21monthsapart: June 2011

June – ah, June. There were a lot of things that happened in June, of course. School was out and summer activities started. Rachel had gymnastics, and Daniel went to soccer for a few weeks and both enjoyed that. However, when looking back at pictures from June, it seems that we only took out the camera for two occasions – Camping in Yellowstone, and a visit from Farmor.

Those of you with really good memories will remember that this is actually Daniel’s second trip to Yellowstone, though he doesn’t remember the first one. On a map, it looks so reasonable to zip up there from Denver, and it’s only about 400 miles into the 600+ mile distance that you find yourself thinking “This is a trek”. Still, the kids did super on the trip, helped in no small part by the audiobook of “The little house on the prairie” which they’ve been reading through.

Mid-June is shoulder season for Yellowstone in the best of years, and 20110-11 was the coldest, snowiest winter in 35 years. So when we got to our reserved spot, there was over 6 feet of snow, and the staff rather uselessly said “Here’s a shovel, the site’s there somewhere”. Luckily, we were able to snag one of the last sites at a campground at a lower elevation – but there’s no denying that it was cold.

The sights are amazing of course, and we got to see old faithful erupt, and lots of the other thermal features of the park without the summer crowds. We saw bison, elk, bears, moose and bald eagles up close. The only big animal that we missed was the grizzly. In the evenings, we went to the ranger talks, and those were really interesting and fun, and Daniel completed the “Junior Ranger” program, and is now an official “Junior Ranger” with the badge to prove it. They wouldn’t let Rachel participate due to age – even though she did all of the same work, she’s an un-official “Junior Junior Ranger”. There was a lot of driving to get there, and yes – it was cold, but this was a great trip.