Don't have time to read all the blogs from our great trip. Take a three-minute "View master" look back at our 12-day adventure to Wyoming & Montana. You should let the video load for a minute or so before hitting "play."
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Our day started this morning with boys getting to sleep in a bit and then they were treated to breakfast in bed by our four able-bodied waiters – AKA Mark, Ray, Howard, and Jeff. It wasn’t much of a breakfast but the boys enjoyed the special treat. After we packed up we checked out the Welty General Store in Dubois. This store, in existence in Dubois since the 1890s, sells lots of cowboy clothes and other Western supplies – like knives. And yes, some boys bought some. They had to have adult permission and we gave it. The knives are supposed to stay in the boxes and packed in the luggage and not removed until they get home. Once those knives get home I guess parents can decide what to do with them. After the general store we drove one minute and saw our first glimpse of a giant jackalope and were lucky enough to get a photograph of each boy riding it. You’ll see those photos in today’s posting. In fact, you’ll see photos from four years ago of the three boys who are repeating this trip – a “then” and “now” photo. It was a hoot. Mark Gilbert, Stephen Baker, and Hunter Smith were all on this trip in 2008 and rode the jackalope back then when they were 11 years old and were “more than happy” to ride it this morning at age 15. The final stop in Dubois was at the National Bighorn Sheep Center. The docent presented an excellent overview of bighorn sheep and then we saw a short video about these great animals. Dubois is home to the largest herd of wintering bighorns in the lower 48 states. Boys got to spend some time exploring the museum after the video. After leaving Dubois we started the relatively short trek back to Jackson for our last couple of days. We drove along the Togwotee Trail motor route which is an incredibly beautiful drive through the mountains with views all around for the entire route. The highest point on the drive was Togwotee Pass at almost 10,000 feet in elevation. As we started our descent we could see the Tetons in the distance and it wasn’t long after that we re-entered the Grand Teton National Park. By this time just about everyone needed to use the bathroom and one wasn’t to be found – so keeping in the cowboy tradition we found a bunch of trees. Nope, no photos of this activity! We gave the boys a couple of hours of down time after checking into the hotel. They could hang out in their rooms and/or go swimming and hot tubbing. And finally we ended the day with a visit to the Bar J Ranch in Wilson, WY (just ten minutes away) for our chuckwagon dinner and cowboy musical revue. The boys were pretty impressed with the yodeling. It was a great day! I’m already starting to miss the boys and the excitement and adventure of this trip. Click to see photos from our trip. Check out this ten-second video of the Bar J Wranglers at our chuck wagon dinner. It's a little shaky, but considering I was hand-holding the camera from near the back of the house - I was pleased. Forget the photo on the left for now, I'll get back to that. Today I'll start with our Compliment Tally. Are you ready? TWO!! The boys received a gushing compliment from two staff members at the Colter Bay Visitor Center in the Grand Teton National Park. They couldn't tell us enough about how wonderful our boys had been! That should have been great news alone, but later that evening our waiter at dinner in Gardiner, Montana also gave the boys a sincere compliment. So that's three compliments in three days (two in this one day) -- and that means three treats coming. We'll start those today (Wednesday) Yesterday was a day of travel and site-seeing. We left our motel after a big breakfast at a restaurant and started to make the 110 mile or so journey to Gardiner. This is a slow drive since it's coming through the Grand Teton National Park, John Rockefeller Parkway, and Yellowstone National Park. So traffic moves slowly and we're stopping. We stopped at that visitor center at Colter Bay and this was the first time many of the boys bought souvenirs, so leader Jeff (our banker) had a busy hour handling transactions. We then headed on up the parkway toward Yellowstone when it wasn't long before we saw the first herd of bison. That made quite an impression - and within a minute so an antelope. Later on we saw a few more bison, and look forward to seeing more great wildlife as we explore Yellowstone over the next few days. After our "trail" lunch at Lewis Lake, we went to the Old Faithful area - which, as you can imagine, is very crowded with tourists - so our group was hardly noticeable. We had just missed one eruption, so we had a little over an hour to explore the visitor center there including more souvenir stalking. Then it was time for the next eruption of Yellowstone's most famous geyser. After leaving, we headed through the northern section of the park (which includes the geyser basin) to our motel home for the next four nights in Gardiner, MT where we walked to dinner through the small town along the Yellowstone River where we enjoyed great pizza at the K-Bar - a Gardiner landmark since 1953. Click to see more photos from Wednesday's adventures. Fifth-year camper Mark has a comment for you in this video...
After a breakfast at McDonalds, we headed into the Grand Teton National Park for our first major hike of the trip. We chose a hike to Leigh Lake for several reasons, one being it is considered one of the less crowded hikes in the park. It was also nice because it followed very flat terrain through an evergreen forest along side of Leigh Lake. It was still a very warm day and the hike ended up being about 5 miles long. Lots of great photos taken by kids along the way.
A couple of boys spotted a deer and several saw some geese, but that was the extend of our wildlife spotting for today. That will change tomorrow as we head into Yellowstone National Park. One funny episode (to me anyhow) during the hike was when Will Rasco started a business on the way back to the trailhead of carrying others' backpacks for 50 cents each. (I think that was the going rate.) He was carrying four at one time counting his one. He had quite a business going until he got busted! So everyone had to end up carrying his own pack. I don't know if Will ever collected the money or not. The hike was great fun and the kids did really well. They're ready to go again. We returned back to Jackson with a stop at an overlook of the Teton range and had plenty of time late afternoon for some swimming and hot-tubbing in our motel pool. We walked to dinner to Bubba's Barbecue which was another 1.5 mile round-trip hike. Boys were tired after today and so are the leaders. After dinner we gave the boys time to chill in their rooms with friends and/or swim some more. We also told them they needed to have on clean clothes for breakfast tomorrow. Compliment Tally: Great news. The waitress at dinner tonight gave the boys a sincere compliment and that means a treat is coming their way. I'm so proud of them. They're such a great group of kids. Thanks parents! Click to see photos from our trip. Our excitement has been building for months and tomorrow morning it all reaches a frenzy as we meet the boys at the airport. We're off for our 12-day adventure to the mountains of Wyoming & Montana including stays in Jackson, Cody, and Dubois in Wyoming and Gardiner in Montana. We'll hike, explore, raft, horseback ride, geocache, take in a rodeo, a couple museums, a tram, a chuck wagon dinner...and a whole lot more. Everything is a highlight on this trip, but getting to hike in the Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks is truly magical.
Check this blog out each day for updates on our adventures including photo or two and a link to a full set of photos from the activities. Thanks to all the parents and grandparents for your support. Just about this time three weeks from today we'll be seeing this view as we approach our destination of Jackson, Wyoming. These are some of the peaks in the Grand Teton National Park and I can't wait to get back. If my count is correct, this will be my seventh trip to the Tetons & Yellowstone areas. Joining me will be 20 kids and three other adults and we are going to have one fantastic time. Stay tuned for trip reports and photos posted during our grand adventures. We're finally on the downhill run to start our uphill climbs out in Wyoming & Montana. Less than six months from now we'll be flying into Jackson, Wyoming where the boys will be greeted by this view. Our motels are booked (all with heated pools), our vans are reserved, and soon I'll make flight arrangements and start arranging some of our adventures like rafting on the Yellowstone River. The trip is full and I'm excited that our leadership is set as well. Ray Thompson will be back for his fifth straight MTA trip and Howard Yarborough will be back for his fourth trip, his third with me to this great destination. Our newest staff member will be Jeff Peisner, an eighth-grade teacher at Carolina Day. I doubt you'll recognize any of the boys in this photo as they're almost four years older now...but three of these guys are returning on this trip for their second go in Wyoming & Montana and that's especially exciting. And did anyone mention 2013? I can barely go a day without being asked about our 2013 trips. Relax...that info will be going out within the next ten days and complete details will be posted on this website. |
Mark LevinI never imagined that when I started taking kids on travel trips in 1978 that I would still be taking trips today! It has been a great ride and I'm looking forward to more. Archives
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