Lions, Tigers and BEARS!!

Last month I went with my mom, Easten and Faith on a little road trip. We were gone for 7 days and didn't sleep in the same place twice! It was a nice trip. Monday we went to Lagoon where Faith the scaredy cat FINALLY went on the big shot free fall thingy. She was TERRIFIED the whole time and it took us going on it 5 times to convince her to go. Faith had a blast on the ride though!

Tuesday and Wednesday we met up with Uncle Jeff, Aunt Kim, Jena and Grandma and headed up to Wyoming to check out Devils Gate, Martin's Cove and Jackson Hole. The sun was non-existent the whole time we were there... it rained the WHOLE time. Martin's cove was really neat. Uncle Jeff and I had the opportunity to walk around cove where the pioneers stayed and were buried, we were able to walk up (without any rain) to where they had a couple missionaries that shared some stories about the pioneers that stayed there. The way back down to meet up with the family it rained and rained! They also had some youth there doing pioneer treks. I am glad I didn't choose that week to go on a trek, it would have been miserable in the rain for so long!

Jackson Hole was awesome. It was a cute little town with tons of souvenir shops. We stayed in Jackson Hole one night and I needed to wash some clothes and my coat that had been soaked from the rain at Martin's Cove... so the front desk guy directed me to the laundry room in the Hostel they had next door in the basement. I originally went by myself to throw the laundry in but freaked myself out because all I could think of was the movie Hostel and how gruesome it is! So I had Mom come with me the next few times I had to go switch the laundry to the dryer. Thanks MOM!

Thursday and Friday and part of Saturday were spent in Yellowstone. We saw bison, bison and more bison, I think about the 10th time we pulled over to take pictures of them we were done with them, there are TONS there! We also saw moose, elk, deer, a BEAR, a wolf, eagles, and a coyote/fox thing.

We were really lucky to see the wolf! We were told by a few park workers to look for a guy with a bright yellow SUV, he was "Mr. Wolf" and if there was a wolf around, Mr. Wolf would be there. So after driving back from eating dinner in Montana we saw the yellow SUV and pulled over. There was a wolf that had caught a baby elk earlier and had the leg of the elk and was hiding in the bushes. We got out our binoculars and after a while (no thanks to the rude man ignoring us) were able to figure out where the wolf was hiding . She eventually came out of the bushes and we were able to see her.

Saturday we drove out of Yellowstone into Idaho to go to Tyson's reception that night in Rexburg. While driving I saw a moose and pointed it out all by myself! I was so excited! I think I might have scared the poor thing because as soon as I screamed "MOOSE!!" in the car, the moose looked over at us and took off. We backtracked in the car a bit to see if we could find her but we didn't find anything. As soon as I had given up looking there she was again in a clearing on the side of the road! This time she was further back so we were able to get some pictures. (pictures that I don't have right now...)


Sunday we headed home, but before we left we had to visit Bear World. This is my favorite part of the trip. Its this huge place right off the freeway (I think it's in Rexburg) where you can drive through and animals can literally come right up to your car. It's a little pricey but totally worth it. The first part of the park they have bison, elk, some otter-like creatures, reindeer and a few other things. The second part is where they have free roaming bears and wolves! I drove because I sure as heck didn't trust Mom (who's terrified of bears) at the wheel with 600 pound bears being 10 feet away from us! They had tours where you could go on this tall truck and throw bread down on the ground and the bears will come and eat to get a close up view. Well, our third or fourth time through the park there had been a tour that had thrown bread and the bears were still in the middle of the road. One decided that our car looked interesting and came over to check us out. I have to set the picture up first, I'm driving, Mom is in the passenger seat snapping away with the camera, Easten is behind me, and Faith is behind Mom screaming at me the whole time with her head under a pillow to keep driving because she's scared of the bears too!


So this bear decides our car looks tasty and comes over..






















Coming closer..















He thinks our headlights look yummy..

















Now licking our headlight....















He can't get enough of our headlight...maybe its all the bugs we've hit!!
















Hmmm.. where's he going now?











BOOO!! Right in Mom's face!


I am so glad she took this picture! This big guy was just outside of the passenger window, inches from Mom's face. I would do this whole trip over again if we knew another scary bear encounter would happen!



Sunday we drove all the way from Rexburg to Enoch where the rest of the family lives. Spencer came up from the house he was painting in Leeds to pick me up in my car and we drove home to Las Vegas. There was a lot of driving that day! And did I mention that I drove the WHOLE way??