Sunday July 9^th  (by Barb)

Altitude 8,701  Galena Peak in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area on our way to Sun Valley/Ketchum

We stayed at a campground at Pettit Lake for the past two nights.  It was a beautiful little (well not so little) lake nestled in the Sawtooth Mountains.  Yesterday, we took a 5 mile hike into the wilderness area – it was a pretty walk through a wooded area that followed the lake and hugged the bottom of some very large granite peaks.  The kids complained a bit about having to hike, but the scenery was awesome and the wildflowers were plentiful, but the dive-bombing flies that followed us along the trail I could have done without.  We turned around at the point were the trail crossed a swift moving stream.

Pettit Lake was nice for swimming and there were dirt roads that the kids could ride around on their bikes.  We saw all sorts of dead animals and birds on the roads.  Everyone enjoyed the campfires because we roasted marshmallows and ate smores.

We ate brunch in Ketchum and did a little shopping – mostly for books for the kids as they have read everything that we brought with us.  Eli told me that he was forced to read “girl” books that Emma brought along because he didn’t have anything left to read. ( I think that he secretly enjoyed the “girl” books.)  Emma thinks so too.

Eli July 10

Yesterday Italy won the Soccer World Cup.  They won on penalty kicks.  Yesterday we did mostly drving.  Today I am mad because ai have to drink orange juice with pulp in it.  I don’t like the RV park we are staying at.

Emma July 10

Yesterday we went to “Craters of the Moon” which is this really cool place where ther is petrified lava.  It is cool because one of the volcanos that we hiked up to had snow in it!  We saw lots of AA and Parehoe (sp) lava.  We also stayed at Petite lake which was pretty cool.  We took a hike with some VERY ANNOYING FLIES!  The very annoying flies buzzed around our sweaty heads.  It was a cool hike though.

Sam July 10

At Pettit Lake we went on a hike I didn’t like because there were flys everywhere and they buzzed around my head.  And the bees and big flys kept landing on me.  We had Oreo cookies.  I like the campfire because we made smores and we got to burn the ends of our sticks.  At “Craters of the Moon” I got a piece of lava rock stuck in my shoe.

July 11 Barb

We spent the night at a quiet, pretty campsite in the Teton National Park caledl Lizard Creek.  The kids were able to swim and skip rocks in in Jackson Lake and we heard the Ranger talk about Porcupines.  He showed some of the quill work that the native people did with the porcupine quills that was pretty cool. 

The Teton Mountains are spectacular.  They rise very quickly from the plains and are craggly and beautiful.  A storm passed through and the sun came shining through the backside of the peaks and it was incredibly beautiful. 

Today we are heading into Yellowstone Park with thousands of other people to view the geysers.

July 11 Emma

Today we saw Old Faithful.  I think that this Monument isn’t as exciting as it sounds.  I have strep throat and it is no fun at all!  I need to improve my handwriting it is very sloppy!  Well anyways, good night.

July 12 Barb

Yesterday we walked through the Old Faithful geyser area and the Mudpot Fountain Paint Pot area.  Bother were full of hissing, steaming, bubbling, spouting geysers.  Old Faithful spouted up about 100 feet in the air and a large crowd of people went “ohh” and “ahh”.  After watching that we took a 3 mile hike around the other geysers in the Old Faithful area.  The pools of hot water have beautiful blue-green and orange colors from the bacteria that thrive in the hot water.  The water in the pools is very clear and you can see deep into the pools.  In the Fountain Paint pot area there were  pools of bubbling mud that gurgled and popped as the mud boiled and spouted into the air.

Today we hiked along the Yellowstone river to the Upper and Lower falls in the are called the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone".  The waterfalls were spectacularly powerful as they fell over the precipeice with a huge amount of force.  We hike down (and up) 315 steps to the bottom of the Lower Falls and with the chocolate bars Phil brought to fuel the kids (and me), everyone made the hike in record time.

July 10 Phil

Today I try to fatten Ringo up with a little soft Alpo food.

July 14 by Phil

We are at the KOA outside of Bozeman Montana.  I’ve come to appreciate the KOA.  Cramped quarters of motorhomes and trailers parked side by side with 12 feet of grass on either side of the vehicle.  Off the left side are the hook-ups which allow us to re-charge all of our batteries (phones, cameras, laptop, cd player etc).  Off the right side is our picnic bench and fire pit.  While we re-charge our hardware we re-charge ourselves with showers, laundry, general store supplies, pool swimming etc.  Tonight we will eat pizza which will be delivered to our slot – B6.

We spent the last 3 days in Yellowstone which was awesome.  We stayed inside the 45x60 mile caldera which is central to the park.  3 days of sitting inside a volcano on 3 miles of crust resting on top of a molten hot spot.  Gas burping out of geysers, mud holes and springs.  The smell of sulpher.  Valleys run over by backed up waters from old glaciers.  Buffalo’s walking down the highway in the evening each as big as the cab of the RV.  Elk and deer and yellow bellied marmots spotted along the route.  We saw the huge waterfalls (lower and upper of 100-200 feet with 38,000 gallons flowing per second).  Why a water fall here?  I has something to do with the water not eroding hard rock at the same rate as soft rock.  It rained yesterday and last night.  Nice to have a RV in those times.  A tent on wheels already pitched.  Still my wood got wet prior to us returning to camp.  No amount of newspaper could dry the kindling.  Our nice neighbor across the way saw my stuggle and brought over some newly carved wood shavings.  I gave him a Sierra Nevada.  He told me to get an axe.  He was a very nice guy from Oregon with his 2 kids and his wife (who he kept addressing as “the wife” --- example “the wife said….” )  One of his hobbies was bow hunting.  His bow can kill at 60 yards (goes through the animal at 30 yards).  I told him I didn’t like deer and that it tasted gamey.  He said it depended on what it ate and that the best deer ate alpha on ranchers property (which was also where he liked to hunt).  He had the same feeling as me about Yellowstone… that we were sitting on a volcano and that the first feel of a earthquake and we were heading out the nearest exit. 

Yellowstone blew its top 640,000 years ago and was 1000x more powerful than Mt St Helens.  I’m in awe of nature and fell so small when faced with it.  I had the same feeling yesterday as we watched the water rush over the falls yesterday.  Big forces working over a long period of time.

Before Yellowstone we ran through the Grand Tetons and stayed at a nice campground, Lizard Creek.  We heard a good 30 minute talk on porcupines and porcupine needle work of native people.

Before that we were in the Idaho Falls KOA.  Before that we crossed the Snake River Plain (some Energy Engineering work going on here I’d like to check out some time…)

Before that we we’re in the Sawtooth Wilderness Area.  The drive over hwy 21 from Lowman to Stanley to Ketchum was incredibly beautiful.  In Ketchum, we got breakfast at Perry’s and met the “Dog Woman”.  She sat outside with us with 3 of her 7 dogs telling us stories about each dog.  “Max”,  a bearded collie, now begging bacon from Eli was found in a field tied up to a rope and stake left to die.  She bought a rare poodle at a bar for $100 thinking it had been stolen and tried to return it.  Max was smarter than the poodle.