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!!!

 

After I ate breakfast and all, We were ready to go. Here was THE plan for this day.

1. Turn left at the Madison junction and stop at the Gibbon falls Overlook
2.  Do the 2 Norris Canyon Trails, 1. Porcelain loop trail, 0.8 miles 2. Back bend loop trail, 1.5 miles
3. See the Lower falls and Upper Falls.
4. Go to Hayden Valley at around 3-4 to see animals

So, we went straight as usual, we took an unfamiliar left at the junction, and headed toward Gibbon Falls. On the way there I looked more carefully at the right, because this was unknown territory, and there may have been animals that we haven’t seen yet. But the car was going too fast and I couldn’t spot anything. Then just when I was about to give up, we reached, the Gibbon Falls river. NOT FALLS.

There was this trail that led down to the river, and on the way there, there was a sign that said BEWARE OF BEARS, enter at your own risk. And that’s precisely what we did, enter at our own risk. And we reached the river, in no time at all. The water was moving really fast, and my mom thought that there would be fish in the water. But there wasn’t. I touched the water and it was freezing cold. It was even colder than the water I touch when I go to the beach!

After my dad took a few pics, we were back in the car, heading toward Gibbon Falls. At Gibbon Falls there was a lot of crowd, I wasn’t surprised because the first day also had a lot of crowd. We walked on the road until we reached the Lower Point Overlook, where we got a perfect view of the falls, then the Higher Point Overlook, where we didn’t get a good view. But, at least at the Lower Overlook, the Waterfall looked amazing!

The next stop of the day was the Norris Canyon Geyser Basin, which contains the highest erupting active geyser, The Steamboat Geyser! I was looking forward to seeing that Geyser, other geysers in the area and the Hot Springs in the area. At the Norris parking lot there was a sign and like the river sign it said, PARK AT YOUR OWN RISK. When the Steamboat Geyser erupts it could unleash rocks and minerals that could harm your car. And once again we did it with our own risk.

Before we would start hiking I wanted to check out this small visitor center. There a Park Ranger was saying that the last major eruption of the Steamboat geyser was just 7 days ago! Imagine, if we were there on the 31 of May, we would have seen something that would only happen every 4 days-50 years!!! We started with hiking the Porcelain Loop Trail. It included various geysers and one spring (The Porcelain One). My favorite geyser on this hike was the one that was chugging like a Steam Engine. My mom even mistook that geyser as the Steamboat Geyser! All the other ones were similar and weren’t too impressive.

Then we had finished the Porcelain trail and had started on the Back Bend loop trail, first we weren’t seeing any geysers, we were seeing trees on the right and left side of us. But soon enough the Geyser area came about again, and once more we saw a bunch of similar springs and geysers.

After a while we reached the Cistern Spring. Fun Fact about the Spring: Whenever the Steamboat geyser explodes, the Cistern spring empties out completely. Just after the Spring, I saw the Steamboat geyser! When I saw it there was only smoke rising up from a hole in the ground, so I couldn’t imagine what it would look like when it explodes. Since it erupts any time from 4 days – 50 years, we weren’t planning to wait, like we did for the Grand Geyser yesterday. So we just continued with the trail.

That was it for the Norris Canyon Basin area! It was around 1 pm, and we all were hungry. Since there was not tables or benches in the area, we decided to head to the Canyon Visitor Center Area to eat lunch. When we reached and found a table in the area my mom pulled out our lunch, Sandwiches. I finished eating the Sandwich and my dad told me I could get Ice Cream from the General store! There was no Mint Chip Ice Cream, so I picked my 2nd favorite flavor, Rocky Road. And it tasted sooooo good. Even my mom got an Ice Cream. Its flavor was Mountain Berry.

I licked down the Ice Cream, and was ready to do the Lower Falls hike. The hike wasn’t far from the visitor center, and we reached pretty quick. And according to the main sign, the hike was a mile long, downhill. First it went Downhill like this ———-> and then it went downhill like <————-. And that was basically the whole hike. It was steep, and you did have to watch you’re step, but it was all worth it when you would see the final result.

We were so close to the falls, and when you see the water fall down, it’s hard to even know how many gallons of water are going down every second. If that isn’t cool enough, there was a full rainbow curving from one end to the river to another. IT WAS AMAZING, because I have never seen anything like it before. This was one of the highlights of the trip.

When we had, had enough of the falls (Which was a long time) we headed back up to the parking lot, where the Upper Falls Trail Head would be. This time, it was going uphill instead of downhill. because of this it was a little harder to climb. But eventually we all could do it. (Even if we stopped a Trillion times for my mom to catch her breath.)

The Upper Falls Trail went through the forest, and once again we saw the sign that said BEWARE OF BEAR. Then as we hiked uphill, there was this screeching noise. And my mom freaked out because she thought it was a Bear rubbing his/her back against the base of a tree. Turns out it was only a tree that was about to fall, but was denied by another closer tree. When the wind comes it scraped against the other tree and makes that noise “SCREEEEECH.” Shortly, after the “Bear” encounter we reached another parking lot. There was one problem though, there was one hike that went straight and another that was a little bit in the distance on the left. Since nobody was going on the one straight ahead we decided to do the one on the left.

There was no sign saying that this was the Upper Falls Lookout point, but there was a lot of crowd heading down the trail. So we assumed that the Falls must have been where the people were heading. The Upper Falls were there, and it was similar to the Lower Falls. There was a full rainbow and there was a lot of water going down. Then we hiked back through the woods, and toward the parking lot, where my dad parked the car.

It was around 3 when we reached the car, and that was around the time we would see animals. But before we would head to Hayden Valley, we had to see another famous landmark in Yellowstone, we had to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone! To see the Grand Canyon, you had to go to Inspiration Point. It was only a short drive away, so we reached there in no time. The view was spectacular! You could see how the river had carved the Canyon over the years. And we were also at such a high altitude!

While we were driving toward the Valley, I saw a sign saying Hayden Valley, so we all knew that we had reached. As we drove through there were hills and plenty of acres of free, roaming grasslands on either side. There were only Bison on the land, even though the article said that we would see numerous animals in this region. There was a lake up ahead, and my dad stopped to see, if there was any living creature on the lake. There was! And it was a new animal! The Trumpeter Swan! There were 2 Trumpeter swans and numerous Swan babies in the Lake. It was easy to notice them because they are almost fully white.

After the joy of seeing a new animal, we were eager to see more. But sadly, there was nothing except Bison roaming the lands when we finished the drive through Hayden Valley. Luckily we would get one more chance to see animals this day because we were going back to West Yellowstone. And the fastest way was to go the same way we came. Even with our second chance, we couldn’t see anything except Bison, until the end of the Valley. At the end of the Valley we saw one lonely elk that had big and long antlers. It was so close up that I got a great view and picture of it!

During the ride back to the hotel, I checked the right (Like always) and my mom checked the left. When we were close to Norris, my mom spotted a female Elk on the left, and took a picture of it. The next 45 minutes of the ride, we didn’t see anything. And that was the end of day #3, One of the most thrilling day of the trip!

 

 

This was the 2nd day for the first trip in 1 1/2 years. I woke up early, around 6:30, at breakfast at the hotel. And then was ready to head back to Yellowstone National Park. The plan for this day was to first see the lower Geyser basin, which has numerous geysers, then from there we would see the nearby midway geyser basin, which has the biggest spring in the world. The from there we would see, Old Faithful the legendary geyser and other geysers around it.

My dad drove turned right from the Madison junction, heading toward the lower geyser basin. Just according to plan. But then, at some point we saw that many people had stopped to take the Low Flats drive for some reason. My dad thought there would be animals there, so we did the drive. Halfway through the short drive I spotted a huge herd of Bison on the right. This time there was babies, too. There was a river there, and I got to see the Bison drinking from it. As we went closer to the river to get a better look at the Bisons, we noticed that there was a small geyser in the river! Although the drive was not part of the plan, it was worth doing.

Then, just a few minutes later we reached the lower geyser basin. As I went to see the first geyser I noticed that the steam coming from the geyser smelled like rotten egg. It was disgusting, because I don’t like eating or smelling egg. But it wasn’t too severe, so I could handle it. It was a 0.5 mile round trail hike and there were a few geysers, that were all similar and one hot spring that had water the color of turquoise! This lower geyser basin, was not even as close as impressive to the one we were gonna see next.

At the beginning of the midway geyser basin hike, there was a bridge that crosses a fast flowing river. And on he left, hot water from the biggest spring in the world was coming down and mixing with the cold water! After we all climbed up the steps I was lost in a cloud of fog. You see, since it was the biggest spring in the world, it also releases a lot of steam. Luckily, after a few seconds the fog was gone and I could see again. The spring was REALLY wide, REALLY DEEP and it held a LOT OF WATER, and according to a nearby sign, the biggest spring was called the Excelsior spring.

If the Excelsior spring wasn’t enough the one we were going to see next must be enough. The Grand Prismatic Spring. From far away the steam rising from the spring, is a shade of blue and red. It looks AMAZING AND COOL AT THE SAME TIME. As we got closer I noticed that the ground close to the spring were every color you could think of. And the Spring itself was no less awesome, than the Excelsior one. The water was turquoise and it still had steam, the color of red and blue. My dad said he hasn’t seen anything like the Grand Prismatic Spring in a long time! So after taking a few pictures of the Spring we headed back to the car.

Finally, just before lunch we headed to our final planned destination. The Old Faithful area, Which includes the Old Faithful geyser that erupts every hour and a half. At the Old Faithful area, there was a lot of crowd, in which I thought was for the geyser. Later, I found out it wasn’t only for the Old Faithful Geyser, it was also for the other geysers in the area, such as Grand and Castle.

There was this place up ahead in which people were gathering to watch the geyser explode. We were about to head toward the area, until I saw a sign. It showed the predictions of when each geyser may explode. for Old faithful it said 11:45 AM +/- 10 mins. It was 11:42 AM at the time, so we wouldn’t have to wait too long. When we were at the area, I couldn’t see anything in the front because a bunch of people were all gathered there. But my Mom told me, since I was a kid that I could go in the front. So I did that and had a great view of the geyser. And luckily just after a few minutes the geyser exploded and I got to take a 5 star video. The waters maximum height, while exploding, was 100 ft!

After we all ate lunch we took the 1.2 mile round trip around the Old Faithful area. The first stop was the Castle Geyser. That Geyser would explode, at predicted time 2:15 +/- 45 mins. That time was far away, since it was 12:40. We would come back to the geyser, around 1:30 to see it explode. The next stop turned out to be the last stop for us, the Grand Geyser. And the prediction was 1:30 +/- 45 mins. Since there was a lot of crowd and we didn’t have anything else planned for that day, we decided to wait. A park ranger said it was worth the wait because the water height goes up to 200 feet high! That’s double the height of Old Faithful!

Spoiler alert. We waited for an hour and a half and the Grand Geyser didn’t explode. But you know what exploded? THE CASTLE GEYSER. Luckily, it was pretty close from where we were waiting. So I got to see the Castle geyser explode. If we had just waited there, we would have had a better view of it. But at least we saw the Old Faithful one explode! Also, while we were waiting for grand to explode, my dad spotted a squirrel like creature hiding behind the rocks. It was orange, yellow and had a little bit of white. Later, I found out it was a Yellow Bellied Marmot. So YEA NEW ANIMAL!

Since it was only 2:15, we headed back to the car and headed toward West Thumb. We headed there because my dad wanted coffee. At West Thumb though, there were no places that you would get coffee, so we kept heading toward the east toward Lake Village. Just after we left West Thumb, My dad spotted 3 Male elks on the right. I knew they were male because they had long and thick antlers. This was the first time we had seen Elk in the park.

When we reached Lake Village, we found out that there was nothing there except a huge hotel. But we still had a lot of time, so my dad drove to the Fisher mans bridge. Which according to the map states that you may see Grizzlies. We did not. But since there was a general store nearby that had an ice cream which only costed 99 cents. And it tasted good. After I finished the Mint chip ice cream it was around five so we started to head back to West Yellowstone hotel.

During the drive back, we didn’t see any animals. So when we reached 2 hours later, we had dinner at this Chinese place, and that basically ended the 2nd day of the trip.

 

June 6, 6:37 AM.

My dad woke me up BECAUSE WE WERE GOING ON A TRIP FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 1 1/2 years! This time, this trip would be to Yellowstone National Park, Also known as the first National Park in the U.S. I was pretty excited to see  the numerous animals and Geysers there, but I was mainly excited to get to go somewhere in such a long time!

First we went to the Airport and took 2 flights to reach the Jackson Hole Airport. The first flight stopped at Los Angeles and the next flight went to Jackson hole. There, we got a rental car, the Hyundai Elantra. And started to head toward West Yellowstone/The White Buffalo Hotel.

As my dad was driving, I was looking out my window and saw, what I had never seen in California. The car and the main road were surrounded by a million acres of greenery on all sides. And further in the distance there were these really tall mountains. At the top of these mountains I saw this white stuff, which my dad says is snow!

Since none of us had, had a proper meal that day my dad decided to stop at this Dornans Pizza place to eat dinner. (Even though it was only 5 PM and we usually never eat dinner that early.) After I chomped down the pizza, I hopped back in the car, ready for a road trip through the wilderness.

After about 20 minutes we reached the Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks toll booth. My parents had to pay for both because when you enter Grand Teton, you can only come out via one of the Yellowstone entrances. I looked on the right to see if I could spot any animals and my mom looked on the left. Then just after a few minutes I spotted some big hairy brown things roaming around the grasslands. My dad saw it too, so he stopped the car. I wondered what animal it was, so I checked the Animals book I had gotten from the airport, and according to the book we had seen our first Bison/Buffalo’s at the park!

Immediately, we stopped again. This time it wasn’t for Bison. This time my dad had spotted 3 deer, or to be more specific 3 Mule Deer! They were closer to the road than the Bison, so I could see what they were doing (Eating Grass). Also Fun fact:  A single Mule Deer can run up to 60 mph, they are only 2nd to the Cheetah worldwide!

So far the trip was a huge success. Just around 15-20 minutes in we had seen 2 species of Animals in Grand Teton. But then, we weren’t able to spot anything for a long period of time, because the left and right sides were covered by Thousands of trees. We headed out through this clearing and saw that a lot of people had stopped and were looking in to the forest with their binoculars. Turns out that someone saw a Mother bear and 4 cubs in the morning, so people were waiting for them to come out again. We didn’t have time to wait, since it was getting late. BUT, we just saw a bear a few minutes later without even having to wait!

A pretty big Grizzly bear was on our right side of the road. Suddenly the bear was crossing the road quickly. It was only a few feet away from another car on the other side, so I thought it would attack it. It didn’t. Then it crossed the road and disappeared into the woods. NOW THAT WAS AWESOME!

I was expecting to see a bunch more animals on the drive back to the hotel, but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. As we entered Yellowstone, there were only thick forests, Long Grasslands and Marshy Areas. And when we were close to the Madison Junction, we saw many small Geysers, with steam coming from them. It was getting dark and hard to see, but with luck, after the Madison Junction I saw something brown on a small hill. It was a blur of a brown thing since the car was moving fast. So my dad turned the car around and it turned out I had seen a Female Moose. Which is rare because there were only 100 Moose in Yellowstone.

After a while we reached the town of West Yellowstone. That ended the first day, in which I have to say later, It was the best day!

 

When I was sleeping Santa Claus used magical powers and sneaked around the whole house and NOBODY, not even my mom who is always awake heard him.

1 day before

Before the night when Santa would come to deliver gifts I kept two paper Christmas trees on a table. Around the trees were some coins, pebbles and a rock. I guessed when Santa came through my window (like last year) he could place the gifts around the tree.

8 hours later

I woke up because I needed to go to the bathroom. I glanced over to where the table was and see a letter, NOT gifts. I opened the letter and tried to read it, but it was too dark. So I went to the bathroom, kept the letter under my pillow and went back to sleep.

2 hours later

Around 7 in the morning I woke up again. Since there was enough sunlight to read the letter, I read the letter. It said

I had to search where each present might be. These are the items I wrote in the letter I sent Santa.

1. Playstation 4 Controller
2. Dart Board
3. Rare coin
4. Matt Christopher world series book
5. Hot glue gun sticks

First, I checked the toy room thinking I may find the Dart board, nothing was there. Next, I checked the bookcase for the book. I found all the books neatly stacked on top of each other and with those books was the World Series book!

1. Playstation 4 Controller
2. Dart Board
3. Rare coin
4. Matt christopher world series book
5. Hot glue gun sticks

On the drawer right of the bookcase I found the Playstation 4 controller and it was gold!

1. Playstation 4 Controller
2. Dart Board
3. Rare coin
4. Matt Christopher world series book
5. Hot glue gun sticks

I would keep a rare coin in my purse, which is in my drawer, so I checked my drawer first. I went to my room and when I opened the drawer the coin was there. It was gold too. Later I did some research and I found out that the coin is

1. Worth 0.93 cents in U.S.D
2. Made in 2004
3. Very Rare
4. Is from Czech Republic
5. You cannot use it to pay anymore

1. Playstation 4 Controller
2. Dart Board
3. Rare coin
4. Matt christopher world series book
5. Hot glue gun sticks

Since I could not find the Dart Board, the last item is the Hot glue gun sticks. I asked my mom where the glue gun was and she said it was in the storage. On the 2nd drawer in the storage, I found the glue gun sticks and the hot glue.

1. Playstation 4 Controller
2. Dart Board
3. Rare coin
4. Matt christopher world series book
5. Hot glue gun sticks

That was my Christmas night! I still don’t know where the Dart Board is, or Santa never gave it. I got 4/5 items on my list!

 

On September 7, my dad and I went to San Gregorio (spoiler alert Pescadaro) to visit the beach. We left around one o’clock in the afternoon. After one hour, we were stuck in a jam on La Honda road close to the beach. At the end of the jam the beach was jam packed, so we agreed to drive down the California one highway and look for another beach. On the way there was another beach but it was also full. Finally, we found the Pescadaro Marsh beach which didn’t have a lot of people. At the beach it wasn’t as hot as I expected it, it was actually pretty warm. So first I wanted to play in the water. First it was really cold but once I got used to it it was really fun. After I had enough of the water I played Frisbee and catch with the tennis ball for a long time.

Then I went back in the water. It was much more fun the second time because the waves got much bigger. Then my dad and I played with the ball and Frisbee. When we played with the Frisbee I also got to do some diving catches I think he will post them!!??!?!?!! We both decided that we should go back home because it was getting late. But while I was walking back I saw a dead crab’s pincher on the sand. I asked my dad if I could keep it he said yes if mama agrees. So I kept it in the Frisbee. In the car, I was hungry. So I took the chocolate cookies from the car and hogged 20 of them. While I was eating them my dad opened the top of the car. It was AWESOME.

But it was even more better when we went to I 280 (Highway). He was going so fast that lot of wind came in. The open car was great. I also think next weekend we will go to the beach and go strawberry picking. P.S. My mom totally freaked out when she saw the crab’s pincher 🙂

 

       Healthy Choices

                                           Table Of Contents

                                                  1 Healthy Vs Bad foods

                                                  2 Sleep

                                                  3 Finding Balance In Your Life

 

                                             Healthy vs Bad Foods

   

               There are a lot of foods you can buy. So you need to know the difference between the ones that are good for you and the ones that are not so good. The food that is healthy usually has protein. Protein makes you and your bones stronger. For example, eggs and meat have protein. Carbohydrates are healthy for you too. Bread and plant based protein can also be found having carbohydrates. Even though there is a lot of food that is good, you also have to watch out for the stuff that is bad.

                Have you ever gone to the supermarket and bought something like a bag of chips? If you have you must know that there are much healthier choices instead of chips. Most chips have a lot of salt. And other ingredients that your body may not be able to digest. Some of the foods to look out for are in the following.

Alcohol, Cookies, Potato Chips, Ice Cream and anything else with too much sugar or salt. Now you know next time you go to the grocery store what to buy and what not to buy. 

 

 

                                                             

                                        Sleep

 

  Do you know why you need sleep? Before I learned this even I didn’t know Why I had to sleep. But now that I know I need to spread the information to you. If you are an adult you need at least 7 hours sleep for the average adult. If you are a child doctors and scientists recommend 10-12 hours. They recommend this because then your brain can have a break after a stressful day.

                  Your brain still uses energy while you sleep but it uses less than what you do during the day. You can also have a bedtime routine before you go to sleep!

 Doctors suggest doing stuff that requires less energy. For example, Reading or taking a shower are some of the examples. They don’t recommend watching or playing on a screen. Then your brain thinks it’s day and it will be hard to sleep. While you sleep the hippocampus stores and organizes everything you learned from that day! Now you know why you need sleep!

 

                                                                      

Finding Balance

 

     Healthy choices are good for parts of your body. Such as remember the other day you played a game? After the 2 hours you were Playing it did you take a break and do something without a screen or did you go and start playing another game? As you know after you do anything with screen you should do the same amount of time off screen. 2 hours playing whatever game and 2 hours Going for a walk. You can also use healthy choices differently. 1 hour with your friends and 1 hour with your family. Another way you can say it is 50-50.

 

Thanks for reading my book! Now you know what healthy choices are!

Nba 2k13 is a basketball game. If you are a sports fan (like me) you should like this game. In total there are 30 teams you can pick from. 15 in the eastern conference and the other 15 in the western conference. There are a few additional teams such as the celebrity team which includes Justin Bieber and others, Team Usa and the dream team with basketball legend Michael Jordan. You can also pick teams that go back from 1970 to 2012. Some teams that are good and I suggest you pick is the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

There are many different game modes such as the playoffs. Only some teams in the whole 30 teams get to the playoffs. If you do get to the playoffs to beat other teams and try to make it all the way to the finals. Another game mode is practice. In practice you can choose many different options such as free throws, scrimmage or practice with only one player. I recommend you do it with one player so you get better.

When you first get the game the game will ask you to pick a player. I picked simon hunt. You can customize the player you picked and make your own ultimate team that should make it to the playoffs. After every game you get coins in which you can buy the NBA’s best players or buy accessories for the player you picked. Kevin Harlan and and Steve kurg are the commentators when you play. Doris Burke is the sideline reporter. they will talk about the game while you play. The only bad thing about the game is that you can’t play online.

The final review for NBA 2k13 is 9.7 out of 10.