Daddy/Daughter 2010 (part 1)

We're back. The daddy-daughter camping trip for this year was a success. This year's destination was Wyoming and Montana. More specifically we spent time in the Beartooth Mountains,Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Glacier National Parks.

This was in the Beartooth Mountains, our first hiking of the trip.

We found some really good places to hike and the girls found a mountain to summit and were rewarded with a great view and snow.

As seen from the summit of the mountain.

We found lots of cool places to hike or boulder climb. This lake was one of our favorites.

We spent the our first night in the Shoshone National Forest along the Beartooth Highway. We found a small camp area( only three sites) right above a lake. Best of all...it was free.

our site is up on the rock overlooking the lake

We did manage to find little reminders of where we were though....

The next morning we continued down the Beartooth hwy toward Cooke City and Yellowstone. We couldn't resist one more good hiking spot along the way though.

This is the Clark's Fork River just above Cooke City, Mt. I believe that is Beartooth Mountain looming up above us.

We finally make it to Yellowstone and as soon as we hit the Lamar Valley, we run into these guys.

I'm not sure how many buffalo were out there, but it was alot. We would see them all over the park the whole time we were there.

We watch the buffalo for awhile. They were very active and very vocal. We then continued on in search of a campground. The first three places we checked were full already. Bummer, I was hoping that on a Sunday afternoon most people would be leaving. Eventually a ranger tells us that the Bridge Bay campground still has a lot of open sites. Cool. We set off to the south and stop at the canyon on the way.

My ladies hangin' out above the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Our next stop was unbelievable. As we drive through the Hayden Valley, we notice a lot of people park on the side of the road. This is not unusual at Yellowstone, everytime anyone sees any kind of animal they just pull over to look. This time it looked like more excitement than usual. We pulled over to see....

What we saw off in the distance, was 5 grizzly bears that were dining on what used to be a buffalo. And if that weren't enough, there was a wolf nearby who kept getting chased away by the bears. This was some serious Mutual of Omaha stuff. The girls loved it. I loved it. The buffalo not so much.

We finally get to the campground and check in. The lady at the counter reminds us that this is bear country. As a matter of fact, a grizzly was just seen the other day by the lake. She tells us about the food storage rules and lets us know that there is a phone on the wall over here that automatically calls 911 when you pick it up. She tells the girls that if a bear chases them, they should just run to the phone...although you'll never make it. Local humor...very funny. We leave the check in area and see this guy.

We drive up the road to our loop and find a lone bull buffalo wandering through the campground. I'll spare you the picture...we got a great photo of his butt. Eventually we get camp set up. Our plan is to hang out here for a few days. We don't intend to spend much time in camp.

More to come....it's time for bed.