It's been almost a year

Well, it's been almost a year since I've written in this blog - i actually forgot about it! ;-)

Travel-wise, Tim and I took a great vacation this past summer (the kids were at their dad's for the month of July, with him and the new wife). We went to a Renaissance Faire in Colorado, then headed straight up to the Yellowstone area. We stopped at Gray's River first, then headed into Yellowstone. After that we headed up to Glacier National Park - where neither of us had been before.... but first, let me tell you about Yellowstone.

When we got there, all, and i mean ALL, of the campgrounds were full. We went out the northeast gate and found that there was only ONE hotel room left in the whole town and they wanted well over $200 for it - so we headed up to a campground that we got info on from the park ranger and got the 2nd to last spot. Now, the weather wasn't too great, chilly and a bit of rain, and by morning, there were at least 6 other folks who had camped wherever they could throw down a tent because the campground was full.

Well, the next morning we headed out early and got a good spot at Indian Creek in the park very close to our "usual" spot. We used that as our home base and headed out fishing and sightseeing from there.

We got to see the usual, elk, bison, deer, antelope, but we also saw 3 grizzlies, and a mama bear with two little cubs and a coyote. No wolves though, unfortunately.

Well, after several days there we decided to head up to another of Tim's fishing spots, at the Madison river. On the way out of the park we saw a Bald Eagle - on the way to the West gate there's a nest right on the road... We got to the Madison, and fishing wasn't great (same at Gray's and in the park - the rivers were all REALLY high). So we decided not to stay, and we headed up to Glacier.

Once we got to Glacier we found a campsite (before they were all taken) and headed out for an afternoon of sightseeing - we saw a Moose feeding in a water hole, which was REALLY cool! he'd stick his head down in the water, graze for something to eat, then pop his head out dripping water everywhere. We headed up to the summit, seeing some wonderful views, and did a hike at the top to Hidden Lake. Hiking across the snow, and going up several hundred feet, was quite an adventure - but it was well worth the views. And we saw some mountain sheep and marmot up there too. Never seen a marmot before, very cute.

Unfortunately, the next day, the rains moved in! it rained that evening, and all night, and was still raining the next day. We took a drive to the east side of the park, considered a hike but decided if we got wet we would be too miserable. Once we heard that it was supposed to rain for antoher 2 or 3 days, we gave up. We packed up the camping gear and headed out.

So our vacation was shortened by a few days, but we got to come home and relax!

Will post some pics and more of what has been happening since then soon (i hope ;-)
Noel