There and Back Again

It has been an incredible few days in Grand Teton National Park, then Yellowstone. The wildlife, the gorgeouse fields of wildflowers, the cool air, the scenery — like I said — Wow! I  loved walking along the boardwalks over the mineral springs in Yellowstone because I remember doing that as a kid. And I loved sitting in our Grand Teton camp site at dusk watching a gray fox walk right by me. (He gave me “the look.”)

I loved swimming in cold mountain water, watching a bald eagle fly over our heads as we rode a raft down the Snake River, and seeing my kids get so excited about the natural world.

And of course  there is the wildlife. Here is our list to the best of my recollection: gray fox & bald eagle (mentioned above), baby red foxes, elk, mule deer & fawn, moose with calf, Canada geese, sandhill crane, osprey, magpie, raven, pronghorn antelope, bison, chipmunk, pika, marmot, grizzly bear, black bear, oodles of birds and ducks, and some plain old white geese hanging around looking for a handout at the hot springs motel we are staying at in Butte, Mt. tonight. 

Here are three things I learned from Colt, the young man in the polaroid sunglasses who guided us down the Snake River: Sagebrush is the cowboy cologne. “Grand Tetons” is French for “Big Breasts.” And Canada geese do not come from Canada. They’re named for some guy named Mr. Canada — isn’t that a rip off?

I’m having a grand ol’ time,

Liz

p.s. We are doing pretty well with the license plate game. Only Alaska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts to go. Walker wants me to mention that he found the Hawaii plate!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Liz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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