Kayaking with Eliana

When we were camping in Yellowstone we decided to take the kayaks out on the lake for a little family paddle. Leif got Ellie all dressed up in rain gear and a life jacket, so as to keep her dry if she stayed out of the water and afloat if she fell in. I'm pretty sure there's no fashion statement quite like the one she was sporting:

And so we went on a kayak ride. Ellie was in my boat, sitting in front of me. And she was cranky. And wiggly. And I was sort of afraid that we'd tip over. But we didn't, and we paddled out a ways before figuring out why Ellie was so cranky.... she was tired. Oops. She eventually settle in and fell asleep on my arm. It would have been terribly cute if it weren't for the fact that kayaking with only one arm is rather difficult. It basically rendered me useless in the paddle department, so we tethered ourselves to Leif's boat and he proceeded to drag us around the lake while Ellie and my arm slept. We went quite a ways, and Leif got a good workout. The wind picked up a little and the waves got choppy, so we headed back to shore and Ellie eventually woke up as we neared the beach. I'm not sure it was the kayaking adventure we looked for, but hopefully we can take another kayaking trip when Ellie is not so tired and it will go better. We'll never know unless we try, right?

Camping in Yellowstone...

So last week we decided to go camping in Yellowstone. It's the first time we've ever camped down there, and only the second time we've camped with Ellie, so it was an adventure for us! We got to see several things we've never seen before in the Park, and we had a good time. We camped Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at Grant Village and decided that as far as car camping goes, Yellowstone is a nice place to go. Most people who camp in Yellowstone aren't there for the camping experience, so the campground pretty much empties out during the day, leaving it nice and quiet for you to relax in if you want to. Grant Village is right near the lake, too, so we took the kayaks and got to do a little exploring, which was fun. We don't get to kayak very often any more, so it's always a treat when we get to.

The new places we went will probably get their own blog posts, but here are just a few pictures to give you an idea of our weekend escape...

Weekend Getaway - Part I

I've been trying to figure out how I want to blog our recent weekend getaway, and I think the best way is just to dive right into it. I don't know if this will turn out to be a single monster post or several smaller ones, but I ought to share the adventure before it is too long past. We took around 1,000 pictures in 2 days, so a large part of the struggle is simply how MUCH of our adventure to share! But bear with me and you'll get a glimpse of what goes on when the Wicklands go on a little road trip...

Our adventure started on Saturday morning when we awoke to the radio alarm clock. As I opened my sleepy eyes I heard the radio man saying something about high gas prices and how people just weren't going to be going on road trips this summer with prices like these. And I laughed to myself because that is just what we were about to do. Take that, radio man!

We got on the road and headed to Yellowstone. We decided to be tourists for the day and entered the park via West Yellowstone, making our way toward Old Faithful. We took a lot of the windy side roads (largely to avoid being stuck behind the non-locals who had to stop and photograph every single bison) and thoroughly enjoyed our drive through the park. We even stopped somewhere along the way and took a little hike down to the Firehole river, where Eliana diligently looked for fish, though she saw none.

We enjoyed seeing some new things and just taking in all of the colors and textures of the park this time through. We also counted back and figured out that we've been to the park about a dozen times since we moved here 5 years ago. So it was nice to get to see some new things and approach our YNP experience a little differently this time around.

We eventually made it to the Old Faithful loop and spent some time walking around. After a bit we split up and I walked with Eliana in the stroller to get some food while Leif kept walking the loop taking pictures. It was an absolutely gorgeous day out and we didn't even feel too crowded, especially for being in the park at Old Faithful during tourist season.

Thanks to the cell phone service at Old Faithful (the only place in the park you can actually get reception) we were able to meet up relatively easily after we went our separate ways. The biggest obstacle to our meet up was the large herd of bison that decided to wander between me and Leif! He had to walk around the herd, getting off the trail to do so. But he made it safe, sound, and intact, and we got to watch Old Faithful as a family for the second time that day. It was Eliana's first trip to ever see Old Faithful and she was so very cute pointing to it and telling everyone around her, "That's Old Faithful, over there!" Very cute. Even cuter because she can actually articulate "Old Faithful" very well and she was very excited about it. My only regret is that my camera batteries died before I could get video of her saying that, because it was too precious. Maybe we'll have to have a reenactment with a postcard or something...

Not only did we have the pleasure of seeing Old Faithful erupt twice, but we also saw three other geysers erupt, which was very cool! We were just walking or driving by and there they went! This first picture is the Lion Geyser and I don't know what the second is...

After we saw Old Faithful we drove along through the park admiring this strange and beautiful world God created. Yellowstone always amazes me that way, and we were blessed this trip with storm clouds looming in the distance behind a beautiful rainbow. The rainbow is pretty faint in these pictures, but it stretched all the way across the sky and was just stunning over the river.

Our final stop before we left the park was at Artist Point, which has the best views of the lower falls of the Yellowstone. It was getting dark, but the sunset was beautiful over the falls.

As the sun set we continued on our drive to Cook City where we had reservations for the night. The wildlife really came out as the sun went down and these were our last views before dark:

Yellowstone in Winter

One of the best things about living here is that we can drive down to Yellowstone for the day, just because we want to. And yesterday, we wanted to. So we climbed into the car and drove the hour and a half or so to the northern entrance to Yellowstone at Gardiner.

Because it's winter, most of the roads in the park are closed to automobiles. But the northern entrance is still open, and there are a couple roads you can still take, at least for a little ways. We don't often head into the park via Gardiner, but it's fun when we do because we get to see the arch.

A little piece of trivia for you... Yellowstone was the first National Park, established in 1872. March 1st, in fact. If you don't believe me, read the sign...

On the way into the park, we were fortunate enough to see 3 bald eagles perched in a tree overlooking a river. They were incredibly majestic, sitting there against the backdrop of the mountains.

Once we were into the park, we made our way through the little town of Mammoth Hot Springs. I think the name should be changed to Elkville, though, because every time we are there we see tons of elk. They seem to think they own the place, and they can apparently read signs and know just where it is that they are supposed to plop down:

As is typical of any trip to the park, we spent most of the day in the car. The winter sun spent most of the day in our eyes. To make Ellie's life a little easier on the long car ride, we let her watch Baby Einstein and covered the seat with a blanket to keep the sun out of her eyes. She is much like her daddy and likes to be in a dark cave...

Winter has got to be the best time to visit Yellowstone. It's definitely the off-season, so there aren't too many people around. The views are spectacular in the cold, clear air, and everything is pristine all covered in snow. It is beautiful.

We decided to get out of the car and go for a little walk about mid-afternoon. So we put on all our snow gear (after our little trek up at Hyalite I was prepared for thigh deep snow this time!!) and headed out along someone else's trail in the snow. As usual, Ellie didn't want to walk in the snow, but she did give it a good try a couple of times, despite being cold.

The snow was mostly packed down, but every so often your foot would fall through and you'd find your leg lost in the snow up to the hip. You can only see one of my legs in the following picture, because the other is covered in snow. In fact, I am standing straight up on that leg, despite the fact that it looks like I am sitting in the snow. As you can imagine, it wasn't a very long walk.

We have been to Yellowstone a number of times, but one thing I have never seen in the park is wolves. They were reintroduced in 1995 and have reportedly been doing very well, but they like to stay out of sight. But while we were out on our little walk, we had the privilege of seeing 4 wolves harassing a few grazing bison. They were beautiful to watch and I was pretty excited to see them this close up. We saw a couple others, too, but they were much farther off.

We were fortunate enough to see another animal that we've never seen inside the park, too: big horn sheep. That's another reason to visit Yellowstone in the winter... all the animals come out to graze. The park is so serene and there seems to be a greater variety of wildlife to be seen. Here are the sheep, searching for a little something to eat:

As the sun started to dip below the horizon, we saw a bull elk grazing by the side of the road. We stopped to admire and in the quiet of the evening we heard the sound of owls hooting in the forest. It is a sound I'd never heard in the wild before and it was ethereal. The hooting echoed through the trees and made me stop and listen in wonder. It was amazing.

We started back home and enjoyed the setting sun over the snowy landscape and it made us both thankful that we live in such a beautiful place.