A dip and some fly fishin’

We actually slept in on Tuesday morning. And, I don’t mean 7am, I’m talking really sleeping in; we got up at about 9am. The place we were staying has a continental breakfast every morning, so we filled our bellies and then the girls played outside our cabin while we got everything ready for the day.

Our first stop was a dip in Lake McDonald. It was a bit chilly, but incredibly picturesque. The water was crystal clear and it was good to cool off, as the temperature was edging close to 90 degrees. Apparently, we brought the heat with us, as this is unseasonably warm for Montana.

The girls looking for rocks

Bonsai!!!!

Beautiful! And the scenery is nice, too.

We then headed for a place called The Huckleberry Patch for some souvenirs.  Montana folks are very, very, very proud of their huckleberries. They have huckleberry pancakes, shakes, ice cream, pie, BBQ sauce, muffins, syrup, soap, lotion, etc…. If you can put a huckleberry in something, they do it.

HEY! Can someone PLEASE help me find something with huckleberries in it?!?!

We went back to our cabin and made some sandwiches and heated up leftover pizza for lunch. The girls hung out on the hammocks and ate. They really loved the setup here, and I know they’ll miss this place when we leave.

Our next adventure was fly fishin’ (g intentionally omitted). We arranged for two boats to take us out on the Flathead River.

Our fly fishin’ guides were two crusty old dudes who looked (and smelled) like they’d been out on the river for a while. They gave us some pointers on fly fishin’

Ashley and Sherri. Sherri is not practicing. She can catch a fish in 20 minutes with no practice.

After our quick tutorial, we launched the boats, cast our flies, and started watchin’ for the tugs on our lines. Haley and I got some good advice on things to say when you’re a fisherman, such as, “We fish, therefore we lie” and “Here, fishy fishy!” We also learned how to answer people when they float by and ask, “How’s the fishin’?” (Answer: “The fishin’ is great, it’s the catchin’ that’s not so good.”)

Emily pulling one in. Great catch, Em!

That's a big one, Em!

Me, Kurt, and Haley enjoying the fishin'

Pretty waterfall on the river

Ashley has that look on her face like she's about to catch something...

And BOOM! There it is. Great job, Ash!

Sherri reels one in. I know the feeling.

Given our inexperience, it was a pretty productive day of catchin’ (and releasin’) fish. The total counts:

Wes: 2
Sherri: 1
Haley: 0 :(
Ashley: 1
Emily: 1

I think I kept stealin’ Haley’s fish. Sherri, who fished a lot with her grandpa as a young girl, caught her fish in the 20 minutes that she spent fishin’. The rest of the time in her boat, Ashley and Emily had the rods.  Glad she wasn’t in my boat showin’ me up! 

After about 4 hours on the river, we docked, loaded the boats, and headed back to our car. I Yelped to find somewhere for dinner, but after lookin’ at the options, we decided to head back to Glacier Grill again. It was another late night (though, again, you can never tell in Montana because the sun stays up past 10pm).  We rushed back to the cabin to watch the rest of the movie before the 24 hour expiration (curse you, iTunes!). The kids really enjoyed the movie. The reason we chose this movie is that we’re plannin’ on visitin’ Alcatraz when we go through San Francisco. 

It was another full day for the Hummels. 

Going to the Sun

Monday morning we packed up the car and headed north. Our next destination was Glacier National Park in Montana. We had a good night's sleep and were facing a day of driving. Several hours into our trip, we stopped to have a picnic lunch. The girls were a bit disappointed that there was no playground. So, naturally I told them a few "back in my day, we only had cardboard boxes to play with...and we walked uphill to school. Both ways. In the snow." stories.

Horses by the side of the road in Montana.

Initially, we were planning on heading up the west side of the park, as it was a more direct route to the cabin we booked. However, after talking to a few people, we decided to take a two hour detour so that we could take Going to the Sun Road across the park. This turned out to be a fantastic idea, as the scenery was by far the most beautiful we've seen on this trip.

Following the 51 miles of sensory overload, we finally arrived at our cabin. Perhaps they knew we were on Vacation, as the name of our cabin was “Griz.” It was a very nice cabin, and the price included scenery and wildlife fun.

The girls in front of the "Griz"

We unpacked (again!) and then headed to dinner at Glacier Grill. Dinner was excellent, and when we finished it was still light outside, although it was 10pm. Does the sun ever go down here?  The girls and I stayed up to watch “Escape from Alcatraz” (one of my favorite movies of all time) and Sherri hit the sack. The sound from the iPad wasn’t good, so we were all huddled on the bed straining to listen to it. I was holding the iPad, which was good because I was able to flip it out of view during the shower scene. I realized how unprepared I feel for these girls to grow up. But, I am making the most of it while they are still young and still think I’m (somewhat) cool. Well, ok, Emily probably doesn’t think I’m cool. About three-quarters of the way through, the girls were barely hanging on the edge of being awake, so we paused the movie with 30 minutes left and went to bed.

Grand Canyon? I thought we were in Yellowstone....

Sunday was our last day in Yellowstone. Amy, our guide from the first day, picked us up at our condo at 7am. We were getting an earlier start in hopes of seeing some some wildlife. We were not disappointed; shortly after we ventured out, we came across three elk in a wooded area. The morning fog had not yet burned off, which made for a beautiful setting.

I also found our Christmas tree for this year....I'm sure we have enough room in the car for this. If not, I'll just strap it on the top of the car to keep Aunt Edna company!

As we were driving, we saw an pullout area where there were dozens of people with their binoculars and high powered scopes out. We pulled over to a beautiful area where we were able to see a couple of wolves through the scopes. It was very cool to see them strutting around the plains. If you look really closely at the right-hand side of the picture below (about three-fifths of the way from the top) and squint, you still can't see them.

Wolves. You can't see them. But they're there.

We then visited some more hot springs and geysers. Sherri's favorite was called "Dragon's Mouth Spring." Guess she's woken up to my morning breath enough times.

OK, everyone look at the camera and squint!

We drove a bit more and came across some bison crossing a stream. When we saw our first bison the girls were totally excited. Now we've seen so many it's like....'huh...more bison.'

Bison crossing a stream. Is there anything they can't do?!

A cool Yellowstone tour bus

Emily successfully spotting wildlife

Haley touring the park

Ashley ready with her binoculars

We made our way up to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This is a gorgeous area of the park. In the picture below, you can see the Lower Falls, which is 308 feet!

The Lower Falls seem smaller than Haley, but they're actually twice as high as Niagara!

Lower Falls

Pretty rainbow in the Lower Falls

Our final day at Yellowstone was great. We got back to our condo, cleaned and rested up, and headed to the Three Bears Restaurant. Dinner was yummy. Haley had a bison burger. I guess there's nothing they can't do. We hit the sack early, as we had a full day of driving ahead of us.

Hiking and kayaking - short straw gets Sherri in their kayak!

Saturday was (relatively) a sleep-in day. Our guide for the day, Dave, was planning on picking us up at our condo at 8am. Emily made pancakes (for the first time!) for her sisters and herself for breakfast.

We all got ready (the usual sun screening and filling of camelbacks and bottles) and met Dave as he pulled up right on time.

I love people who are passionate about what they do. Whether it be software engineering, glass blowing, making coffee, or being a guide, people are the happiest and at their best when they love what they do. Dave is one of these people. His passion for nature, for Yellowstone, and for sharing his knowledge with us was infectious. He wanted to get us away from the crowds and off the beaten path, so he asked if we were up for a pretty long hike. We were game, so we drove to a spot about 45 minutes away and parked the van. About 15 minutes into our hike, we saw a huge bison.

What did the father buffalo say when his boy left for college? Bison!

Bison will typically find a spot of dirt and roll around and flick dust onto themselves with their tails. They do this to get rid of the insects and to shed their winter coats.  We were watching this bison for a while when Dave said, “Uh oh…see how he raised his tail? They only do that for two reasons….they are about to discharge (poop!) or charge. Let’s not find out which one it is.”  We continued on our path, which started up a steep incline.
 

The bison started walking after us up the path, but was still a good 40 yards away.  We kept a good pace, because these things can run up to 45 miles per hour and they weigh around 2000 pounds! They can also jump up to 6 feet from a standstill!

We made it up to the top of the hill and started across a winding path through some trees. All over Yellowstone you will see hundreds of trees that burned in the fire of 1988. It was really interesting to be walking down a trail with burned, fallen trees, new saplings, and towering trees that had survived the fire. Dave stopped us to point out some tracks.

Bear tracks!!

But it was all good….our guide on Friday, Amy, told us what to do if a bear comes towards you. First, don’t run! Second, get together in a group. Third, make a lot of noise. Fourth, don’t make eye contact. Fifth, if the bear gets to you, spray it with bear spray. Sixth, lay down with your hands over your head and do not let the bear turn you over, as they like to get at your vitals. Awesome! Luckily, our guides had bear spray with them. But, I’m pretty sure that these instructions are just like the instructions they give you in an airplane in the event of a crash situation….they become:  First, scream your head off. Second, panic and do everything opposite of what you've been told.

We were hoping to see a bear (“but at a safe distance,” as Dave kept reminding the kids), but we didn't. We continued our hike and hit a clearing where we saw beautiful Grizzly Lake.

We hiked down the mountain, which was pretty steep, and got to the lake. In the lake, there was a logjam, which is exactly what it sounds like. Dave showed us how to walk on the logs and which logs to choose.

Dave helping Em across the logs

We all had fun crossing the water, and luckily none of us fell in. As we were hanging around the logs, a bald eagle (the most majestic animals are bald or nearly bald) circled overhead about five times. It was truly amazing, and was one of the highlights of our trip so far.

The girls had a snack and we started our trek back to the van. We stopped at different plants and flowers and marveled at the views.

Dave helping Em identify flowers

Dave helping Em with the binoculars

Dave pointing out woodpecker holes to Ashley and explaining how woodpeckers dig out grubs

The girls did an amazing job, and Dave informed us when we got back that the hike was about 5.2 miles.

The family that hikes together, stays together

We piled into the van and ate our sack lunches. Dave picked up a trailer with kayaks and we headed down to Hebgen Lake. This was our first time kayaking, and the kids picked it up very quickly. I say “kids” instead of “girls” because Sherri wasn’t so quick on the steering. Everyone has their weaknesses and Sherri’s happen to be steering a kayak and judgment when choosing a spouse. We had two 2-seaters and one 1-seater, and Dave had a 1-seater. Emily, our strongly independent 8 year-old, of course wanted the 1-seater.  Ashley and I got into a 2-seater and Sherri and Haley got into a 2-seater.

If you haven’t ever been kayaking, you should definitely try it out. It is a ton of fun. We spent time racing, the girls took turns in the 1-seater, and everyone generally avoided Sherri being in the back (steering) of the kayak. :)

One of the kayaks drifted back into the lake. Haley and Ashley immediately went on a recon mission and brought it safely back to shore.

We were on the lake for a couple of hours, and everyone had a wonderful time. We even had the chance to see our second bald eagle (bald is a sign of strength and courage) and its HUGE nest.

We loaded the kayaks up into the trailer and Dave took us back to our condo. We got cleaned up and headed to dinner at Wild West Pizzeria. They have the BEST macaroni and cheese in the world, and their pizzas and calzones were great, too. We stopped and got some homemade huckleberry (a berry found in the high mountains of Montana) ice cream at a small ice cream stand and then headed back to the condo. It was a very full day, and all of us slept extremely well.