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| That's us...somewhere in Teton National Park |
Two Friday's ago my wife and I loaded our Honda Odyssey (now known as the Cross-Continental Family Explorer) down with four kids, drinks, snacks and all the luggage the back compartment could hold and headed west toward Yellowstone National Park.
It was an amazing trip.
If you haven't been to Yellowstone National Park, or even if you have but it's been a long time, you owe it to yourself to go.
The Park contains the most gorgeous scenery North America has to offer, all sorts of wildlife, and awesome summer temperatures. Most mornings felts like late-October game days.
We had a blast!
The highlights for me were the huge mountain vistas and the bears. That's right. Bears.
The Park is in the middle of the Rocky Mountains in the far northwest corner of Wyoming. Its outer edges cross into Montana. It contains miles and miles of roads that wind up, over and through those giant snow-capped peaks to elevations that reach as high as 8,000 feet or more. My favorite part of each day was just driving those roads, winding around curves or cresting a hill and then gasping at the next incredibly beautiful view. This Mississippi boy is both awed and fascinated by mountains, and I spent the better part of each day grabbing my wife's arm and gasping words like "Wow," or "Whoa," or "Would.. you... look... at that!" as we topped a hill or rounded a bend only to see another picture-perfect landscape. My words got repetitive. The landscapes never did.
I also really enjoyed seeing the wildlife. We watched a herd of bison (Don't say Buffalo around my 9-year-old daughter and newly decorated Jr. Ranger or she WILL correct you) cross a river from 100 yards away. After the momma bison would cross she would stand on the bank and urge her young stranded calves to follow with throaty groans. After a few minutes of running up and down the bank with dread the young calf would finally decide being with mom was worth the gamble and lunge into the cold river. It was a Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom worthy moment.
One of my goals on the trip was to finally see a bear in the wild for the first time. On our first day we saw a grizzly bear napping in the sun a stone's throw from the roadside. On our last night we passed within a mere foot or two of an oblivious fat and fluffy black bear easing down the roadside (Not to worry, we were inside our car). Bull elk in velvet, an enormous owl, mule deer and a bald eagle that stared directly into my eyes (scary but awesome) also made the list of memories I won't soon forget. But the bears were tops.
Perhaps the absolute best part of the trip was the uninterrupted time I had with my family. We shared hotel rooms and a car for nine straight days, and despite 1000 loops of Barbi Princess Fairy and Bubble Guppies on the car's DVD player I wouldn't trade a second of that time we had together for anything. We saw the country, ate good food, shared a lot of laughs (and a few tears) and created memories we'll always have.
If you want to see a few pictures you're welcome to visit my family blog at jakeanitabeth.blogspot.com.
While I was away Reb & Blue Magazine went to print. The most difficult part of my trip was not being there to watch it finally roll off the press. The copies were delivered to my garage this morning. It looks beautiful! Tonight I'll be putting a bunch in the mail. I can't wait for y'all to see it!
If you want a copy please visit RebBlue.com and I'll get one dropped in the mail to you tonight!
I'm rested, glad to be back and ready to begin the countdown to what promises to be an exciting Ole Miss football season. Let the OMRebelNation.com blogging begin!