We had just recovered from our last trip when it was time to head out again, this time northward to the Jackson Hole area for some real camping. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate like we would have liked, but we made the most of it and managed to have a lot of fun!
We left on Wednesday and drove up to the campsite. We got there sometime around 7:30 or 8 and proceeded to set up camp...tents and such. When we drove up the thermometer in the truck read 48 degrees. Yeah, cold. I was a little bit nervous about sleeping in tents, but my kids actually did great. We managed to stay warm and they both slept soundly all night, all three nights we were there. I could complain about the fact that Stockton is an early riser and was the first kid up every morning, but I won't because I was pleasantly surprised at how well they both did. I was relieved. Since they did so well it means that we will attempt more camping trips this summer.
Our purpose for going to Jackson Hole was to run the Snake River. This is one of my family's favorite trips. We have been doing it for years. In fact, I think I was probably 8 the first time I floated the river. We used to go all the time but it had been 5 years since we last went. Too long. We were all very excited. We soon realized, though, that it was way too cold to do much river running. Luckily, there's lots to do in that area. The first day we hiked Jenny Lake (this makes for our 4th hike as a family) in the Grand Teton National Forest. We did the Hidden Falls Trail which was roughly 2.5 miles. Molly was determined to hike the whole thing by herself, like Lizzy did on our Bryce Canyon hike. I wasn't sure she could do it because 2.5 miles is a long way for her little legs. But she was a determined little girl and she did it. She hiked the whole thing without getting carried once! She was very proud of herself...I was proud of her for sticking to her goal like that.
All the kids did great. A few of the hikers that we passed thought we were crazy taking all those little kids on such a hike.
(I caught an Asian tourist taking a picture of all these kids on the rock. He's probably never seen such a thing!)Sometime after mile 2 the trail forked-one way went up to the waterfall and one way went back to the ferry. Although my kids had done great, I opted to head to the ferry. I didn't want to push my luck. Justin, however, hiked up to the waterfall (another 1/2 mile or so). It was a fun and beautiful hike.
And we got to ride a boat across the lake!
After that we headed into Jackson Hole and walked around the shops. Some families stocked up on beanies for their kids to keep them warm...luckily for me, I had thrown some in for my kids when I was packing. Still wish I would have gotten Molly some rubber boots though. Oh well.
We bundled up and found some dry wood for a fire that night. Campfire=s'mores!
The next day, though considerably warmer, was still too cold for river rafting. Since we had paid the national park fee the day before and it was good for 7 days, we decided to head to Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. We walked around for a while and then had front row seats for Old Faithful. Justin had never been to Yellowstone before. We didn't really get to see much besides Old Faithful so we'll definitely have to go back and explore when we have more time.
We'd been in the car a lot and the ground was too wet at camp so this was really the first time that Stockton was able to get down and crawl around. He was such a happy boy!
We saw a bear on the way out of Yellowstone. Of course there were tons of cars pulled off the side of the road and people lining the street with their binoculars. It was a huge bear (I think Dad said it was a grizzly). There were a couple of rangers making sure no one got too close and after a few minutes they sent most of us back to our vehicles because the bear was getting too close to the road.
Saturday morning was beautiful and we decided that it was definitely warm enough for a float down the river. We couldn't really get this close and not go (at least that's what I was thinking). So away we went. It was about 70 degrees outside, so beautiful, but that water was icy cold! Some of us had to hang one foot out of the boat, into the water, and it was literally painful. Until you got used to it and then it wasn't bad.The first half of the ride was great. We were having fun. Here's the proof.
Some of the boys had to show off and jump in. They are crazy. It was cold.
The water was moving pretty fast, faster than normal, but I wasn't too nervous. I have done this so many times and have never fallen out of the raft. If you've never been on this section of the Snake, you probably don't know what I'm talking about. But if you have, then you know. There are two particularly BIG rapids called Big Kahuna and Lunch Counter. Lunch Counter comes right after Big Kahuna. Kahuna was nothing this year but Lunch Counter was bigger than I've ever seen before. It was huge!!! We hit it just how we wanted but when we got right to it we couldn't believe how big it was. Like picture a wall of white, angry water and you are heading straight for it. It was scary. Well, we didn't have enough speed, or we went in crooked, or something because pretty soon we were all out of the raft and the raft itself was upside down. I have some pictures documenting it. I can't actually post them here but I can link up to them. There were 10 pictures, but I won't show all of them. (You can click on the numbers to see the pics.)One: Initially hitting the water. You can only see my Dad.
Four: Justin and Christopher (who were sitting in the front) are off. Bryce and Jeff in the back are also off or pretty soon will be.
Seven: Justin is in the front, the one with the sunglasses; Christopher is upside down, on top of Justin; Bryce is in the orange hat in the back; and that's me, hanging on for dear life. For some reason I thought if I just hung on, the boat really wouldn't tip and I wouldn't go in that water. Wrong.
Eight: Christopher, Dad, and me. I win the prize for hanging on the longest.
Nine: an empty raft. Creepy.
Ten: 5 people accounted for. Erin and I are missing. We think that Erin is in the back somewhere because that's where she was sitting on the raft. And me? I'm actually under the boat. Yes, I got stuck there for about 15-20 seconds, probably because I held for so long. It was really scary.
After a few minutes of panic, we were all accounted for but we still had to get the boat pulled over to the shore and flipped over. But the river was moving fast and the boat is heavy. We floated down the river for a few minutes hanging on to the rope (none of us were thinking of that cold water anymore!) until, finally, we were able to swim ashore. We rested for a while then flipped the boat over and then finished. None of us were too anxious to get back on...we had lost all of our bail buckets and most of us couldn't stop shivering...more from the nerves than from the cold, I think. Instead of trying to hit all the good rapids, we went around them. And then it was over. In summary, it wasn't the most fun trip I've had down the river, but it makes for a great story! Will I go again? Of course, just not when the river's going so fast.
That was really the last thing we did. We got back to camp, packed up our gear, and headed home. My kids didn't do that great in the car. We had our fair share of carsickness (Stockton the whole way up, Molly the whole way to Yellowstone), and Stockton started whining after 10 minutes of being strapped in his car seat, so to say we were glad to see our house was an understatement!
