Today we decided to sleep in a bit and we had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel then suited up and headed out to South Plateau Trail.
It was snowing when we woke up, and it snowed for almost the entire day. We got to see various types of snow - from wet slushy globs to large ice pieces to small pieces of sleet-like pellets. We stopped several times for the kids to play in the snow, to turn around to make course corrections because my map reading and navigational skills were a little COLD, but we did not have any mishaps before lunch. We stopped at Meadow Creek Lodge in Idaho (trails here are like some highways - interstate!) and had burgers and fries, no cherry pies though! Food was good but we must have hit there just 15 seconds after all nine hundred other people on snowmobiles today did - waited 20 or so minutes for a table, then waited 55 minutes for food! It was good, the place was warm and people were friendly though!
After our burger stop we decided to retrace our steps to go to Big Spring - which we had originally skipped to cut the trip shorter. After hearing oohs and ahhs from folks who had just come there, we decided to make our way there. One mishap on this leg was that Chuck was trying to avoid the ruts in the trail, and managed to find an airpocket of sorts in the snow and got stuck -- but the nice friendly group that happened by at that time did not laugh, they got off their sleds and pulled his sled out! What nice people we have encountered here! We made our way to Big Spring and it really was pretty. Kids got to throw bread to ducks, we saw muskrats, and kids got to play in the snow again.
After leaving Big Spring area, we found the most awful trail in the area - it was rutted beyond belief, we could only go about 15-20 miles per hour and by the time we finally got off that trail, we knew that we had been shaken! We encountered several snowmobilers on the trails, and one who even had an open backpack on his and was leaving most of his gear along the trail!
As the sky was getting darker, and the snow was picking up as well as the winds, we made our way back to West Yellowstone and shucked our snow gear. It didn't take long for the kids to decide that they needed to soak in the hot tub to make up for the day on the snowmobiles. I was relegated to laundry and posting to the blog while Dad got observation duty.....but all in all it was a great day of adventure.
I uploaded more photos to the album from yesterday - click here to see them!
Tomorrow we ride with our favorite Yellowstone guide Dan -- we're either going to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone or Old Faithful - either way, it will be a picture-taking day!
Be safe and have a Happy New Year - we'll be up here!
The Frolicking Featherstons
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Yellowstone Adventure - Part Two - Day One
So we left Houston Wednesday morning heading to West Yellowstone, MT by way of Denver, CO and Bozeman, MT. Having realized that traveling for business and getting up before the crack of dawn was not a bad thing, doing so for a family vacation was not ideal......so I scheduled our departure for a respectable 8:45 AM .... well, United did....
So anyway, we made it to The Dotted Bus, then Terminal C, made our flight, made our connection in Bozeman, and then had no real problems getting from Bozeman to West Yellowstone....pretty uneventful, but beautiful trip. We even had time to improve the local economy and purchase a few needed items at the local WalMart.
We saw lots of snow from the air as we landed in Denver, then were surprised at the lack of snow as we landed in Bozeman, MT. It was warmer in Bozeman than it was when we left Houston! We traveled along the Gallatin River for quite some time, then just as we entered Yellowstone National Park heading south, it started to snow - and it was really cool watching the wind blow the snow across the road. We made it to the hotel, unpacked and then went in search of the best pizza we'd ever eaten -- a Sitting Bull at Wild West Pizza!
After pizza and a short swim, the kids were beat so we called it a night. Last sight out of the window from the hotel was of blowing snow that was adding more of a white blanket to everything here. Seems that while there is snow here, it is not as much as this time last year according to the locals.....but, we were here to see the white stuff and we weren't disappointed!
Today we started with breakfast, then off to pick up our snowmobiles at Yellowstone Adventures. There are over 400 miles of groomed trails in the area adjacent to Yellowstone National Park and then an additional 500 or so inside the park. We rode the Two Top Loop Trail, Lionhead Trail, Twin Valleys Trail, then back to Two Top Loop and returned to West Yellowstone....all together we only put 50 miles on the sleds. Kids really thought that we were "speeding" on the snowmobiles and were quite surprised to learn that we did not exceed 30 mph and rarely went over 20 mph! There were, however, many folks that flew past us with much more life insurance than we had! There were several groups that sped past us with helmet cams.....might have to search on YouTube and see if we made the cut!
Not many pictures yet, but they can be seen here.....more as I can take them!
We're having a blast.....hope you are too!
The Frolicking Featherstons
So anyway, we made it to The Dotted Bus, then Terminal C, made our flight, made our connection in Bozeman, and then had no real problems getting from Bozeman to West Yellowstone....pretty uneventful, but beautiful trip. We even had time to improve the local economy and purchase a few needed items at the local WalMart.
We saw lots of snow from the air as we landed in Denver, then were surprised at the lack of snow as we landed in Bozeman, MT. It was warmer in Bozeman than it was when we left Houston! We traveled along the Gallatin River for quite some time, then just as we entered Yellowstone National Park heading south, it started to snow - and it was really cool watching the wind blow the snow across the road. We made it to the hotel, unpacked and then went in search of the best pizza we'd ever eaten -- a Sitting Bull at Wild West Pizza!
After pizza and a short swim, the kids were beat so we called it a night. Last sight out of the window from the hotel was of blowing snow that was adding more of a white blanket to everything here. Seems that while there is snow here, it is not as much as this time last year according to the locals.....but, we were here to see the white stuff and we weren't disappointed!
Today we started with breakfast, then off to pick up our snowmobiles at Yellowstone Adventures. There are over 400 miles of groomed trails in the area adjacent to Yellowstone National Park and then an additional 500 or so inside the park. We rode the Two Top Loop Trail, Lionhead Trail, Twin Valleys Trail, then back to Two Top Loop and returned to West Yellowstone....all together we only put 50 miles on the sleds. Kids really thought that we were "speeding" on the snowmobiles and were quite surprised to learn that we did not exceed 30 mph and rarely went over 20 mph! There were, however, many folks that flew past us with much more life insurance than we had! There were several groups that sped past us with helmet cams.....might have to search on YouTube and see if we made the cut!
Not many pictures yet, but they can be seen here.....more as I can take them!
We're having a blast.....hope you are too!
The Frolicking Featherstons
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