11 years ago
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Little Joseph
Joseph is getting bigger and bigger! He is such a joy!
In this picture, he has fallen asleep while we were eating dinner.
Back to Virgina City
The Lewis and Clark Caverns
Last Friday, Emily's mom and dad (Granny and Padad) came and visited us. It was so fun! We had a very nice visit and a fun adventure on Saturday. The five of us went to tour the Lewis and Clark Caverns. It was awesome! There was a path that we followed with our tour guide, but we had to crawl on our hands and knees in some places and, believe it or not, there was a rock slide that we had to go down on. The slide was very slick with all the many rumps that have slide down it and it even had a ridge for your bum crack :).
Joseph slept through most of it, but towards the end he woke-up and started crying. We think that the darkness made him a bit nervous or scared. (Poor kid!)
(This is how dark and steep the cave was!)
Monday, September 21, 2009
Grotto Falls
Yesturday, we went to Grotto falls for a Sunday hike. It was so beautiful! There is another fall nearby that we went to a month before, called Paradise Falls, but it was much higher and was also quite beautiful too! We will have to go back to it again (along with Grotto Falls) to take some more pictures.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Virginia and Nevada City of the Old West
Last Monday we went to Virginia and Nevada City. These were Gold Mining towns of Montana. They are basically ghost towns now...just tourist attractions. Nevada City, however, doesn't have any buildings there that are original, but does have old buildings that have been moved there for protection and for tourists. Nevada City also has the largest music gallery in which it contains the old music machines that you have to put a quarter in to make it play the old time songs.
Between these two towns, about 300 million dollars of gold was taken out within three to five years!
Yellowstone Rocks!
We went back to Yellowstone a couple of weeks ago with Carolyn. It was so much fun! We spent the day there, but we needed much more time! We didn't realize all that was there! We thought that it only had Old Faithful and animals.
We first went to Mammoth Hot Springs. I would like to go back to it in the Spring when it has more water running off of it, but it was quite a sight!
Next we went to Norris where there are several hot springs and geysers. Here we saw the Steamboat Geyser, which is the tallest geyser in the world. It goes off quite often, but it doesn't go to a great height but every ten to fifty years or so. The sulfur at this place was the strongest we have ever smelled, making us sick to our stomachs. The other springs that we went to were not as strong in the smell. It was also very hot here, even though the day wasn't all that warm because of all the steam.
We then went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and saw the Upper and Lower Falls. They were so pretty! The water had a beautiful green tint when it went over the falls because of the minerals in the water. (Actually, there was a woman at the viewing point of who we heard tell her companion that they put water tabs in the water to make it green. Yeah right!) There were also trails that you could take that would lead you to the top of the falls, but they are only about 3/4 quarter of a mile long and almost all stairs down. We would like to go back and go on these trails when we have more time. Brian and Carolyn took the Red Rock trail that gave them a closer view of the Lower Falls.
Our next stop was Old Faithful, but on the way we passed a large herd of Bison. We saw some bull bison walking along the road here and there, but the herd was much more impressive. We also passed Yellowstone Lake. It was ginormous! I didn't expect it to be that big! It is definitely the largest lake I have every seen. As it turns out, we got to Old Faithful just in time. Old Faithful only goes off every fifty to ninety minutes and we got there just before it was going to go off. Hundreds of people lined up along the platform that went around this geyser in anticipation. When it went off, we were all impressed and excited, but soon after we realized that there more impressive and better geysers than Old Faithful near by.
We never realized that Old Faithful is just one of the several geysers in this section of Yellowstone. We followed a platform that led you from Old Faithful to the other geysers and springs. We discovered that Old Faithful isn't the only geyser that is quite constant in timing. There is one geyser that goes off every seven to ten minutes, and several others that goes off constantly like the Saw Mill Geyser which never stops blowing and will go at least twenty feet in the air. You had to be careful when walking by this one, because you would get sprayed by very warm water. There are also other geysers that are much bigger than Old Faithful but they only go off twice a day, and so you have to be there just in time.
The biggest one is the Grand Geyser, which also only goes off twice a day. When we walked by it, we saw a sign saying that it may go off anytime between 6:00 to 9:00, and it was only 5:30. Brian and I didn't really want to stay and see it because who knows when it would go off and we were exhausted from all of our walking earlier. Carolyn, however, really wanted to see it, and so we decided to stay and wait for it because it would be harder for her to come a see it again whereas Brian and I can come any weekend. So we waited...and to our luck it went off at 6:30. It was definitely worth the wait! It was amazing and beautiful! It went much higher than Old Faithful and there were also two other geysers next to it, which were smaller, that were going constantly along with it. Old Faithful at most goes off for about three minutes at most, but the Grand Geyser will go off for ten minutes, and sometimes it will go again a second or third time! It only went the one time for us, but it was still awesome. We would wait around for that one again, and there are a few other large ones that we would like to wait around for that goes off twice a day.
One of them is called the Castle Geyser, which I believe is the oldest Geyser there. The Spring pools here were also gorgeous. I understand that they are even more gorgeous during the spring because they are filled with more colors. These pools have bacteria growing in them, which bacteria is very colorful. The darker the bacteria color, the hotter the water is.
There was one pool, next to the Castle Geyser, that was called Crystal Pool. It was a gorgeous dark blue. This pool doesn't have any bacteria growing in it because it is too hot, and thus it is blue because of its hotness. It also has a geyser in the middle of it that will reach six feet, but I wouldn't want to be near it when it went off in fear of being scolded!
We also went into the Old Faithful Inn. It is an amazing building! I have never seen anything like it! It was made in 1903 to 1904. The structure is made entirely from logs. Inside there is a gigantic fireplace in which you could stick three cows inside. I wish we had pictures of the inside of this place, but we ran out of memory on our camera. :)
I can hardly wait to go back to Yellowstone!
We first went to Mammoth Hot Springs. I would like to go back to it in the Spring when it has more water running off of it, but it was quite a sight!
Next we went to Norris where there are several hot springs and geysers. Here we saw the Steamboat Geyser, which is the tallest geyser in the world. It goes off quite often, but it doesn't go to a great height but every ten to fifty years or so. The sulfur at this place was the strongest we have ever smelled, making us sick to our stomachs. The other springs that we went to were not as strong in the smell. It was also very hot here, even though the day wasn't all that warm because of all the steam.
We then went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and saw the Upper and Lower Falls. They were so pretty! The water had a beautiful green tint when it went over the falls because of the minerals in the water. (Actually, there was a woman at the viewing point of who we heard tell her companion that they put water tabs in the water to make it green. Yeah right!) There were also trails that you could take that would lead you to the top of the falls, but they are only about 3/4 quarter of a mile long and almost all stairs down. We would like to go back and go on these trails when we have more time. Brian and Carolyn took the Red Rock trail that gave them a closer view of the Lower Falls.
Our next stop was Old Faithful, but on the way we passed a large herd of Bison. We saw some bull bison walking along the road here and there, but the herd was much more impressive. We also passed Yellowstone Lake. It was ginormous! I didn't expect it to be that big! It is definitely the largest lake I have every seen. As it turns out, we got to Old Faithful just in time. Old Faithful only goes off every fifty to ninety minutes and we got there just before it was going to go off. Hundreds of people lined up along the platform that went around this geyser in anticipation. When it went off, we were all impressed and excited, but soon after we realized that there more impressive and better geysers than Old Faithful near by.
We never realized that Old Faithful is just one of the several geysers in this section of Yellowstone. We followed a platform that led you from Old Faithful to the other geysers and springs. We discovered that Old Faithful isn't the only geyser that is quite constant in timing. There is one geyser that goes off every seven to ten minutes, and several others that goes off constantly like the Saw Mill Geyser which never stops blowing and will go at least twenty feet in the air. You had to be careful when walking by this one, because you would get sprayed by very warm water. There are also other geysers that are much bigger than Old Faithful but they only go off twice a day, and so you have to be there just in time.
The biggest one is the Grand Geyser, which also only goes off twice a day. When we walked by it, we saw a sign saying that it may go off anytime between 6:00 to 9:00, and it was only 5:30. Brian and I didn't really want to stay and see it because who knows when it would go off and we were exhausted from all of our walking earlier. Carolyn, however, really wanted to see it, and so we decided to stay and wait for it because it would be harder for her to come a see it again whereas Brian and I can come any weekend. So we waited...and to our luck it went off at 6:30. It was definitely worth the wait! It was amazing and beautiful! It went much higher than Old Faithful and there were also two other geysers next to it, which were smaller, that were going constantly along with it. Old Faithful at most goes off for about three minutes at most, but the Grand Geyser will go off for ten minutes, and sometimes it will go again a second or third time! It only went the one time for us, but it was still awesome. We would wait around for that one again, and there are a few other large ones that we would like to wait around for that goes off twice a day.
One of them is called the Castle Geyser, which I believe is the oldest Geyser there. The Spring pools here were also gorgeous. I understand that they are even more gorgeous during the spring because they are filled with more colors. These pools have bacteria growing in them, which bacteria is very colorful. The darker the bacteria color, the hotter the water is.
There was one pool, next to the Castle Geyser, that was called Crystal Pool. It was a gorgeous dark blue. This pool doesn't have any bacteria growing in it because it is too hot, and thus it is blue because of its hotness. It also has a geyser in the middle of it that will reach six feet, but I wouldn't want to be near it when it went off in fear of being scolded!
We also went into the Old Faithful Inn. It is an amazing building! I have never seen anything like it! It was made in 1903 to 1904. The structure is made entirely from logs. Inside there is a gigantic fireplace in which you could stick three cows inside. I wish we had pictures of the inside of this place, but we ran out of memory on our camera. :)
I can hardly wait to go back to Yellowstone!
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