"We're here. Let's do it." part 2

I'll try to make this short on words since there are so many pictures.

Day before yesterday, Kellie, Mark, and I went to Craters of the MoOn National Park. Contrary to popular belief, it was created due to the volcanic activity in these parts, not a meteor.



We climbed to the top of a volcano and it looked like this. As you can see, we are some hot lavas.
Caaaareful...caaareful! Kellie descends the hill with the grace of a ballerina. It was steeper than it looks.
"Hey, let's go explore an Indian cave where the Shoshone Indians stayed on their migration routes."
We scampered over rocks, through nooks and craneys. We didn't need a light because every so often there was an opening in the roof. The cave went on and on and on.
It was crazy. But I eventually found the end.

This is Kellie exiting the cave, but she kinda looks like she's been trapped in a hole or something."Man, I'm hungry. Being lost on the moon makes me hungry. I'm so hungry, I could eat a radioactive hamburger. Where can I get one of those?"
"Oh yeah. That's what I'm talking about."
This is what you look like after you eat an atomic hamburger.
The next day, Kellie and I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was freezing on the Teton pass.
A funny story is: Kellie read in the guidebook about a 2 mile hike around Lake Jenny in the Teton National Park. I think to myself, "Two miles? That's nothing. We won't even need water." Well, we take off without food or water, right into the Tetons. We expected to see a big bear at every turn. But only saw a beaver and a marmot. And some oversized gerbil, called a pika. Several hours later, we are like "Man, we are nowhere near even a fourth of the way around this lake." We were heading to Hidden Falls. If you remember, the motto of the trip is "We're here. Let's do it." So despite being without food or water, we trek on. And on and on and on. Finally coming to the waterfalls.
Definitely worth it, but we were bushed. And thirsty.
Ok, we saw the falls. Time to go back right? Wrong. Inspiration Point is only 1/2 a mile up the mountain. No way we can miss that. "We're here. Let's do it." Just don't fall off the mountain.
Made it. And she looks inspired!
Elevation: 7200 ft.
End of the story: We start heading back. Pursued by big ravens who are seeking us out because they know we are hungry, thirsty, tired, and can't make it much farther. We finally make it back to the car. All told, we probably hiked at least 6 miles with no food or water. Then we drove to Jenny Lodge, which is supposed to be the best food of any national park. We arrive at 1:35. What time do they stop serving lunch? 1:30.

Thankfully, we had some peanut butter, bread, and bananas in the car. Like I always like to say, it's good to be prepared. We lived. Lesson learned.

This is a cool old pioneer cabin in the Tetons.
And here are the Tetons. We couldn't stop staring.

We made it back to Jackson Hole. I ate some Huckleberry ice cream, and all was once again right with the world.

"We're here. Let's do it." part 1

If you didn't know, loyal readers, the wife and I are in Idaho visiting Kellie's brother, Mark. Yesterday we went to Yellowstone. It's a really amazing place, with too much to see. I will try to chart our trip, hitting only the major highlights.

Before going to Yellowstone, we took in some of the wind turbines in Idaho Falls. Note the size of the cars at the base.

This was one of the first sites. Some really cool thermal pools. Actually, they were hot. Some reached 140 degrees.

This is what happens to you when you put your head in a geyser.
Of course we saw Old Faithful. It was not too faithful that day because it blew 5 minutes early, which meant we were about 2 minutes too late. We caught it the next go around though. The best part of the show was when some rude dude started setting up his camera tripod right in front of the crowd, who basically threatened to throw him in a geyser if he didn't move. So he moved on down, but those people told him to stop blocking their view and leave. He finally did. He was probably from New York or something.

Here's a picture of Kellie and I smooching in Yellowstone.

So we did happen across a field of 200-300 buffalo. Before we actually saw the field, we got into a traffic jam. So I got out of the car to see what was going on, only to find a buffalo blocking the road. I took this picture....

Then I walked up in front of the white suv. No sooner than I get there, when another buffalo grunts and comes out of the woods to the right! It was crazy! So I hightailed it back to the car.


It was quite possibly the most magical experience of the trip. As you can see.

Mark was so excited, he spent the rest of the day trying to sharpen his imaginary buffalo horns on every tree we passed.
But we were too busy checking out this breathtaking waterfall from in the Canyon. As seen from Artist's Point.
Don't look down!
We spent the night in a cabin in Yellowstone. This morning, we saw this family of grizzly bears just a ways down the road.

Then we saw a black bear cub! Animals galore! We also saw a coyote.
We ended the day at Artists' Paintpots. It was bubbly and hot. Like hot, boiling paint. We were exhausted. We walked a lot. Apparently 1/3 of a mile means 2 miles in Yellowstone lingo. Or else were were exhausted. As you can see from the title, our motto was "We're here, let's do it." Even though we were tired, we pushed ourselves to soak it all in. In fact, I'm so tired I can barely finis...goodnight.