Elk and bison and bears

The week before last we came home from a short holiday. We spent 3 nights in Island Park, Idaho, in my parent's time share condominium. Since I was eight years old my family would go up every summer and spend a week there. We shared it with my Uncle Jerry and Aunt Elaine and their family. They got one room and we took the other. Actually our parents took the rooms and all the kids slept on the floor or on the oh-so coveted hide-a-bed couch.

Jerry and Elaine's family had five kids, and there were eight in mine. It was always a riot! Every year 13 us of kids would descend over the clubhouse and practically fill the swimming pool ourselves. We all have such fond memories of our yearly vacation with our cousins.

This year we were supposed to have a big family reunion at the condo. Unfortunately a week earlier my dad had an accident where he fell off a big pile of logs in the wild frontier of Alaska, so he spent the week in the hospital with my mom by his side. But I made it with my family, my brother Clair with his, and Carrie and her partner Bobbie came up as well.

On Sunday we went out to my Aunt Elaine's cabin (my Uncle Jerry passed away a few years ago). They loved Island Park so much they built their own cabin so they could go up any time they wanted. We had dinner with 3 of my cousins and their kids and we played Pinnochle and Settlers of Catan afterwards. On Monday we went out to the lake and played in the water with them and then had a game of volleyball afterwards.

Tuesday we were off to Yellowstone! The past 2 years none of my siblings could make it so it was just my family at the condo by ourselves. We mainly spent out time in Yellowstone. We figured out that when we go during the day we get worn out with the heat and the crowds. But when we went in the evenings when it was cooler, we had a lot more fun and we were able to see much more wildlife as well. Tuesday afternoon we drove all the way to Norris and it started to rain. It didn't seem much fun walking around the geyser basin in the rain so we went over to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Right before we got there was a big slow down of cars. It was the holy grail of Yellowstone wildlife; a grizzly bear! Wahoo!! Of all the years we've been to Yellowstone we've seen bears only twice before, and they were both black bears.

Of course, I didn't get a very good photo but we saw him! It stopped raining enough for us to do some sightseeing at Canyon. It was beautiful. The evening light seems to make all the colors more vibrant and everything was washed clean from the rain. The canyons and waterfalls there are really quite spectacular.

We then drove over to the Haydn valley because we heard there was a pack of wolves over there. We didn't see the wolves, but we several very large herds of buffalo and several bull elk. We drove over to Sulphur Caldron and Mud Volcano (gotta love that rotten egg smell!) walked around and then got back into the car for the ride home. And lo and behold, on the way back we saw yet another grizzly! This one was a younger one, but he was closer to the road. I guess sometimes lightning does strike twice.