rocky mountain national park ..

this leg of our trip started in estes park colorado ..

we spent a few days in rocky mountain national park .. 

there is nothing like the mountains in colorado ..

don't even get me started on how good the air smells ..

there is nothing better than the heavy scent of pine trees 

we hiked around bear lake ..

the kids wanted to swim in the worst way ..

but we did not .. 

cash made a rock with a face ..

see the 2 small rocks that are eyes and then the frumpy smile on the rock .. 

yellowstone ..

you can see the steam from the hot springs as you drive thru yellowstone ..

you can also smell the sulfur ..

such a nice smell !

redwoods ..

we made it to the pacific coast before the sunset last night .. 

we found all kinds of sea life in the tide pools ..

starfish .. 

sea anemones ..

we caught the sunset to ..

we hiked the tall tree trail today ..

this is the part of the old growth forest that is still left .. 

it took 40 years for the redwoods to become a national forest ..

by the time the legislation was passed deeming it a national park 90% of the redwoods had already been cut down ..

the trees in the old growth forest can be up to 2000 years old ..

to say they are big is an understatement ..

the tallest tree is 379 feet tall ..

it is not marked within the forest and there are no trails leading to it ..

this is to protect the tree .. 

tetons .. jenny lake

we took the shuttle across lake jenny to hike up to the hidden falls and inspiration point ..

hidden falls ..

we stopped and had a picnic lunch here .. 

the top of inspiration point .. 

lake jenny ..

this barn is on mormon row .. this is the barn that you see on all the postcards

the tetons are magnificent ..

of all the places that we have been the tetons are my favorite ..

yellowstone day 2 ..

today was out last day in yellowstone so we thought

we would go for a swim in the boiling river ..

or i mean .. jeff and the kids went for a swim in the boiling river ..

a hot spring dumps about 3000 gallons of boiling water into the ice cold river every minute ..

they said there were super hot spots and super cold spots ..

it was also waterfall day ..

this is the waterfall from artists point in the grand canyon of yellowstone

thomas moran has made this view famous with his paintings of yellowstone ..

this was one of the views that moran used to persuade congress to make yellowstone a national park ..

breathtaking doesn't even come close to describing the park .. 

the other side of the falls from artists point ..

the mineral stains on the rock give the canyon it beautiful colors .. 

this was our last stop of the day ..

cash does not want to hear me say 

"oh my goodness .. look at that" one more time 

yellowstone is a huge huge huge park .. 

it covers 2,221,766 acres 

3% in montana, 96% in wyoming and 1% in idaho

1% has been developed for tourism ..

that leaves 99% totally undeveloped and natural

just to give you an idea of how big it is ..

it takes an hour to an hour and half to get from the gates at west yellowstone to the 

first ranger information station at madison .. and it's just 14 miles !

yellowstone reintroduced wolves in 1995 and 1996

they are now thriving ..

there are 12 -15 packs of wolves with 7-19 wolves in each pack 

we didn't get to see any wolves or any bears

but we did see elk, pronghorn deer and bison 

tomorrow we are going to float the snake river and go onto jackson hole and the tetons ..

yellowstone ..

after watching old faithful erupt twice we took a hike down to mystic falls ..

there have been lots of bears hanging around yellowstone lately ..

there are watch out for bear signs all over .. 

we didn't see any bears but we did see a beautiful waterfall .. 

we stopped on our hike back up to stick our feet in the cool water ..

we had to hurry up though .. jeff was nervous about the bears ..

july 4th food ..

greg smoked ribs ..

johanna made mac n cheese ..

i made baked beans ..

greg smoked corn ..

jay grilled hamburgers ..

and hot dogs ..

jay also made homemade french fries that were out of this world .. 

and smoked tri-tip steak .. like brisket but better ..

we were stuffed !!

buck todd ..

ellie and i got to see our most dearest friends buck and jennifer the other day ..

this is buck and ellie on ellie's 6th birthday ..

this is buck and ellie in june 2015 ..

they are 12 !

it would appear that buck has grown just a bit more than ellie ..

goodness this brings back so many wonderful memories of when they were just babies !

greg ..

greg is a giant goof ..

he is always entertaining us .. 

this is alf .. this is also greg's best friend in the world ..

we set off some industrial strength smoke bombs last night

greg thought that he would be like the super hero movie stars and run thru the smoke ..

then he thought that he would pick up a smoke bomb and throw it in the air for added drama ..

then he dropped it and RAN screaming because it was HOT !!!