The second week in January the entire West crew (minus the grandkids) took a family trip up to Jackson Hole, WY. It was beautiful and cold and so much fun. I took so many pictures, it was hard to whittle down to the bare minimum. It's so "bare minimum" I'll have to split it into two posts.
We arrived mid-day and I bundled up as much as I could in preparation for what I thought would be bone chilling cold, only to walk outside and go, "Oh, this isn't that bad!" Turns out humidity really does make a difference in how the exact same freezing temperature feels. As we were driving to find some lunch, we passed an elk preserve. There were small herds of large-antlered elk hanging out right beside the road. Pretty cool.
The burger place where we stopped for lunch had a table hockey game, so there was a tourney until the food arrived. I believe it was a draw...
This was the view at the entrance of the ski village where we stayed.
Our house for the week. You had to fit both SUVs at the top of the hill/driveway. Once D had an unmanned vehicle start sliding down the slope!
The boys braved the snow-covered porch and enjoyed the sauna almost every day we were there.
Got fitted for skis and took our only ski photo together. This might be the longest we were together on the slopes with skis - Koby went down the real runs with his dad and brothers while I puttered around on the same two greens the whole time (after ski school in the morning). Below are the views from the top of my baby green runs.
I only skied the first day, Koby skied for two. I roughed it in the spa with the girls the second day. The third day we snow-mobiled through Yellowstone Park. It was so cool, and SO cold! The place that took us through the park outfitted us with really good suits and equipment luckily, so the only place I ever really felt the cold was my face. Here's Koby modeling the goods.
This is what the road looked like pretty much the entire time. You just kinda guided your snowmobile in the tracks left by the person in front of you and enjoyed the view.
We stopped to take pictures by the entrance sign to Yellowstone. This was my first experience trying to walk through fairly deep snow. It was lots of fun, but I could see how it would get real old, real quick if it were an every day thing. Behind the sign, there was a beautiful river stretching out, but I've already forgotten the name. The Snake river, maybe?
We stopped by some scenic vistas and a waterfall before reaching the main attraction, Old Faithful. We got there about 40 minutes before the estimated "thar-she-blows" time, so we had a delicious lunch in a yurt. First time for everything!
After filling our bellies, we headed out to get a good spot. There are basically wooden bleachers in a ring around the geyser, a good ways back. There is also a surprising amount of infrastructure around, like this lodge, and several other large buildings.
Although Old Faithful is the famous one, there were several other smaller geysers sending up smoke in the background. Once the eruption started, I really didn't get a great picture; mostly it looks like steam. It lasted for a few minutes. I kept expecting it to stop, but it kept on spewing.
After that, we went a bit deeper into the park. If you look closely in the next picture, you can see a small herd of buffalo - that's what Bonnie is posing with. Koby is just posing with a giant block of snow.
We pulled over at one point to see a random buffalo just hanging out under a tree some 20 yards from the road. Across the river from him was another pair. One was grazing, or trying too. It would swing its head side to side to clear a patch in the snow.
Then we stopped at the Firehole River. Very interesting place. There are random holes in the ground in which water is literally boiling. The place smells like sulpher and there is a ton of steam rising and blowing everywhere.
They had walkways built so that you could go a fair ways out. I was amazed at the icicles on some of the bridges - they formed with a slight lean from the wind!
Kepler Cascades was our last stop. It was an amazingly beautiful waterfall that was partially covered by an ice bridge. After taking some pictures with it, we noticed that if you looked to the opposite side of the bridge we were standing on you could see the steam plume from Old Faithful. Pretty cool!
After getting our fill of the waterfall, we drove back out of the park. It took a long time, and that last stretch was, by far, the longest, coldest, and hardest part. But overall, I'd say snowmobiling here may have been my favorite part of the entire Jackson Hole trip. It was just so much beauty packed into one spot!
