As the last day of the trip came and went, I didn’t feel sad to leave, as I had felt we had seen enough, animals and other stuff. But this trip, I felt was WAY worth it. And I hope to do another trip, similar to this, to see new things and have fun. So I bid a silent farewell to Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Then we flew away, back home to San Jose.

Alright let’s rewind. Our first flight from Jackson Hole to Salt Lake City would depart at 12:30 pm and board at 11:50, So we had to be at the Airport by 10:30. So I woke up early, at 6:30 Am and had my breakfast. And you may be thinking, how did you get breakfast if you were living in a cabin. Well the answer to that is, my mom still had some leftover bread, so I had sandwiches for breakfast. Like, I mean, WHO HAS SANDWICHES FOR BREAKFAST?

Anyway, at 7 we took the same route as before all the way back to Jackson hole. Before we reached, though there was a sign saying Welcome to Wyoming, on the right. And on the left facing in the other direction was a sign saying Welcome to Idaho. We stopped there, to take 2 pictures of me standing under the sign. Soon after that, as we were just about to reach Jackson Hole, we stopped once more. This time it was not for any State Entry Signs, It was for Moose Sightings. After we parked there was a trail that led through “Critical Moose Habitat.” Since my parents badly wanted to see a Moose, we did the short 0.5 mile hike, but unfortunately, we couldn’t see any Moose. On the + side at least we got some exercise, as we had been sitting in the car for so long.

After, the failed moose sighting, we found out some NEWS. My dad rechecked our times for the flight, and found out that our first flight to Salt Lake City, only departs at 1:2o PM! And boarding time is 12:50. It was 10:30, so we had 1 hour to spare, before we needed to be at the airport. To waste some time we decided to head back to the same place we had a spotted the mother and the baby moose. But, at that place, there was no sign of moving life, Although there should have been because my dad said the Moose often stay in one area.

After the 2nd failed moose sighting, we FINALLY made it to the airport. There we did all the usual stuff, you do at the airport. Then when the time came, we left Jackson Hole, Yellowstone and Teton, for Salt Lake City. Then from Salt Lake City, to San Jose, and that officially ended the week long trip. The trip has been a memorable trip and one I will never forget.

 

My dad planned, late on the 4th day night, that we would, for the last day visit Grand Teton National Park, since we had covered most of Yellowstone.

After doing the usual morning routine, we were ready for the hour and a half drive down south. There was nothing really to do in the car except watching out for animals. So that’s what I did for a whole hour. For the rest half an hour I just took a power nap. But I jolted awake when we started to slow down, because I thought it was for Animals, but it  was only for the entrance for Teton. After we entered the forest, my mom told me that the forest was thicker, than at Yellowstone, so it looked more inviting for animals to live there.

That caught my attention and I immediately started scanning the right hand side for animals, I also told my mom to check the left in case there were any there. But as we drove past attractions, we didn’t want to see, we couldn’t spot any animal at all, and before I knew it the sign for the Teton Visitor Center came into view. It stated that the Visitor Center was coming up in about 10 miles. Before that though, we needed a car break. So we took this exit that led to some lake.

Immediately, when I hopped out of the car, the cold air and breeze of the area got to me. IT WAS FREEZING COLD. I had to get my jacket, but still even with the jacket I felt very cold. We started to head to the river that was close. And when I was close enough to touch the water, a truck that was carrying a boat came up from behind. We watched as the guy unloaded the boat from the back of the pickup truck and set it into the water. Then after he started to row the boat, we decided that our break was over.

It was great to be back in the warm car, where I could take off my jacket. The Visitor Center came into view soon, and since it was our lunchtime, my took the turn that would enter. There, like all the days at Yellowstone we had sandwiches. So it looked like the lunch would be similar to the other ones. But no, when I was midway done with my sandwich, my mom told me to tie my laces, and when I bent down I found a Coin souvenir. It was had a picture of the Oxbow Bend, which was one of the attractions we would eventually see that day.

After, I had finished my sandwich, I was still feeling pretty hungry, so I asked my parent if they would get me Ice cream from the General Store. They said Yes! As usual I got my favorite flavor, Mint chip and my mom got a flavor I haven’t tasted before, Mountain Berry. And as usual the Mint Chip was AMAZING! My mom wanted me to taste hers, but I didn’t want to. After, My mom and I finished licking the ice cream, we were ready to go…….. almost. First we had to find a real souvenir for me, for this trip.

First we checked, the General Store, where I got the ice cream from. There, I liked only 2 things. The Elk Keychain and The Bison Key chain. I ended up not getting it because my dad said that, it was useless, because it would be lying around on the floor when we got back home. My parents we going to give up on the souvenir thing. But luckily, I insisted, and I ended up getting a pretty big, Lego Bison model from the gas store nearby.

After that, the car headed down south toward Jackson, we were still on the lookout for animals. But I was slowly losing hope of seeing any animals in Teton. Soon enough though, we reached the Oxbow Bend Lookout Point. Surprisingly, nobody had parked in the parking lot of the famous attraction. That was strange. My dad showed me the Oxbow bend, it was just a river, tress on either side and mountains in the distance. It wasn’t as great as I expected, but at least seeing it was better than waiting for the Grand geyser to explode.

Just a little ahead of the Oxbow Bend, was the Willow Flats Lookout Point. It is famous for Moose sightings in Teton. But when we all scanned the big grassland area that had numerous bushes, we couldn’t find any moose. Either they weren’t there or they were hiding really, or maybe it was too early to spot them. My dad said that, maybe the Moose would come out of hiding or wherever they were later. We weren’t just gonna sit in the car and wait for an hour, so I checked the map and found out the nearest attraction was, Signal Mountain.

Signal Mountain, was an attraction where you could drive all the way up the mountain. The recorded elevation for this particular mountain was 7707 feet high! So to pass the time we did the ride uphill. My mom said we may see more animals up on the mountain, than on ground, because it is at a higher elevation.  So during the ride up I checked the right, as usual, but gave up after a few minutes. After, a few 10 minutes we reached the top. (Later we would find out that it wasn’t the Top, TOP.) There was a short hike there, and in the beginning of the hike, there were a lot of Sunflowers. As we slowly climbed higher, you could see all the way down to the ground. My dad exclaimed that we may see moose from this height. But even with the new height advantage, there were no moose to be found. At least we got a brilliant view of grasslands, rivers, forests and lakes down below.

Then when we were heading back toward the car, I found out that where we had stopped, wasn’t actually the highest point of the mountain. There was actually a road that led to an even higher point. So after driving uphill for a few more minutes, we reached the real, official top of Signal Mountain. In the official top there was no hike, only a lookout a point next to the parking lot. This time were, much higher than before, but that only made the view look better. Also slithering on the ground next to my feet, was a worm, kinda thing that was fully made of spikes. My dad said it was a inchworm. But it doesn’t qualify as a new animal because I have seen Inchworms back home in California.

After the enjoying the view for sometimes, it was 5 pm. Time to go back down to the Willow flats and see if some or all of the Moose came out. First, my dad wanted coffee, so after we drove around 7000 feet downhill, there was another General Store. My dad got his coffee and I got Hot Chocolate. It tastes even better than usual, because at the top of the mountain it was VERY COLD. And something hot like the Hot Chocolate I got was nice.

At the Willow Flats, a few minutes later. I used the binocular and scanned the area. But even though we came out later, there was no moose to be seen. We gave up after a few minutes, and started to head down south, once more toward Jackson Hole. On the way there, we saw burnt down, halfway dead small forests, indicating that there was a forest fire in those places. A while later, when the fully green forest came back in to view, My dad spotted a glimpse of brown in the left side of the car, where a big marsh was. And a lot of people had stopped there, so was there an animal?

Only one way to find out. My dad parked the car on the side of the highway, and quickly we all rushed to wear people were standing and taking photos. But before we could reach there my dad and I got a glimpse of what my dad saw earlier, It was a Female Moose. And next to it was a baby. Suddenly, as if they saw that we were looking, both of the moose ran and hid behind the nearest view. From another angle you could see the Mother moose head, but that was it. Since we hadn’t seen a moose since the first day, we decided that it would be fine to wait for sometime and see if they would come out.

They didn’t come out, also it was getting late for dinner, so that’s why we decided to leave to the nearby Jackson Hole to eat dinner. After eating at a Mediterranean place we headed way up north toward the West Yellowstone Entrance. We were heading there because we were gonna stay there at the Hotel/Cabin called River Lodge. And that finished the last full day at Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. What a trip!

 

 

Day #4 was the day my dad and I planned to head toward the North Entrance because the hotel we booked that day would be there. In the North Entrance the main visitor attraction, is the Mammoth Hot Springs. Where, according to an article you could see geysers, animals and much more! Also nearby Mammoth, there was another valley in which we would have a higher chance of seeing animals, Lamar Valley! We planned to go there, too!

After eating breakfast at the Grey Wolf Hotel, we pushed off toward a whole new part of Yellowstone. On the way there was this stop, where a Park Ranger would let you touch different parts of animals. We decided to stop there. There, I got to touch, an Elk Antler, The Bison Fur and I could see the Skull of a Wolf and a Bear! Overall, it was worth the stop!

At the Norris Junction, instead of going straight like before, we went left, toward Mammoth. Then immediately after we turned, I spotted a big Bison, just standing there at the edge of the road. This was the first time I had been that close to a Bison. And it was one of the first times I had noticed that in the Butt, the Bison don’t have hair! When my dad slowed down I got a great picture of it!

Not too far away from when I saw the Bison, there was this small attraction called Sheepeater Cliff. We wanted a break from the car, so my dad stopped there. The cliff was just a big cliff made of a lot of rocks. A sign nearby said that some kind of Indian tribe used to live in the cliff a long time ago. Just before we were about to leave, my dad spotted something, like a squirrel, but it was part orange and it was bigger than a squirrel. When I got a better view of it I noticed that it was a Yellow Bellied Marmot! The same creature we had seen at the Grand Geyser 2 days ago!

After, our short car break, we once again started toward Mammoth. According to our plan for the day, at Mammoth we would first do the Upper Terrace drive.  So when we were officially in Mammoth, my dad turned left to the inside road for the drive. The drive was basically a drive through the forest, until we reached a clearing with a parking lot. The parking lot was for the Upper Terrace geysers. My dad parked and we started the short hike.

The hike showed multiple geysers and springs. One of the first springs we saw, had rocks shaped like a staircase. And water was going from the top of the staircase, to the bottom of it. Others were similar to the ones we had seen before. At the end of the hike there was another Staircase Spring. But this Spring was bigger than the other one, so it looked cooler. Also, my dad spotted an elk herd, next to the highway in the distance. He said, that after the drive we will be going on that highway, and could stop to see them.

After, hiking back to the parking lot, we started to finish the Upper Terrace drive. It ended shortly and once again we were back on the highway toward Central Mammoth. On the way, I spotted the same Elk herd my dad had spotted earlier! Strangely, none of the Elk had Antlers, signaling that they were all Female. There were about 7-10 Elks in the herd, and it was nice to see them all together. Also, close by to the herd there was a lonely bison, which is rare because Bison usually stay in herds.

In Central Mammoth, there was a question in the air. Should we eat lunch or should we quickly do the Lower Terrace hike, then eat lunch? It was 12:30, and we estimated that we would be done with the hike at around 1:30, and then we could eat lunch. Our decision was to do the hike first. The Lower Terrace hike included a bunch of familiar geysers and springs. It was not much different from the Upper Terrace hike. And just like our prediction, it was 1:30!

My dad drove around the area to see if there were any restaurants. There was only one called, Fountain and Grill, But the line for ordering was soooooooo long, it went all the way outside! We couldn’t be bothered to wait THAT long, so we concluded that we would eat at Gardiner, which was only 5 miles away from the area. At Gardiner, we were debating on what we should eat for lunch. Subway?? Or more Pizza?? But then on the right came a a food mall, and in the food mall, only one restaurant was open. It was a Mexican place, and we did eat lunch there.

The Restaurant had a sign next to it saying “Welcome to Montana.” and my dad took a picture of me standing in front of the sign. (By the way, at the end of the road trip, I would have had a picture of me standing in front of 2 more different state signs. You’ll find out which states they were later.) Anyway, After heading back to Mammoth, my mom and dad wanted to go to the Visitor Center, to find out what hikes we could do in Mammoth that day. The Park Ranger gave us a paper showing all the hikes in the area. Unfortunately, all of us couldn’t do any of the hikes because we didn’t have bear spray.

While walking back to the car, I spotted a Female Elk on the grass nearby, and surprisingly there was a baby underneath it drinking milk! We walked around the building to get a better look of the mother and child. It was nice to see the first Elk baby, we had seen in Yellowstone! And when we started to depart from Mammoth, I saw 3 female Elk on the right, they were all sleeping. As we had seen a lot of Elk in the Mammoth area, we didn’t stop for the sleeping Elk.

The car headed toward Lamar Valley, but on the way there we would stop at 2 falls, Undine and Wraith falls. The Undine Falls was pretty far, so it took some time, but nevertheless we reached. There was a lookout point, next to the parking lot where we got to see the falls, It was similar to the Lower and Upper falls we had seen before. The next stop was Wraith Falls, which was basically the entrance of Lamar Valley.

The Wraith Falls wasn’t a lookout point it was a 0.5 mile hike, to the falls. You may be thinking “So what if it’s a 0.5 mile hike?” The problem was that the hike led through Bear territory. And if you walk through Bear territory, keep in mind that you should have BEAR SPRAY. We didn’t. Either way we did the hike. The hike went across a thin river and then, after the river it started to go uphill. Then, after sometime we started to climb higher and higher and higher and…. Finally, we reached the end of the hike. In the distance you could see the big/huge/humongous/gigantic Wraith Falls.

After hiking back, we were on the road once more toward Lamar Valley. And just before we reached the Lamar Valley sign, there was a traffic jam. It wasn’t an actual jam. It was people slowing down because they had spotted an animal. AN ANIMAL! I checked the right while my mom checked the left, and I spotted a dog, no a Wolf, no a COYOTE! The Coyote was casually walking up the hill, when I was taking pictures. It was Amazing, Cool and Awesome to see an animal I wasn’t expecting to see at Yellowstone National Park.

After seeing the Coyote, the Jam broke apart, so my dad drove at a speed that was fast enough for the speed limit, but slow enough to spot animals. And just a few minutes in we did see a type of animal. At first we didn’t know what it was, a lot of people had stopped at the side of the road for some reason, so my dad decided to stop too, to see what it was all about.

As we looked through the trees, (Where everyone else was looking.) I had spotted a Pronghorn. My mom also had spotted another one nearby. This was the first time we had seen the Pronghorn, so my hopes of seeing a Black Bear and a Wolf shot up. Since it was a new animal I had to check my animal book for facts about it. According to my animal book, Male Pronghorns have a black patch on their neck. Both the pronghorns my mom and I had seen, didn’t have the patch, so we knew they were female. Also I found out that Pronghorns can run up to 60 MPH! That’s 2nd fastest to Cheetah Worldwide.

While we drove on, we spotted a bunch of Bison roaming the area, and I spotted some sort of Animal lying down in the distance. Turns out it was another female Pronghorn, it was weird that it was alone, because the book said that Pronghorns stay in herds, like Bison. At one point my mom told my dad to stop at a lookout point, so she could look around the land with the binoculars and see if there were any hiding animals. The park ranger we had seen earlier had said to try looking at where the trees were to spot Wolves. So we all tried to spot a Wolf pack at the tree line. But we couldn’t spot any, because 1. It was too far away and 2. I doubted there were even Wolves there.

Then we stopped at another lookout point. Luckily, in this lookout point we actually saw animals! 3 male Pronghorns in the distance and there was a something black far away. My mom first thought it was a Black Bear or a Wolf! So I was excited when it was my turn to see what it was. It looked like a big black rock. Lastly, it was my dad’s turn and he solved the case. It was a lonely Bison

As we neared the North Eastern Entrance, also known as the end of Lamar Valley, we came across a parking lot, in which a lot of cars had parked. Later I had found out that people stopped there because this guy had seen a wolf pack far away hiding in the treeline. Unluckily, our binoculars were too low quality to see that far away. So after a while we gave up. The rest of the drive, we only saw like a BILLION Bison, and 2 small, free flowing rivers.

In conclusion the drive through Lamar Valley was worth it, and the day was brilliant! The problem was that we had covered all of Yellowstone, so we didn’t know what to do the next. Maybe we would go back down to Grand Teton and see if we could spot anymore animals, such as the Black Bear!!!