Neither of us has a lot of time off work. To avoid using vacation I suggested and Katie agreed, to drive up to Big Sky, MT on Saturday, kayak on Sunday afternoon and make a late drive home. Katie picked me up Saturday morning in Salt Lake City and we headed up I-15. Since we were heading to Big Sky to use dad's condo for the night we cut off after Idaho Falls. Taking US-20 improves the scenery. You could see the Tetons off in the distance. We stopped in Ashton for lunch at a little place called Frostop that my friend Abbi introduced me to my first summer in Utah. They have fabulous milkshakes and tater tots. (I recommend the Huckleberry shake if you do stop in.) A few miles down the road we started seeing historic signs. Katie joked about pulling over to read them all. I told her I was fine with that since I always consider doing it but seem to be in a hurry when I go by. She didn't actually stop until she saw the sign for the Scenic Byway. We pulled over and it looked like it would connect back up with 20 so we decided to take it. It wasn't until we reached the upper water falls before the lower that we started to doubt the direction we were going. When we reached the lower falls next we knew we were in trouble. We ended up doing it backwards and ended up right back in Ashton by the Frostop. In the end it was a detour well worth the time.
Upper Falls
Lower Falls
The rest of your drive up to Big Sky was beautiful but mostly uneventful. We arrived in Big Sky shortly before 6pm. This is absolutely my favorite mountain. Katie says its because it is so easy to draw all on it's own. That might be, but I have always loved coming up to Big Sky. It is my happy place. Our first stop didn't count since it was a rush stop so Katie could buy some shorts at the sporting good store. The second and third stop were the important ones. First we hit The Cave, a liquor and gift store. We both got a mug and a beer glass, but Katie found a nice bottle of wine and I discovered they had Maker's Mark mini bottles. From there we headed over to the Hungry Moose Market. Katie picked up some beer and more wine, while I got a bottle of Ten Spoon wine called "Getaway", which seemed appropriate, and some postcards. Now we were ready to head to the condo to watch the Notre Dame football game. For anyone who saw that game against Michigan, you know it did not end well for our team. It was a quiet night after that.
Sunday morning we got up and headed out. We were on the road a bit before 9am, which was impressive even if that was our goal. Our reservation for kayaking was not until 2:30pm so we had time to enjoy the park. We came in from the West Yellowstone entrance, which means you have many miles before you can make a turn onto another road. So when traffic gets tied up due to wildlife, you might as well prepare to be patient. Our drive in became one of those. It took awhile before we were anywhere near the tie up so we could figure out the problem. My guess was elk since I'd seen them before in this area. Sure enough, there was a herd standing in or along the river right near the bridge. There were people everywhere taking photos. Katie was less than impressed. There was one elk standing in the middle of river almost posing. I asked Katie if she would be more impressed if a bear ran out and attacked the elk. She said only if it ran right next to the man sitting too close on a rock so that he pissed himself. Sadly, none of that happened so we kept going.
The route we chose was the one that would take us along the upper part of the loop toward the Canyon area and away from Old Faithful. We stopped first at the lower falls and somehow I found myself on the trail that takes you down to the brink. I have done that hike one other time, and have tried to avoid it since. It is only 3/4 of a mile round trip but you descend 600 feet and it is switch backs the whole way. It is a work out but worth it. The only bad thing is that then you are on top of the falls, so the pictures aren't amazing. Fortunately for us, we could see the view area across from us, and some crazy guy who had decided to climb down to get a better picture.
Viewing area across the way in the midst of the trees
1/2 way to 3/4 way down is the crazy guy
1/2 way to 3/4 way down is the crazy guy
Blue dot on the big rock is the crazy guy
Katie and I actually watched him for awhile. At one point he went sliding over the rock to the Falls side. It took a moment to realize he had put his camera on a timer and was getting in the shot. I was convinced we'd be reading about his death in the paper. Katie on the other hand decided this just might be the guy for her. So if anyone knows him, let my sister know.
Brink of Lower Falls
After that excitement we hiked back up and continued on our way. We finally found the buffalo. The big guy below had been holding up traffic in the left lane by standing in the middle of it. At one point he was having a stand off with the cars. They say you should stay 25 yards away from wildlife, I'm pretty sure we broke that rule just driving past him.The local welcome buffalo
As we were driving past the buffalo herds we could see rain in front of us. Then Katie noticed that the cars passing us had snow on them. Suddenly the stuff hitting the windshield was a lot slushier than rain. I'm not completely ready to call it snow, but it was close. At least I made it all the way until Sept. 11th before I saw snow this year.
Snow/slush on the drive
Seeing snow made us a bit nervous for getting out and into a boat. We watched the temperature reading on Katie's car slowly rise into the 40's. I figured I would need to pull all my layers out for this adventure. Fortunately, when we reached Grant Village for the kayaking it was a reasonable temperature. We both opted to stick with shorts, although I did put on a light, long sleeve shirt. There were only four of us going on the trip that afternoon. Katie and I were in one kayak and the other two women were in the second kayak. Then we had Dominick and Dan as our guides. After giving us instructions on how to get in the boat and paddle we got our safety lecture and were ready to go. Dominick was our lead guide and Dan was playing sweep. Which meant that Katie and I were with Dominick and the other ladies were with Dan. The trip is kayaking from Grant Village to West Thumb were you can see some thermals in the water. The wind had started to kick up but it was not too hard on the way over. On the way we got a National Geographic moment for Katie. There was a male elk in full on pursuit of a female elk. She on the other hand did not seem to have any interest in him. She kept running away and even went into the lake to get past him. A bit further down the coast there were also two younger male elk fighting. Then they started to head toward the bigger male. We tried to tell that was a bad idea, but you can't tell kids anything.
Female Elk trying to get away
We also saw some golden eye ducks. Dominick told us they don't like to fly so they try to duck under the water and come up away from you. They also start quacking in panic but never fly. When we got close we could hear them but we were close to shore so they were able to get up on land and run away from us. Their eyes really are a golden color. Kind of creepy. As we got closer to West Thumb we joked about all the tourist photos we were going to ruin. You could see a lot of them with their cameras up on the walk way looking at the thermals. Katie seems to get a kick out of being in the middle of their pictures. There is a point where we had to wait for the others since there are rules about being in the area of the thermals. It turned out though that the waves were getting too big to see anything. Dominick and Dan were getting worried and decided we should turn back. The return trip was a lot harder than the way out. The waves got so big I'm almost convinced I could handle ocean kayaking after this experience. Every so often we'd get hit with one and feel how cold that water was. Despite the extra effort we had to put in we were still having fun joking around with Dominick on the way back. We got really far ahead of the others and stopped to wait once. We were supposed to be fairly close to the coast line for the trip. At one spot we were not that close so I warned Katie about not dumping me out since I wasn't sure I wanted to swim that far. She informed me I wouldn't have to swim, just float and the waves would carry me in. I still wasn't ready to be that cold. Eventually we made it back to the dock. It was a great trip for my first kayak experience. I look forward to doing it again. We learned the hard way to pick the morning trips when the lake is calmer. Live and learn, the theme of the summer.
Katie and I by our Kayak
Katie wanted to stop in Jackson to have dinner with her friend Sam on our way home. So once we changed into dry clothes we bolted for the Tetons. We were told it would take us 2 hours from Grant Village. She was determined to beat that time. I think she might have pulled it off by about 10 minutes. It was a beautiful drive out of Yellowstone and through Teton National Park. I really think these are two of my favorites. It doesn't matter how many times I go, I love them every time. We saw some buffalo and antelope on our way through the Tetons. Still no bears or moose but we kept hoping. The sun coming through the clouds was gorgeous. The picture below just doesn't do it justice.
Sunset in the Tetons
We had a great dinner in Jackson with Sam. The whole time Sam and Katie kept trying to talk me into calling in sick or dead so we could stay the night in Jackson. This just wasn't one of those times I could pull it off. Eventually we headed back to Park City. Sam gave us directions to make it quicker. Unfortunately, we missed one of the turns and got a bit confused. We eventually got back on track and made it to Katie's house by 1am. Next time we take an extra day for the trip. Still, it was a great weekend. I'm glad we were able to go do it. If you are in the west I recommend a stop in Yellowstone and Teton National Parks. They are worth it.
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