I'm not sure if I'd try! So, we couldn't get to end of the trail, but we had fun anways - even without getting to the top, the scenery was gorgeous!

Glacier Weekend
Camping at Two Medicine
Two Bear Sightings
Grinnell Glacier Trail
Trail Closed
Many Glacier Hotel

Glacier Weekend: Grinnell Glacier Trail

Just a few of the sights from the trail :)

Grinnell Point - seen early on during the hike. 

A fun little pond, still full of snow and ice with Lake Josephine in the background.

 Angel Wing with some fun clouds... thankfully, no rain fell on us!

 Bear Grass with a background of Grinnell Lake - I just love that glacier water!

 Glacier Lily!

Angel Wing with Grinnell Lake in front. To the right you can see Salamander Glacier and Grinnell Falls. Out of view but just below and to the left of The Salamander is Grinnell Glacier which is right next to Upper Grinnell Lake. God is such an artist!

Here is Grinnell Glacier! (It's that dirty snow!).

And one last shot of Salamander Falls.

Let's review!
Salamander Falls falls from Salamander Glacier into Upper Grinnell Lake which is right next to Grinnell Glacier. From Upper Grinnell Lake falls the Grinnell Falls right into (lower) Grinnell Lake. All of this happens to the left of Mount Grinnell and to the right of Angel Wing :)

Glacier Weekend

Camping at Two Medicine

Two Bear Sightings

Grinnell Glacier Trail
Trail Closed

Many Glacier Hotel

Glacier Weekend: Two Medicine

We had planned to take a quick trip up to Glacier last weekend and hike the Highline trail up to the Granite Park Chalet and then continue up to the fire tower on Swiftcurrent Mountain. Well, that hike will have to wait for another day, since the Highline trail is closed for another few weeks until a few snow hazards are gone. We still decided to head north, although our hiking plan of course changed. Grizz decided to take last Friday afternoon off of work so we could get an early start toward Glacier NP. We knew campsites at Two Medicine go quickly, but that is where we wanted to stay!

We were one of the last people to find a spot! I'm so glad that Grizz took off work when he did!

Once we claimed our spot, we headed over to the gift/snack store to explore (we've never been to Two Medicine before!). We knew bad weather was heading our way (the weather service said high winds and hail!), so this sight was not a surprise. It sure was fun to watch the storm roll in!

There was lots of lightening, thunder and rain, but thankfully no hail!

 Once it cleared up - maybe fifteen to thirty minutes later, we headed back outside to explore some more. Isn't that a pretty rainbow?!

We both stuck our feet in the lake. It was chilly, but not as bad as I thought it would be.

I loved this cloud/fog formation after the storm. Isn't it gorgeous?!

After walking around a bit, we headed back to the vehicle. Even before we knew there was a risk for hail, we decided to just sleep in the back of our Xterra. We wanted a quick get-away in the morning, and nothing is quicker than waking up, climbing into the front seat and heading out (we left the campground at around 5:30 am!).

PS: Don't you like our sheet selection? Grizz took it off my uncut pile in the sewing room, haha! I guess having a vintage sheet stash is helpful during camping season!

Glacier Weekend

Camping at Two Medicine

Two Bear Sightings

Grinnell Glacier Trail

Trail Closed

Many Glacier Hotel