The Last Week of Yellowstone Bliss

Last week in Yellowstone

Our time in Yellowstone ended with a bang. On Sunday the branch had a taco potluck. I made my salsa. It was delicious, if I do say so myself. We said our goodbyes to some of the families that we wouldn’t see again before we left. It was pretty sad and delicious. I’m gonna miss that branch. I’ve never felt so welcome in a ward. We never had to prove ourselves. We didn’t have to do much to stand out (seeing as how there were only 3 other families in the branch). They just accepted us for who we are and never felt anyone was talking behind our back. They knew we were there to help and we were glad to do what we could. I’m gonna miss that. 

The next day we went to the Gilbert’s home to have a little FHE fun with badminton. Don’t worry, we never improved on our skills and still looked like complete morons while playing. It was wonderful. One day, we wanna be like the Gilberts. They were the most welcoming family I’ve met besides a few families I met while on my mission. They understood we were there for the summer and they were more than willing to be our surrogate family until we could return to our own. They were always so happy to have us over and play games and laugh with/at us. The kids were especially sweet as they told us multiple times how much they were going to miss us and didn’t want us to go. 

The next night, we thought we’d go to lamar valley just to see if we could find anything. Guess what we saw? Yup, a BLACK grizzly bear. It was pretty far off in the field and just walking along. We tried to get some good shots, but some are better than others. We heard someone saying something about wolves that were by Roosevelt (which we had passed on our way to see the grizzly. SHOOT! So we got in the car and drove back to see if the wolves were still hanging around. Apparently we just missed them as we drove up. One 16..yea 16 year old…kid whom we’ve seen every time we’ve been wolf watching told us that there was a bison carcass not too far off and they may be back tomorrow. I convinced Mike we needed to come back in the morning. Normally in the morning means around 8:00 or so, not so much when one is looking for wolves. Morning means 6:00 am. So we and our friend James woke up with the sun around 5:00am and left around 5:20 to be able to get out to Lamar by 6:00. James insisted that he was going to be angry if he didn’t see any wolves seeing as how he didn’t go to bed until around 1:00am. He was saying bye to a few friends and lost track of time. After we arrived, we were not disappointed. We saw a few wolves standing on the top of a hill and then walk down behind the ridge line. There was a heard of bison across the road and as mentioned in earlier blog posts, it’s rut. We saw the males slamming their heads together pushing each other back and forth. It was super cool. Mike missed it because he was crossing the road and saw the wolves hanging out in a field. We got lots of pictures and even got a video of them howling. One bison was crossing their path. One wolf started howling and then other’s joined in. The bison never stopped or faltered his steps. The wolves continued to howl and gathered together to look like one massive creature. Bison are known to have poor eye sight and I’m sure it looked like one HUGE wolf howling. The bison, however just continued on his path, as if to say, “ok, thanks for your howling.” The wolves continued to walk on keeping one eye on the wolf. One lone wolf stayed back and ran around the bison as if it was teasing it. The bison just did one big head movement and the wolf went flying in the air. Not really… but that would have been awesome. The bison did move its head like it was going to send the wolf flying, but the wolf was too fast and ran away. Don’t mess with these bison, especially during rut. 

Sun rise

That's the bear

Wolves from the "Molly Pack"

Howling at the pack

Same wolf still howling

The day before, we decided to go and see if we could go white water rafting. The problem was their last ride went out at 3:00 and we didn’t get off work until 5:00. Luckily we knew Kirby and Allison who were friends with the people at the Flying Pig. After we named dropped (never done that before) the worker said she’d go and see if anyone was going out the next night. The Lord really was looking out for us because one girl that happened to be there that day needed to get certified and was going that next night to do it. We set everything up for the next day. So after an awesome morning of watching wolves we went to work for a few hours and then went rafting for FREE. My favorite price. It’s ok to name drop every now and again. The girl that was getting certified was a crazy red head that before this summer had never had a tan. She was a blast and Mike and I, being the newbies, were required to ride in the front and get extra wet. Yellowstone river water, in case you didn’t know, is NEVER warm…EVER. It was fun despite the really cold water. I figured it being August; the water would be a little warm, nope. The water was low because it was late in the season, but I was grateful we even got to do it at all. I felt kinda hardcore rafting in the Yellowstone River with no helmet or water shoes.    

Our last full day we spent hiking Fairy falls. *Note to self: always wear HIKING shoes while HIKING* The hike wasn’t terrible, but the path was full of volcanic ash and therefor full of ash that would conceal the little rocks on the trail. Being clumsy and all, it’s always better to wear shoes that allow one to trip on rocks and not stub one’s toe….30 times. When we finally reached the falls, it was totally worth it. They were beautiful. Of course, I had to get in the water. Guess what? It was cold too…VERY COLD. Hence, the awkward poses in the photos:

This is Grand Prismatic. Notice the little yellow man in between the trees. That's Mike.

We ate lunch with our friends that night and said our goodbyes. We miss them terribly.

Until next post of our travels home.