Jackson, WY, Yellowstone National Forest, and Beartooth pass

Sunday:
We woke up early and broke down camp because we were trying to make it to Jackson by noon. Jen had notified one of her friends, Chris, that we would be in the area becuase Chris is a white water rafting guide. Rafting trips left at noon and 4.

We got into Jackson around 11 which worked out well becuase we got to meet up with Chris himself before he had to leave early with all the other river guides to get set up. He gave us a little rundown of what to expect and hooked us up with some wet suit gear. We all got signed up and into the wetsuits and jumped on the bus the took us to the launch site.

On our way down we got to see a full size moose in the road with it's baby and a bald eagle watching us from a tree top on the other side of the river we were driving by.

Chris was there waiting along with 3 other guides ready to guide the 40 eager adventurers down the raging river. We all split up to different boats, got introduced to each other and then hopped in the boats. Jen and I started out in front with Joyce behind Jen and Ben behind me.

Chris guided us down the river, hitting rapids and soaking all of us at every chance he had. At a calm point he eggede on to jump in, dareing me that the water was cold and I wouldn't do it. Witha second boat watching I showed him up by not only jumping in but doing a back flip off the front of the boat. And yes the water was very cold, even with a wetsuit. Later down the river Ben followed up with a front flip in a similar situation.

It was neat to come up on these rapids and see all kinds of water sports coexsisitng in a small area. Kayakers and surfers made room for the raft boats as the came by, some times showing of by doing little trick flips in their kayaks. Camera men were hanging out on the banks capturing all the action.

No one fell out of the boat and the boat didn't flip so all in all it was a good boat ride. After thanking Chris we hopped back on the bus and headed back to the truck.

We got some food hung out in Jackson for a little bit, where Ben and Jen took naps in the park while Joyce and I ducked into some of the local shops and walked around.

We learned our lesson in Sinks to get to the campsites early to get a good spot so we headed up to Yellowstone. Once we got there the place we had wanted to camp, Jenny Lake, was full but there were plenty of other campsites avaliabe. We ended on the North side of Jackson Lake at a camp site right on the water. We set up camp and collected some wood for a fire. After some smores and cards we called it a night.

Monday:
At this point Seattle was still pretty far so we needed to get some miles behind us in order to get to Seattle by Tuesday for Jen and Joyces flight. Our agenda for the day was to see Old Faithful erupt and drive Beartooth Pass, not to mention see all the wildlife and diverse scenery that this part of the country had to offer.

Old Faithful erupts every 90 min plus or minus 10 minutes. The next gyser on the list t the ranger station errupted every 4 hours plus or minus 90 minutes. When we got there it was schedualed to go off at 12:14 and it went off at around 12:15. One guy standing behind us stated "your just not American until you see Old Faithful". We are now American.

On our way out of the national park we saw so many wild buffalo, the excitement was diluted. However we did get a chance to see a couple black bear roaming the wood across a revene next to the road. The bears caused a 25 minute delay because everyone got out of their car to take pictures.

Next up was beartooth pass. Simply put, this was the most amazing drive on the trip so far. The pictures can do most of the talking but I do want to point out that it goes up to 11,000 ft (2 miles) above sea level. The air was so thin that in places we drove through chanels of 13 ft of snow on each side. The temp in yellow stone that day was around 80 but when we got up there it was around 45. I would recommend it to anyone traveling that way. Views of 20-30 of the biggest mountains I have ever seen.

We wanted to get into Idaho so that our drive toseattle was less severe but only made it to boseman, Montana to stay the night. We had to get up and out by 8 to get the girls to the airport on time.

After a lot of driving and a lot of scenery ( Mt. Rainier looked CRAZY) we dropped the girls off and headed over to the park for the Mariners game.