Grand Teton

Our second night in Yellowstone, we stayed at Grant Village campground on Yellowstone Lake.   The lake is beautiful and is surrounded by and covering many bubbling and steaming vents.  Andrew and Grant both tries fishing in the lake, but no luck. 
Since we were in the southern portion of the park and we had toured the "Grand Loop" in Yellowstone,  we decided to drive south about an hour into Grand Teton.  The mountain and lake combination was stunning.  We drove the loop around the park and got out in a few spots to walk around, but this was a quick tour.  Would love to come back one day to hike some of the canyon trails that wind through these mountains!  I'm guessing we were early in the season to do this because I heard a ranger asking one of the hikers if he had his ice picks and ice gear... 

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is a unique place with its beautiful lakes, mountains, and myriad geologic phenomenon.   We've enjoyed touring around and seeing the flowing  rivers and boiling cauldrons of water and mud.  Exceedingly cool stuff to see here!  The crowds are challenging though, especially if you are coming from a park like Glacier or Crater Lake.   Really glad we visited,  but not in a big rush to come back unless it's not in the height of summer vacation season. 
We have definitely seen some interesting wildlife here and have experienced the Buffalo traffic jam= buffalo all walk or run  onto the road and block cars from getting by in both directions. This did allow us to take some excellent close-up pictures of various buffalo from all angles.  We saw a black bear with her cub also. 

Glacier to Yellowstone travels

We left Glacier at nine this morning and trekked south towards Yellowstone and Gardiner, MT where we planned a stay the night at a cottage, right on the Yellowstone River.   The trip through Montana was beautiful and our cottage is perfect!  Really cute and comfortable place to stay on the river and with a view of the North Gate at Yellowstone National Park.   Andrew was excited to fish in the river and he caught a trout.  Both Grant and Andrew sat in the hot tub overlooking the river.  Perfect place to stay. This was our planned cushy night at this point in the trip and now we've had two hotel nights and three nights with friends in their comfy house!  We have been spoiled the past few days!

Many Glacier on the east side

Magnificent,  exquisite,  incredible. .. there is not a word that can describe how beautiful this place is.  Definitely the prettiest part of Glacier National Park,  which is my new favorite park.  We got up yesterday morning and headed east on the crazy Going to the Sun Rd. again.  Very misty, chilly, and dreary on the west side and the fog was just as thick as it was the day before -perhaps even worse up at Logan Pass.  However,  when we came down from the pass, the sun started to peek out and the views only got better as we followed the road.  Beautiful shades of blue and turquoise in the sky and all the lakes and streams.  Snowcapped mountains and jagged edged mountains everywhere you look.  WOW!
We got to our campsite at Many Glacier campground around 12 and decided to explore first.  I have been eyeballing a hike to the Grinnell Glacier for a while.  We learned that the top of the trail was closed due to snow, but the ranger said you could hike high enough to see the glacier and see a view of Grinnell Lake from above.   We set off to see it!  Hiking along a trail that meandered along the edge of Lake Josephine and Swiftcurrent Lake, we saw a wonderful show of wildflowers blooming. They were not like Virginia wildflowers and sometimes it looked like a planned rock garden.  The flowers and the beautiful blue lakes were lovely.  The boys enjoyed skipping rocks on the lake again. 
After the second lake, the trailed turned to the right and started going up! Nice change and some decent elevation change! We could see another glacier on the mountain across the valley and then Grinnell Lake came into view.  Amazing blue water, even with the mostly cloudy skies.  We continued to get  better and better views of the lake.  Then, we rounded a blind corner/ slight switchback in the trail and above our heads on the trail was a mama bear and her cub. We backed down the trail as quickly as possible (while taking pictures) and looked on from a distance until the bear started heading down the trail towards us!  Again a retreat and an interesting but kinda scary time watching  from the next bend in the trail.  By this time there were several of us (a couple from LA, some people from the Oakland area and some fellow Virginians sharing the perch and watching.  So glad that we had the chance to see the bears, but glad they weren't any closer!   
We headed back down the trail and saw the lakes from another perspective.  Happy hiking day for all! Andrew even said this hike "didn't suck at all"! He even said he was GLAD he did it with us!  Big deal since hiking isn't his favorite activity.   Once we got almost back to the trailhead of this 6+ round trip hike, Andrew spotted a huge bear about 15-20 feet from us in the woods.  He came up and crossed the trail behind us as we scurried ahead.  Crazy close to us!!! Grant was right in there taking video and watching him move along.  This was probably one of our most exciting days yet on this summer adventure.  Surely one that we will all remember for a long time.  Our camp host reported that a grizzly with her two cubs had been in the camp while we were gone, but luckily our campsite was bear-free overnight and we just had some cold weather sleeping.  
Onward to Yellowstone!