Fall Foliage, Rutting Elk, and Yellowstone

With school out for two days we took a long weekend and made a trip to the high country. Jennifer had never been to Yellowstone, so that was our original plan. However, the trip came with two bonuses: fall colors were just reaching their peak and the rutting season caused numerous elk herds to be on the move.


Yellowstone was Yellowstone, except the crowds and bugs were mostly gone. Other than that it seems to never change. Geysers were spectacular, as usual. Wildlife was abundant.













A mosaic of colors covered the hillsides and summer meadows in both Island Park and in the Teton Range. The meadows were a blaze of yellow as Cottonwood trees, willows and other bushes and grasses turned a rich gold in color. On the hillsides, Quaking Aspen, maples, and other trees turned bright red, brilliant orange, and burnt yellow. This year was quite amazing. The best fall colors are realized when a dry summer is followed by a cool, dry fall, and this year's weather fit that pattern.













Bull elk compete by assembling and protecting a harem of 16-20 cow elk. During the rutting season bull elk bugle to warn other bull elk away from their territory and to attract cow elk. The bull elk also exhibits aggressive behavior by doing mock battles with trees and bushes. We watched two bull elk contend for a herd of cow elk in the Mammoth Hot Springs area.

Our best activity was a three-mile roundtrip hike to Phelps Lake at the base of the Tetons near Jackson Hole. Jenn’s cousin, Kallee, joined us and it was fun to have her along.

Busy As a Beaver

With fall approaching it is time to protect our trees from potential damage by beavers throughout the fall and winter. Some of last winter's beaver activity is shown here.




We have a beaver den under the bank of the creek. A trapper is hired regularly by the neighborhood association to deal with the problem. One fall the trapper removed eight beaver from the den. However, other beavers move back in. The best we can do is wrap chicken wire or hardware cloth around the trees we want protected.

In the sixteen years we have lived here, beavers have taken down dozens of our trees. Most are Willows or Dogwood and grow back. But we've also lost Birch, Quaking Aspen, Cottonwood, and even some Pine trees.

An interesting bit of trivia - a beaver can take down a 5" caliber soft wood tree in five minutes and the average beaver fells 200 trees per year.

1st Day of School, 2008

After a fun summer Jenn goes back to school today. This fall she is taking her 4th year of piano, 2nd year of choir, 2nd year of cello, and starts volleyball.

If she can find time she also has an opportunity to turn one of her stories from last year into a draft script for consideration by a television producer, a man we met on the river trip who has won 18 Emmy awards, mostly for children's TV programs. Since we've been home, though, she hasn't had any time to follow-up on his invitation.

Floating the Lower Colorado

In July our "little" family embarked on a float trip down the lower portion of the Colorado River. It was to be a 5 day trip. For months we carefully prepared for this adventure: going on hikes to get in shape, getting the proper equipment and gear, and reading about other rafting experiences on the Colorado. We were excited about the trip (at least 2 out of the 3 were :))

We contracted with a company to have our duffel bags transported to the river by mule while we hiked the 9 miles down from the Grand Canyon's South Rim. Everything went well until the boats showed up at the the bottom of the canyon without our gear! There were 22 other people plus 4 crew members on the trip and all their bags made it. Ours were nowhere to be found. Two of the crew hiked to the nearest Ranger Station to try to determine where our bags were. Upon their return they gave us the unwelcome news that our bags were still on the South Rim and there was no possible way to get them to us. Since the launching of the rafts had already been delayed for 2 hours they gave us 5 minutes to decide if we were going to go ahead and go on the trip or if we wanted to hike back out. Neither of the choices looked appealing to us but we decided to go ahead and float the river.

To make a long story short....despite the prospects of having only the clothes on our backs for the next 5 days, ...despite getting totally soaked by 3 major rapids within the 1st mile of launching, ...and despite the first nights monsoonal rains while trying to set up camp ...we had a blast! Early on Jennifer and I were not happy campers but the miserable beginning became an enjoyable experience because of the kindness and generosity of our fellow travelers . They shared with us enough equipment and clothing that we had something to wear on the rafts by day and something dry to change into for the night. It will be a trip to remember for sure.

Over the last 24 hours the news has been reporting about a flash flood on the Colorado River in the Havasu Falls area. Even though our trip had problems at the beginning I'm glad we didn't have to endure this too. As I look at this photo I wonder if Jennifer or I would have had the guts to let us be airlifted out. Yikes! It also makes me wonder, if they can pluck people out of the canyon couldn't they have delivered our duffel bags? Hmmm ...of course then we wouldn't have a story to tell.

Isaac - First Steps

What a loveable and happy little guy! It was fun to have Jessica & Bryce with us for several weeks while Bryce was doing one of his medical rotations here.

The Great Southwest

Hopefully, a slide show will be coming soon from our July travels to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell, Sedona, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, and other four corners sights

Freedom Festival, 4th of July, and Miley Cyrus

After spending 4th of July last year in the solitude of a lake in the northern Rockies we went to the opposite extreme - taking in a concert with tens of thousands screaming fans of Miley Cyrus, mostly 9, 10, & 11-year old girls.

Still, we enjoyed it, especially Jennifer. Jennifer says it "was awesome."

Blaine took three of the four pictures. Can you guess which one wasn't his?