We woke up to the sounds of the horses coming back into the Heart 6 Corral and quite possibly the most unhappy family in America who stayed in the cabin next door 🤪 We’ve crossed paths with them several times at the ranch and every single time, they are complaining about one thing or another. No offense but if I were that unhappy on vacation, I’d just stay home and be unhappy for free 😬.

Mike went to get coffee and juice at the Buffalo Valley Grill from us – and met a nice guy from Portland who helped him carry the drinks back because the coffee was scalding hot. He and his family were on vacation here. The poor guy seemed almost ashamed to say he was from Portland but quickly added that they were moving soon. We told him how wonderful NC was and suggested they look there 😁 Then we snagged a quick picture and hit the road

We went back through Grand Teton and I’m so glad we did because we could see the Mountains a bit clearer. The smoke was a little better.

We decided to drive south a bit and check out Jackson, Wyoming. The views on the way there were pretty, but the town of Jackson was crazy!

It was so touristy and crowded. So glad we did NOT stay here. But there were a couple of cool signs that we liked.

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And just like that we are back in Idaho. We went this way to see the eastern side of Idaho.

Based on these snow markers on side of road, this part of Idaho gets a LOT of snow!

This part of Idaho is major farm land! Potatoes as far as the eye can see.

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We stopped for gas and a snack – thinking of you Amy Ehrhardt 😉

Mike started talking to guy at the next pump. He was headed to fish and asked where we were headed. When we said West Yellowstone, he suggested we detour to Ashton, Idaho and stop at Frostops for the best cheeseburgers and milkshakes ever. So off we went!

Ashton, Idaho is a cute little town where farming is big business.

And then we found Frostops. Frostops has been open since 1965. And I get the feeling the menu hasn’t changed much but after eating here, there’s no need to change one bit!

And look what greeted us as we entered.

We all ordered shakes and cheeseburgers. They were delicious and gigantic! Mike said these were the some of the best tater tots he’s ever had (and he is my tater tot aficionado)

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While in Frostops, I read the local paper that mentioned the city of Island Park nearby which posted the longest Main Street in America… so you know we had to check it out.

Technically it was the longest Main Street because that’s all there was. There were little no other paved roads in the town. But it was wasn’t the typical Main Street with lots of shops and building. The boys laughed at me for being disappointed 🤣

Not too much longer, and we were back in Montana in West Yellowstone

We are staying the Yellowstone Park Hotel for the next two days (because the Holiday Inn Express was full). But I am so glad because this hotel is great. There is a $15 amenity fee each day but for that they have free Ice Cream sundaes everyday from 4-6pm, s’mores at night from 5-11pm, free bikes to use around town, walking sticks, binoculars to borrow and several other things. It’s really cool, plus the pool and whirlpool are new and may be the cleanest pool I’ve ever seen at a hotel.

We were able to check in a bit early, so Mike and I spent some time planning our day.

Although some of us just wanted to rest.

The West side of Yellowstone is just beautiful.

Within 5 miles of entering the Park, we saw a herd of elk cows (female Elk) grazing on the side of the road.

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Since we didn’t come into the park until almost 3pm, we decided to go toward Old Faithful and see the eruotuon that was predicted for around 5pm. We were thinking that the crowd would be a little less this time of day versus early.

All along the way, there are lots of geyser basins. It is a little unsettling to see smoke just rising from the ground.

We stopped at the Old Faithful Center, parked and wandered around the area while we waited for the next predicted eruption. There are lots of smaller geysers around Old Faithful with a great boardwalk around them all.

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It was unreal to see them bubble up and know that it was pressure and gas coming up from the earth!

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We made it back and waited for Old Faithful. We entertained ourselves while we waited.

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I have never seen a group of Americans this quiet.

It bubbled and spit slowly getting a little bigger as the pressure built up… And then BOOM!

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Bucket list item: ✔️

Old Faithful was just crazy to see, and then to realize that for 135 years, it has been erupting every 90 minutes or so. That’s just unreal!

We finished exploring around Old Faithful and decided to work our way back, stopping at several stops along the road. We started at Biscuit Basin. We walked on every inch of boardwalk surrounding the geysers. The colors are dictated by the thermophiles (heat loving organisms) that live in the water. Colorless or yellow are hottest, orange brown and green are slightly cooler. And by slightly cooler, they may not melt your skin immediately 😬

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Just imagine walking along and seeing this:

We left the Biscuit Basin and were headed toward Midway Geyser Basin and the Grand Prismatic Spring when traffic slowed down. As we approached, we saw what the problem was. A big ol’ bull bison needed to eat some grass right beside the road and people were stopping to see it.

Bison are big when you see them in a field but up close! Holy Moly!

After this excitement, we continued on toward the Midway Geyser Basin and the Grand Prismatic. Grand Prismatic is the largest hot spring in Yellowstone. It’s the hot spring you’ve most likely seen in photos with the rainbowed edges. These picture don’t do it justice…

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It was also cool to see the hot water then flowing back into the cool river water.

By now, it was about 7pm. We had promised boys they could swim in Fire Hole River. (We learned from some folks at Heart 6 Ranch that this was a great and safe place to swim). There were at least 30 people already swimming. The current moved just fast enough that you could swim against it without being moved… kind of like the oceans current. The boys loved it!

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And that’s when it went from a great day, to a day they boys will tell their grandkids about.

Mike and I were sitting on the riverbank, and we noticed traffic to our right started to back up… which we’ve learned means animal nearby. We didn’t think much of it until we saw this…

We were afraid to tell the boys to run out of water because all we’ve heard from park rangers is be calm, don’t approach, and don’t spook the bison. (Apparently no one told the bison the “don’t approach” rule) So we yelled for the boys to stay in the middle of the river and be calm.

The bison showed absolutely no aggression… in fact, he just seemed curious as to why we were at his watering hole.

And after he had all he wanted to drink, with a couple of pauses to just look around, he wandered back down the road… right down the yellow line

Absolutely the most incredible thing we’ve ever seen.

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After we calmed down from this adventure, the boys swam a bit more and we saw a gorgeous sunset as we left the park.

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We were still so full from that giant lunch at Frostops that we decided to skip dinner. Instead, we drove back to the hotel and grabbed our s’more kit and headed out to the fire pit.

Then we unloaded our backpacks, and headed down to check out the Game Room. It in a basement at hotel (clearly with sound proofing) with big screen TV, foosball, air hockey, curling table and arcade game… and an xBox!!!

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This has to be one of the most incredible days ever!

Today was a Clark Griswold Day if there ever was one. We absolutely packed today full of adventure with only minor grumbling due to exhaustion.

We bought doughnuts back in Cody, so we had a nice breakfast of coffee and doughnuts on our little porch before loading up for our next adventure… Horseback riding and a night at Heart 6 Ranch.

We’ve had to popcorn around a bit on this trip due to hotel availability. Jackson Lake Lodge only had our cabin available one night and Heart 6 Ranch was only open one night. But they were only 20 minutes apart, and we just made it work. Today, we are horseback riding and some of us are excited!

The lady at the hotel said to give ourselves 45 minutes to get to Heart 6 Ranch due to 2 lane road and construction, so we left by 8:15 for our 9am arrival… and wouldn’t you know the one time we leave on time, there is zero traffic and zero construction so we arrived at 8:40 🤪 The ranch was fun, and it was clearly a working ranch.

The boys wandered over to another cabin with the door open

I couldn’t see what they were doing, but they were laughing and talking. When I got there, I found out what was entertaining them:

We met 2 groups from NC who were riding today too. One group from Charlotte, and a man and his daughter from Lenoir. We all recognized each other because our accents stand out out here. We saddled up and hit the trail. Mike was riding Colt, Leo rode Timber, Michael was on Timber and I rode Rockwell.

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It was a beautiful ride up to the top of a mountain in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

We did have a bit of excitement at the top of the mountain. My horse, Rockwell, bent his head down to snack on some grass and must have instead gotten a bite of an ant hill, because he yanked his head back and bucked me straight off his back. Thankfully, I was able to get both feet out of the stirrups and hold onto his reins before landing solidly on my backside. Thank you Jesus for hearing and answering my prayer to keep us safe today! It was about time for me to re-bruise my backside since the bruises from Coeur d’Alene had just about healed up 🤣

We had corned beef sandwiches on top of the mountain and just relaxed for a half hour while the horses rested. The views were amazing

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We definitely had the hard-headed horses of the group… which is fitting for us 😉. It took about 5 pictures to get one where we and our horses are all looking remotely in the same direction:

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Lunch finished and horses rested, we headed back down the mountain.

We got back to Heart 6 Ranch and got horses back to the corral. We checked and our room was ready so we checked in a little early. We all enjoyed letting our backsides rest after bouncing on horses for four hours. I think my crew is a little tired.

Hahaha! We spent about 45 minutes resting and then decided to head into Grand Teton… just as we made it into Grand Teton, we noticed cars stopped on the side of the road. As we approached, we found out why. Bison! A big ol’ herd of Bison!

Oh my word, they had walked right through the fence, and just meandering around the field. They are huge!!

We had a list of things to see in Grand Teton and I knew we couldn’t see it all, but was ready to start checking them off.

✔️Item 1: Snake River. Snake River has been here forever. According to the plaque 😁 all the plateaus along the River bank are levels where the Snake River once rose from glacier run off.

✔️ Item 2: Jackson Lake Overlook

✔️ Item 3: Jackson Lake Dam… love a good Dam picture 🤪

✔️Item 4: Jenny Lake. This was one of the most beautiful places we’ve ever visited.

We got on the road here for Jenny Lake – finally the smoke started to clear so we could see Grand Teton. We knew we wanted to ride the shuttle boat at least once. We hopped on and road the boat across, and decided to hike up to Hidden Falls and then hike back around the lake (about 3 1/2 mile hike) back.

First, the boat ride was great relaxing with nice breeze (why they wanted us to wear masks outside in the wind off the water was unclear). The views made it all worth it – It was gorgeous!

Then, we disembarked on the other side, and hiked the half mile up to Hidden Falls.

And of course, we found rocks to climb

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The hike was perfect – a little warm at times but for the most part, it was shady with a nice breeze – and very little elevation 😁

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Although these are always fun to see 😬

The reward for hiking, other than the views, was a swim in Jenny Lake. This water was chilly! Not Glacial but we er chilly but chilly

They had the best time… although when they jumped in the first time they said it took their breathing away 🥶🥶 I was also very proud that I remembered towels today! Score one for the big brain on mom’

We hiked back for a view the mountains and view more pictures. Usually, I take the pictures and then edit out to get best shots, deleting bad ones etc. but I could resist these… they so truly show real life vs photos

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That is so real life 🥴🤪🥴🤪

We headed back to the Heart 6 Ranch from Grand Teton

We decided to just grab dinner on the way in at the little on-site restaurant, Buffalo Valley Grill. Mike and Leo had bacon cheeseburgers, I had a steak and Michael decided to try a bison burger. It takes a little longer to get bison burgers because you have to cook them slower since no fat, but Michael said it was delicious!

One more picture of this sunset

And the Brown’s are off to bed. It’s been an amazing day but we are exhausted! Tomorrow we head south, then east, then north for the last few days of our trip.

We started today in our little basement apartment after a fantastic night of sleep. I loved getting up with a cup of coffee and being able to just sit on the couch for a minute. All the laundry is clean so we re-packed our bags and got ready for week 2 of our journey.

We headed into downtown Cody for a little exploring. Cody was the home of Buffalo Bill. So lots of things bear his namesake and likeness.

Anyone ever seen a 4 person paddle board? Well you have now 🤪

Michael loved the Bob Ross Positive Energy Drink… little happy tree over here, and little one over there

We picked up some Cody, Wyoming souvenirs, including some Buffalo and Elk Sausage (darn those free samples) and some huckleberry Lip balm.

We may have fallen in love with Wyoming… I even caught Mike checking real estate offerings.

We couldn’t help thinking of Jimmy and Karen Moore when we saw this honey for sale… they pumped it right from the tub into your honey bear.

And upstairs we excelled at finding the Queen thanks to Jimmy and Karen 🐝

We left Cody and headed toward Yellowstone. We got caught in some road construction and decided to stop off at the Buffalo Bill Dam – you know we love a Dam tour.🤣🤣

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I have always wanted to see Yellowstone Nation Park and was almost giddy as we stopped for our picture. We met a nice family from California, and we traded picture courtesies – we took theirs, they took ours. 📸

If you’re not familiar with Yellowstone, it is HUGE. We broke our visit into parts. We entered Yellowstone today at the East gate, and we’re going to depart the South Gate. Later this week, we are staying in West Yellowstone so we will explore that side then.

I bought a trail/guide book for Yellowstone and Grand Teton in Cody, and am Clark Griswold-ing the crap out of our time in the parks!

We were in the park for about a hot minute when we spotted a big brown lump in this field… and then it moved. Bison!

Then we saw 2 more bison… wait, those aren’t bison. Those are goobers in bison hats ♥️

Then we drove a bit more and tah-day Elk!

We traveled on through the park and were amazed at the dramatic changes in scenery, especially when we got the areas effected by the 2009 forest fires that burned so much of the park.

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We stopped along a beach and decided to open Mom’s Restaurant right there in Yellowstone

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Our new location has plenty of seating and gotten great reviews, although the bathrooms are a bit primitive 🤣

We headed on, and stopped at the West Thumb Geyser Basin. This is an area within the Caldera (crater made in the magma chamber of a volcano after it explorers) of Yellowstone where the gases are constantly coming to the surface. The color indicates the heat of the water. These are amazing to see, and some were so deep you couldn’t see the bottom.

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We left the basin and continued heading south. And look, we crossed the Continental Divide again (last time was at Logan’s Pass in Glacier National Park.)

There was one more stop we wanted to see on this side of the park… the Hidden Falls.

These falls were gorgeous! And the boys (and Mike and I) could climb down and put our feet in. The water was definitely chilly but not as cold as Glacier.

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We traveled south leaving Yellowstone and crossed into Grand Teton National Park.

We didn’t plan to really do a lot in Grand Teton today but there we did stop at a few overlooks.

These Mountains are absolutely beautiful although they were a little obscured by smoke from the forest fires in Utah and Oregon. Isn’t it crazy that fire so far away can effect the view in Wyoming?

We went by the Visitors Center to get the paper, guide and map photos so We can maximize every second of our time here.

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We rented a cabin at Jackson Lake Lodge tonight. The cabin itself was fine but the Lodge was a different story.

Because it is a National Park Lodge, they said they had to follow strict federal guidelines regarding Covid. But the guidelines seemed a bit wonky to me. For example, the “diner” style restaurant was take out only, but the fancy $$$$ restaurant was eat in. Plus once we all got our take out, everyone just took their to go plates and sat outside at the tables together. And then, they didn’t have water to put in glasses, and had no bottled water but you could buy canned water?!?! So Mike had to have canned water… $8 canned water… Apparently they went to the glacier and canned it on a mountain top for that price 🤪

One other thing, the pool and playground were closed. They didn’t really advertise these changes, which I thought was a bit sneaky… seriously could you imagine coming here with a 3 and 4 year old and find out the pool and playground were closed?!? Woo, I’d be hot mad.

Now that I’ve said the bad, here’s the good. The hotel itself was really nice – we were impressed that they had old fashioned metal keys.

And the views were amazing. Again you’re just going to have to take our word for it – the Grand Tetons are there but it’s just a bit hazy. We will get closer tomorrow.

There was a mile long trail right off the back of the hotel and we were about to take it and then we saw this sign…

The crowd here was just WAY different than what we’ve gotten used to on this trip. I’m so glad we were in a cabin and not the main lodge.

Our little cabin was tiny but it worked. After we walked back, we filled the cooler with ice, and then had another night of playing Phase 10. No one has made it all the way to Phase 10 yet but we’ll get there.

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We finally called it a night around 9:30… seriously the sun stays up forever! We are tucked in and ready a full day tomorrow. I’ve got a full Clark Griswold day for us tomorrow 😉

We started today on the east side of Wyoming, and ended up in central Wyoming. The direct route would have taken us about 3 hours… but when have we been known to take the direct route on vacation 😉

We decided to drive along and through the BigHorn National Forest instead of the interstate because we want actually see part of Wyoming… and as our mantra says: when will we be back here?

We went through so many great little towns. I love when they show the population on the town sign (especially when it’s less than 1,000) Each town had these great downtown areas… Buffalo, Ten Sleep, Manderson, Worland.

This drive was beautiful!

And I love that Wyoming has signs along the Highway for “⬅️ Point of Interest” because you know that means there’s a plaque or a gorgeous view, or if you’re lucky – Both!

It got to the point that the boys just shouted “POI” when they saw one because they knew we had to stop 🤣

We also noticed more and more of these wooden structures beside the road. They are snow fences. They force the snow to accumulate in a specific location (instead of the road)

The topography changes so quickly here… from flat and dry to hilly and green in a matter of 30 miles

We passed through more little downtowns who proudly waved the American flag 🇺🇸

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We arrived in Cody, Wyoming around 4pm, and stopped at the local Walmart for a few supplies – and cash back without an ATM fee 😉- since we are staying at a VRBO tonight with a kitchen. Walmarts are the same no matter where you go – 40 registers and only 4 are open 🤷🏻‍♀️. But Yea for a home cooked meal tonight!

We had heard from a few folks in our travels that the states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming were seeing a huge influx of people from Oregon and California. The issue has been that these new folks didn’t want to adapt to the place they moved to, they wanted to change them… in other words, they brought the same problems they were running from to their new location… which made this sign hilarious to us 🤣🤣

Our VRBO tonight is the basement apartment of a house on a working farm. It couldn’t have been more perfect for us. Boys had a bedroom with their own beds. Mike and I had a room, washer & dryer and an outdoor area for boys including a trampoline!

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The owners, Amy and Mark Law, have 2 boys, William (age 15) and Wesley (age 12). They actually bought the farm from a family who were moving to NC. They raise cattle and horses. We really enjoyed talking yo Amy and comparing farms tips. She stocked the fridge with yogurts for boys, fresh eggs, milk and cereal for us. We have had the best experiences with VRBO, and met the best people along the way.

We didn’t have to rush and started learning a new card game we picked up, Phase 10. It was so nice to have a minute to just sit while clothes washed.

We fixed sliders for dinner with the beef from Karen and David (at our little cabin in Montana) and used the fresh relish she’d given us too. It was delish!

Our primary reason for coming to Cody was to be a halfway point to Grand Teton. BUT THEN my friend, Cyndi, asked if we were going to the rodeo when we were here… well, we are now!

The Cody Nite Rodeo was started in 1938 and is the longest running and only nightly rodeo (June to August) in the whole world.

Oh my word, This was the best! And we ran into this sweet couple and their friends from Asheville that we met at Little BigHorn yesterday! (The boys said how do y’all already know people here?!? 🤣🤣)

The boys rode a mechanical bull!

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And Leo and I took a turn sitting on Mongo the bull. Yes, he was real and he was gigantic!!

We headed into the arena, and stood while they prayed and then sang the Star Spangled Banner 🇺🇸 It was so old fashioned and so patriotic! ♥️

The bucking Broncos were crazy! Some of the riders went flying in the air!

Next up was calf roping… Michael and I were a little more worried about the little calf than the time it took to rope them.

There was also an appearance from Nevada Jane. She is from Roanoke, Virginia and does tricks on her horse (I’m not sure why a cowgirl from Virginia is named Nevada but whatever)

Then they played Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” and everyone sang and used their phone flashlights. It was really cool to see! 🇺🇸

The littlest riders came next and they were awesome!

Then there was this little girl. We think she was somewhere between 6 and 8 years old and was the youngest sibling in a family of cowboys. She was the cutest ♥️

These two had an absolutely ball and screamed their heads off. They were also amazed to learn that the University of Wyoming has rodeo scholarships! Who knew that was a thing?

Last event of the night was the BIG bulls. These things were monsters, and I think only one Cowboy made it the required 8 seconds to score.

You have to be a special kind of something to get on one of these big ol’ bulls!

It was just the best time together!

Thanks Cody! It was awesome 🏇🐂🇺🇸

We went back to our little place, played a little more Phase 10 and snacked a bit before bed.

Tomorrow we’re heading into downtown Cody before venturing through the East side of Yellowstone down into Grand Teton National Park.

We woke up in Billings, Montana with only one thing on our agenda – visiting the Little BigHorn National Park. Otherwise we could stop and do whatever, just need to end the day in Sheridan, Wyoming.

We slept in and of course, grabbed our Holiday Inn free breakfast 😉. We loaded the car and cooler and headed out. The drive was so flat in places that when we saw this train, we could see the engine and all the way to the caboose!

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It was only about an hour drive to the Battlefield. This was one of the things Mike was most looking forward to on the trip.

Found our own cowboy in the Visitors center 🥰

I think we read everything in here. I’ll be honest, I really didn’t remember a great deal about this battle, other than it was “Custer’s Last Stand.” So I thought they did a good job with the museum/story telling of the visitors center.

The boys really liked all the ways the Native Americans used every part of the bison. Mmm… how about a bison bladder for a drinking container?

USAToday version: US Government wanted the Indian tribes to stay on the reservation land. The Indians wanted to live as they always had, nomadic and following their food sources. The US Troops thought they could control the Indians. A bloody conflict resulted.

For years, this area was known as Custer’s Battlefield but the Native American Tribes fought to have it renamed, and in 1999, it became Little BigHorn National Battlefield. There is a separate monument to the US Troops who died, and to the Native American Tribes.

Honestly from the reading, it sounded like the Indian Tribes did all they could to avoid the conflict, but the US Troops basically kicked a hornets nest that they weren’t prepared to handle, nor should they have. Custer seemed to have taken an all or nothing approach to the battle, and things did not end how he expected.

We hiked the mile long Deep Ravine Trail. After seeing this sign, no one ventured off the trail! 🐍

There were markers along the way that corresponded with this trail book.

Everyone had to take turns reading the stop summary… some of us liked it more than others 🤣

It was cool to see to depictions of the battle and then look up and see the exact topography of that battle.

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Made it back to the top and headed up to the marker at top of the hill, which is literally the sight of Custer’s last stand and where they found his and his brother’s bodies after the battle.

The battle occurred on June 25 and 26. And on the 28th a group of soldiers returned to claim their bodies. All were buried in shallow graves initially, and years later, the government came back and recovered their bodies. The remains of the US troops were then buried around this marker.

Yikes another one of these warnings!

The white markers depict where US Soldiers were found, and the red stone markers were where an Indian was found.

The Indian Council created this monument to honor the Indians who died in the Battle.

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This turned out to be a really cool stop.

We left and made a stop at the Crow Tribe Trading Post. They had literally everything in here: pottery, jewelry, fabric, knives, walking sticks, food, clothing, books, bags, etc. They even had a stuffed bison!

We made our purchases, and as we were leaving, we saw an awesome sight – a grill on a grill.

Hello Wyoming! State number 24

We checked in to our latest Holiday Inn in Sheridan, Wyoming, and like clockwork, got our swimming time in before dinner. We headed into Sheridan to eat at the Cowboy Cafe in downtown Sheridan.

As we approached downtown, the streets were blocked off. We weren’t sure what to do but kept circling and finally found a spot as we did, we looked downtown and found out it was the 2nd Thursday Festival.

We explored booths and found the Cowboy Cafe. It was so good – I had Spicy Elk and Bison sausage with grilled onions, Mike had a locally raised steak, Michael had locally caught rainbow trout, and Leo had corn dogs 🤣 We all had dessert and finally discovered what all the buzz was about for huckleberry dessert

Then we explored the festival for a while – it was so fun!

And then we found the axe throwing!!!

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I love when we stumble on stuff like this. Thanks Sheridan! We had the best time!

Today was a down day but we found the coolest place along the way. The goals today were to sleep late, and eventually end the day in Billing, Montana. But first, we started another day at our beautiful little cabin

We woke up without an alarm clock, and enjoyed coffee and sweet rolls on the front porch. It was so peaceful. We loaded up the car and cooler, and grabbed our sandwiches for lunch – who knew Mom’s Restaurant catered 🤪 – and were on our way.

We started our drive, and it was beautiful- again, pictures don’t do it justice.

First stop, the capital of Montana: Helena. We didn’t have any plans to stop in Helena. Our fishing Guide, Grant, and his girlfriend just moved to Helena, so we asked him if there was anything we should see in Helena? He responded simply: Nah. So, we snapped the capital and rolled on…

Months ago when we were planning this trip, Michael saw something online about a Grizzly Bear rescue place in Montana. Turns out it is in Bozeman, Montana and was started by Casey Anderson, the host of Nat Geo Expedition Wild, one of boys’ favorite shows when they were younger.

If you don’t know the story of Brutus the Bear, you really should check out his story on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/HGcM_yLH3D4

Anyway, long story short, Casey rescued Brutus and when he got too big to live at Casey’s house, they built the Montana Grizzly Encounter.

We love love love some cheesy roadside stuff, and we love animals. Perfect stop for the Brown’s!

Inside the enclosure was Max. Max is a 2 year old grizzly found orphaned on an island in Alaska. Since his mom hadn’t taught him how to hunt and forage , he wouldn’t survive in the wild. He was taken in by the Grizzly Encounter, and he has been with them since then.

Max is about 500 lbs and they expect him to reach 1,400 when he’s full grown. But right now, Max is a complete ham! I swear he was posing for pictures 📸

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He was literally the cutest bear we’ve ever seen. We also loved that when the bears get hungry, or are ready to go inside, they go to this door and scratch.

The staff open a door to the left, and in they go. Underneath there is a larger facility for the bears. Once Max went inside, out came Bella. Bella is an 800 lb 8 year old. The staff said she acted like Max’s mom when they are together.

And then the talk from the staff started. I honestly can’t remember what this guy’s real name was but he was exactly like Dwight Shrute from The Office.

Grizzly Dwight: Some people think bells scare off grizzlies. That is false.

Grizzly Dwight: Some people think running down a hill will hep you outrun a Grizzly. That is false.

Grizzly Dwight: Some say that grizzlies can’t climb trees. That is false.

If Grizzly Dwight had started talking about beets or paper, I think the 4 of us would have lost it! 🤣🤣🤣 It was seriously the best!

We got back to car, grabbed our sandwiches and got back on the road headed toward Billings. Once we unpacked, we headed to the pool for a little energy release

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Then headed out into Billings for dinner. We decided to check out the downtown, and found a great place, Montana Brewing Co. They had the greatest ad for hiring

Again, we all had something different and everything was great. Mike even tried huckleberry beer. It was pretty good. Then we got desserts – apparently giant desserts is Montana staple! They’ve all been doing giant!

We headed back to hotel intending to swim a bit more but instead we pajama’d up and just enjoyed having absolutely no where to go until tomorrow 😉

Another day for the Memory Books ♥️

if you had told Mike and I growing up that one day we would be fly fishing down the Missouri River with our boys, we would have called you crazy. But today we did!

Woke up to the most peaceful site even if it was 6am. These big ol’ babies are Highland Cows – you know the ones in the pictures with the long hair over their eyes.

We had to be up, going, and on the road by 6:40. In typical Brown fashion, we left at 6:45 so we arrived at Cross Currents Fly Shop in Craig, Montana at 7:05… that’s 7am BST (Brown Standard Time).

We met our guides: Grant for Leo and I; and Bryce for Michael and Mike. We gave them our Montana fishing license (purchased online intermittently as we could get internet service), hopped in their trucks, and headed to the drop in site on the Missouri River.

We arrived at the drop in, and noticed that all the boats let an older couple go ahead of them in the drop in line to get their boat in first. Initially, I thought that’s nice since they’re older. Um no. Turns out, the older couple are the owners of Orvis, the company who make the fly-fishing clothing and gear. Our guides told us they were true fishermen, and were really good to the local guides so it was a sign of respect. (I kind of like knowing that the people who run a fly fishing company are still actually coming out to fish!)

We took off down the Missouri River. Not really took off… we rowed into the Missouri River is probably more accurate

We were all a little nervous about fly fishing, since we’d never done it before, and it looks kind of complicated. There is definitely more to it than “regular” fishing. I always have a hard time staying focused when I try to fish unless they are really biting. Fly fishing, on the other hand, keeps your focus because you are always pulling your line, keeping the line up end (so the current takes the hook down stream, not the line), and being ready to “set” when the bobbin went down.

Everyone caught fish, (Hallelujah) and we had a lot of fish that we almost caught!

We fished until lunchtime and then pulled under a few trees for lunch.

The lunches were made by one of the guide’s wife who started a business of catering lunches for the fishing excursions. The guides text her the first of the week with their lunch orders and she meets them at the shop at 6am with their days’ lunches pre-packed and ready for the day. The lunches were delicious!

After lunch, the boys splashed around a bit.

Then we headed out for a bit more fishing. We finished “fishing” around 2:30. After the water temperature hits about 68°, rainbow trout don’t bite.

So we rowed on for a spot that the guides told the boys about at lunch…

Oh, and we can add sheep to the list of animals and we’ve seen

We headed back to the metropolis of Craig, and stopped in the fly shop for souvenirs and Gatorades. Then we headed to Cascade for dinner. Since we are in the little cabin at Lil Valley Ranch, we can eat in – thank goodness.

We headed back to the little cabin and look what we found – another plaque!

Some of us were wiped out from fishing

We got home around 4pm and enjoyed watching the cows and just relaxing. We had been texting with the cabin owners and were finally able to meet them, David and Karen Allen are from Alaska and when they moved to Montana, they built the little cabin and lived in it while they built their current house. It’s a really cool little cabin.

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I am glad they completed the indoor plumbing before we came 😀

When the Allen’s moved here from Alaska, they decided to start raising cows. They chose Highland cows because they haven’t been cross bred as much and tend to have easy healthy births… and they are just so cute!

They raise their cows like we raise pigs. Only the breeding stock get names, and they love on them just like we do. The breeding stock are here on their 80 acre farm, but they have a much larger group on their 100+ acres a few miles away. They may start sending their cows to freezer camp instead of the processor from now on 😉

We cooked a great dinner of steak, roasted corn on the cob, marinated mushrooms and sweet potatoes. Montana sweet potatoes are not sweet like ours… I think they are trying to pass off yams as sweet potatoes to folks who don’t know the difference.

After dinner, we saw the Allen’s headed down to feed the cows and decided to take them up on their invitation to join them. They gave the boys a bucket of treats each and we had a blast feeding them.

They are like really big pigs who have horns and slobber a lot

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I’m so thankful we stayed here. We exchanged numbers with the owners because they were such kindred spirits. They sent us home with pickled relish and canned beets that Karen made, and fresh beef for burgers at our next stop. It was just a great evening, made just a bit better by ice cream and chocolate syrup on the front porch watching the sun go down (finally 😉)

It just doesn’t get much better than this ♥️

There’s no way for me to describe how beautiful Glacier National Park is in words. So this post will have a whole lotta pictures 😁.

Today was a down day – i.e. nothing planned. I have learned from traveling with these boys that while I like to maximize and schedule every vacation moment (when are you going to be here again?), they do not. Over scheduling = Grumpy Brown boys… thus, The Down Day.

Today, we wanted to explore Glacier some more. You could spend days here and not see it all.

First required purchase: Bear Spray! Yep, it’s a thing. It’s like super duper pepper spray.

We were able to snag shuttle tickets, so we hopped on and rode to just “see” some of the places. We decided to do one big hike on this side of the park, and one on the other. On the Apgar side of the park, we decided to hike the Avalanche Lake Trail. The scenery is so beautiful that it looks fake.

This was listed as a 2.5 mile (one way) moderate hike. It definitely wasn’t easy with the elevation changes, but the trail was well maintained (and no trail trolls (roots) constantly trying to trip you.)

The primitive toilets were, well, smelly is the nicest word I can use but better than trying to dodge an animal while using the potty.

We hiked and snacked on a Montana favorite: Buffalo Jerky… and learned that all buffalo in the United States is really bison 😉

We hiked with only minimal grumbling… mainly, it was hangry grumbles because we were having a picnic lunch at Avalanche Lake.

We rounded the corner and suddenly the hike was totally worth it!

Of course, we had to get IN the freezing cold water

We found an empty log bench with a little shade, and had lunch from Mom’s Restaurant – who knew they had a location in Montana?!

After lunch, we enjoyed just sitting for a while and counting waterfalls. We counted seven maybe eight if you counted one separate 🤪

Look at the difference in a similar picture from Calf Creek Falls in Utah 2 years ago… boys have grown so much!

We started our hike back which wasn’t nearly as hard since 80% of the hike was downhill or flat.

However, some of us thought it was incredibly difficult.

We hopped back on the shuttle (now realizing that once you use the shuttle pass to get inside the park, you can drive wherever you want because the parking lots were no where near as full as the Park Service led you to believe). We got our little Toyota RAV4 and off we went. First, we made our way to Apgar Village. Eddie’s Ice Cream was the biggest double scoop we’ve ever seen!

Seriously, they are almost as big as their heads!

We loved the sign at the village stor

And found the BEST shirt 🤣🤣🤣

We stopped at every plaque, overpass and turnout we saw. It took forever and it was completely worth it!

Again, the pictures are gorgeous but they just can’t do justice to Glacier!

So far, I really hadn’t seen what the big deal was about the park’s main road, Going to the Sun Road. Until we starting meandering UP the Going to the Sun Road – Holy Moly!!

Thankfully Mike was the driver because I don’t think I could have done it… bless him because the boys and I would say “oh, look at that!” And he’d say “if I do we are going to run off the road!” It was a little stressful 😬

But the views!

Finally we made it to Logan’s Pass, the visitors center at the Continental Divide. What exactly is the Continental Divide you ask? It is basically like a dividing line across the country… the rain and moisture on its west side flow to the Pacific Ocean, and on its east side, it flows to the Mississippi.

We really didn’t intend to go all the way up but, when are we going to be here again (which seems to be our mantra for this trip), and there was snow!!!

I really hope these videos load, because they are hilarious 😂

And not to be outdone, we snuck in our own selfie since we hiked it too 🥰

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Glacier National Park, like most National Parks, is known for its animal population. So far we’ve seen a big ol’ black bear crossing the River (from a very safe distance), deer (who clearly aren’t concerned with people),

goats, chipmunks and big horn sheep. The big horn sheep are the best at hiding in plain view… here’s a closeup

And here’s the view originally – Michael is the champ are spotting them from a distance in a car!

One big horn sheep in particular is my favorite. There were 5 or 6 of them munching on grass, and just as I tried to leave the trail, I stumbled. Of course, they scattered but then this guy came back… I think he wanted to check on me but boys said he came back to give a duck face 🤣 whatever potato-patato 🤷🏻‍♀️.

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We traveled on through the Park, and it was definitely different topography. You can see the remnants and regrowth from the wildfire in 2009

We left the mountains and transitioned almost immediately into flat plains

Driving along, or should I say racing along… the speed limit in some places is 80 mph! Of course, you can see for 10 miles ahead of you.

Anyway, driving along, and what do we see? A Plaque!

As we are driving along we FINALLY get a wifi signal strong enough to get my map app 🤣 to work on phone, and we reach out to our VRBO host about our arrival time for tonight. She gave us some suggestions for where to grab some dinner on the road.

I have to admit our eating schedule has been completely wonky since we got here. We either eat with the early bird specials or we are eating at saloons. Part of the problem is me trying to cram in as much as possible each day and the other part is Montana’s fault. It doesn’t even start getting dark here until 9pm so I’m still in Clark Griswold mode until then

Back to today, so we head into town but the first couple of places were closed (well, it is Monday at 9pm and several didn’t have enough staff). Finally, we saw Cafe Rio, checked the reviews and off we went. We were a little disappointed that their sign said fryer was down so no chips but then we saw the lady making handmade tortillas!

I think we each had something different and they were all delicious! Of course, the Cafe Rio staff has a special place in my heart because they commented on how polite and well-behaved my boys were ♥️. And they loved our accents 😀

We made it, finally to our little VRBO cabin at 10:15pm. It is a great little cabin – 2 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and living room.

The only hesitation we had in booking is that there was no air condition. Montana homes don’t have air conditioning. Usually they only have a couple of weeks all year that are really warm (over 80°), but not this year. The good thing is that there is almost always a nice breeze and as soon as the sun starts going down (at 9pm) it starts cooling off.

Our host had cracked the windows for us, so once we opened the windows all the way and got the fans running (after a little redneck repair of one of them) it was really nice… probably 68-70°. We were exhausted so we unloaded, showered, and hit the sack… it’s actually getting chilly enough in here for a blanket 😀

Tomorrow starts early with a 6am (MST) wake up for fly fishing down the Missouri River 🎣

Being in a National Park on 4th of July has always been a bucket list item for me. I’m not sure why, maybe because I think the National Park System is a really cool thing about our country. I’m so amazed that someone long ago had the forethought to preserve these amazing natural areas… and further amazed that we haven’t managed to screw this up since then 🤪

First: Happy 4th of July🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

We woke up really early to head to West Glacier for an all-day rafting trip. The first half was an easy float down Flat Rock River, and then white water rafting the second half.

We suited up and hopped on the bus headed to where we would drop into the River. The guides were so fun and made the ride pretty entertaining. They reminded me of the Turtles from Finding Nemo… “I was like Whoa, and he was like Whoa, and then it was like Whoa.” 🤣🤣🤣 Nothing seemed to get them too worried.

The views were just breathtaking

And the water was so clear and blue. It looked like something you expect to see in Hawaii. Our guide, Brennan, said it gets this blue color because it was snow on the mountain about a week ago.

Around lunchtime, we pulled onto the riverbank. I knew we had lunch included and just assumed sandwiches etc. Oh no! The guides asked us to gather sticks for cooking, and while we did, they pulled out grills and and tables! In a few minutes, they had chips, salsa and guacamole with fresh fruit ready with steaks and chicken on the grill!

As we ate, look what we saw in the tree… a Bald Eagle! Seriously, could we get any more 4th of July 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Did I mention the water temperature? It was a chilly 50-55° but guess who wanted to see just how cold that really was…

We got back in our boats and off we went to find some rapids!

It was so fun to do this together! Our synchronized paddling may need a little work but we did pretty well.

No one accidentally went in the water, although 2 crazy children did jump in when given the opportunity 🤪

They were frozen! Just look at Michael’s face 🤣🥶

We finished rafting and killed some time doing a little shopping in West Glacier Village. Due to Covid, the Park Service has a timed entry system to get into park. We never could get a pass for our car during peak hours so we piddled around until 5 (when passes are no longer required) and then took off into Glacier National Park.

I had heard about how beautiful Glacier was before coming on this trip. However, my favorite National Park has been Zion in Utah, and I didn’t think Glacier was going to compare… oh my! Was I wrong?!

We spent about 2 hours hiking around. We hiked the Trail of the Cedars – a easy planked trail that was amazing!

We decided that Trail of the Cedara looks a lot like Endor, the plant where the Ewoks lived in Star Wars… and then it was on the television when we got back to the hotel.

Then we stopped by a few overlooks and rivers. These mountains and views are breathtaking. They definitely put things into perspective. Leo said “Mom, I don’t know how people see this and then say there isn’t a God. Like something this beautiful just happened.” ♥️

We stopped by Moose’s Saloon planning to stay for dinner but they were slammed for the 4th of July so we ordered to go, and with our 60 minute wait, we headed to the grocery store to stock up on the week’s groceries. Groceries loaded, we returned to Moose’s (literally it’s a saloon)

(For full disclosure, Moose’s had great rating for pizza, but the inside was a little sketchy – you know my mama spidey sense – so pizza to go was the choice for us. Anyway, we collected our pizza and headed back to the hotel. So Moose’s may have been the sketchy but dang! They can make some pizza! It was delicious!!!

And just to wear off any remaining energy, we headed back to the pool.

Just to finish off a perfect 4th – we watched fireworks from our room 🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸 Only in America 🇺🇸♥️🇺🇸

Today was one of those days that we will talk about when we are old. It was just about perfect.

We all woke up much happier and well rested. We grabbed our free Holiday Inn Breakfast, met a nice family from Oregon who were vacationing here too, and headed back to check off the other “must do” in Coeur d’Alene – cliff jumping!

Directly beside the Coeur d’Alene Resort is Tubbs Hill. Tubbs Hill is technically a great big hill surrounded by water. It is a city park that doesn’t have playgrounds and ballfields, instead it is trails and forests and beaches.

The trails are beautiful and being right on the water, the breeze made the weather perfect a couple of miles of hiking… which we did intermittently because… did I mention the cliff jumping?

I don’t think I have ever seen a lake this blue and clear. You could see clearly underwater and the water just felt different. Obviously not salty like the ocean, but not that normal “lake water” feel. We hiked, and they jumped

Then we hiked some more and they jumped and swam

As we started heading back, I decided I was ready to jump too… so obviously I had to find the highest rock…

So scary and so awesome all at the same time!

We jumped and jumped off the cliff… and someone may have done the tushie equivalent of a back buster and now has bruises on her backside. 🤣🤣 Should make for interesting conversation when I wear a bathing suit later this trip 🤣🤣

But wait! To the boys and my absolute delight, Mike was ready to join us in the water!

Here what we learned today, in your 40’s, it’s not the jump thats hard – it’s the climbing back up the rocks that kicks your butt!

We spent close to 3 hours hiking and jumping. It was just the best day! I made several mental pictures to hold onto 📸♥️

Finally we headed back to the car to change from our swimsuits and grab a hamburger at a place we passed yesterday. Let me just say that you haven’t lived until you can check “changed clothes in a parking deck” off your bucket list – that’s a big ✔️✔️✔️✔️ for all the Brown’s 🤣

Hudson’s Hamburgers has been serving hamburgers and cheeseburgers in Coeur d’Alene since 1907.

And much like the John Belushi/SNL sketch – it is JUST hamburgers, cheeseburgers and Pepsi products.

Toppings are onions pickles and cheese. That’s it. You can add ketchup, spicy mustard (heavy horseradish) and spicy ketchup (shiracha sauce). Honestly, i thought the toppings combo was weird but HOLY COW! This may be one of best cheeseburgers I’ve eat had!

Of course we had to stop in for some ice cream, and found some interesting soda choice 🤢

We jumped in the car and headed east. Goodbye for now Idaho!

And hello Montana!

What a gorgeous drive! The landscape changes from evergreens, the mountains to a lake so blue it almost looked fake!

We arrived in Kalispell, Montana around 8pm. The plan had been to go to hotel, run to Walmart for a cooler and groceries for the week, and grab dinner. And we would have been on track except… it’s the 4th of July weekend, and there’s Covid and people are crazy. So, Walmart, Target, Walgreens, all sold completely out of coolers! (Wait what? When do you sell out of coolers 🥴) We finally found one at Lowe’s… at 9:15! So dinner ended up being Chick-fil-A

A bit of a late dinner but we are ready to celebrate July 4th at Glacier National Park tomorrow