Yellowstone, WY - Logan, UT

So we arrived in Yellowstone on Wednesday June 9th and we were there until Sunday June 13th. Thus far Yellowstone has been my favorite national park due to all of the wildlife that Kevin and I saw. We literally got there on Wednesday night set up camp and then explored the rest of the park the entire time we were there. The weather was not the best as it was about 50 during the day and 30 at the night (if not colder). There are 5 entrances into the park and we went through all of them - each has different landscapes. The east entrance is a beautiful drive as it over looks Yellowstone lake and the grand Tetons, and is a very mountainous drive. However, the views are what you go for during this drive. If you want the wildlife drive you must go out toward the northeast entrance through lamar valley. You will see herds and herds of buffalo, families of pronghorns, sheep, elk, and deer. And those are the things you will see without the telescope. If you are to get yourself a telescope in this area you will see families of wolfs, black bears, and grizzly bears. Kevin and I have binoculars but they were really not good enough if you wanted to see really far. However, the people with the scopes were very friendly and would always let us look through them to see what they had spotted (more often than not it was a grizzly bear). You always know where an animal has been spotted in Yellowstone as the cars and pple just flock like wild animals to one spot. In fact Kevin and I actually were the first ones to spot a single wolf running through the woods. It was awesome. We were driving about 8 mph and this wolf was running right along side our car. He looked like he was on a mission to find his next meal. Kevin got a video of it that i am sure he will post on his blog. We also saw a coyote on our last day which is similar to the wolf but a lot smaller. I recommend this park to everyone - even though it is crowded in some places it is so worth it - We also went to mammoth hot springs which is northwest in the park. These are a site to see as well - as i have never seen anything like them before; however, they do smell like rotten eggs. It's basically boiling water that creates all these different colors and produces heat from all the sulfer gas and microorganisms that grow in this type of enviornment. We did see old faithful as well, but to be honest that was the least exciting portion of the park. We actually stayed in the old faithful inn on Saturday night with Kevin's friend Eric as he works at this 106 year old hotel. All in all I had a great time in Yellowstone - couldn't of asked for a better experience.

After Yellowstone we drove south to the grand Tetons and back packed a night in the back country. We had a two day backpacking trip planned, but things had to change due to snow in the Tetons. These mountains are huge, and its not like the gradual increase that you are used to seeing in the mountains out east - these are straight up peaks that can go up to 15,000 ft in elevation. All of the peaks were covered in snow so we backpacked to this place called the lower paintbrush. Our view at the top overlooked Leigh lake (at least i think that is which lake it was there are a couple of them). We were in bear country so Kevin and I were careful about eating and cooking around our campsite so we basically hiked up a nearby hill to do all our eating and cooking and brushing of the teeth - anything that involved smell we did up there. Oh yea it was raining the entire time that we were up there as well - which made it interesting, but it was actually relaxing. We both got a great night sleep as we were feeling really drained from the trip that day.

Oh and i forgot to tell you that we went to the rodeo outside Yellowstone national park in a city called west Yellowstone, MT. This was my first rodeo and it was a really good time. It was outside at a small place where you could bring your own beer and tickets were only 10 dollars - i actually thought about Davy (my brother) when i was there. For some reason i thought he would enjoy it maybe it was the cowboy boots. Anyway Kevin and I got called up for a little game as they were transitioning between events. We went into the "ring" and they gave us blindfolds to put on (there was one other random guy doing this event with us) and told us that the winner would win 100 dollars. Well we put on our blindfolds and all of the sudden i felt about 6 bananas in my hand, and soon after the rules were explained as to whomever can eat all these bananas the fastest will win the money. I immediately thought crap Kevin is about to win this 100 dollars. Well about 10 seconds later i hear a whisper in my ear telling me "whatever you do do not eat the bananas," so i think to myself alright what is the deal here. Well the announcer tells us to start and soon after my blindfold is taken off and i look to my left and the other guy's blindfold is taken off and then i look to my right and Kevin is just shoving these bananas in his mouth as fast as he could. It was classic i was dying laughing. They removed his blindfold after he had downed about 4 of them and he soon realized that he had been scammed -Obviously no money was involved and Kevin was a good sport - we did however get to keep the bananas :).

From the Tetons we drove to Logan, UT where he stayed with another one of Kevin's friend from undergrad who goes to Utah State University. I am currently sitting in Moab, UT which is right around the cornor from Arches National Park. We will be visiting there tomorrow. I will do my best to keep updating my blog.