The little guy thought he was half wolf by the end of trip...
Annie and Chesney hamming it up while Kylie and Brock make a teeter totter out of logs.
Ranger school graduation...
Campfire scene
Watching for the elusive freshwater whales...
This ended just as you might assume....
Trying to scare Brock that I'm gonna let him go over the fall while he's trying to convince me not to be a puss dad and let go so he can take the ride down it. Fire Hole Canyon was one of the kids favorite stops.
The SUP's turning into not just a dad toy, turns out the rest of the gang digs it too.Pretty good hit rate on the wildlife spotting this trip as well - missed the moose, sheep, and wolves was all. You'll notice my significant but unbragged about stalking skills by the range in which these photos were taken. Seriously, the only thing keeping this place from being an impressively large petting zoo is the occasional buffalo trampling and bear scare.... of which there'd been one the week previous...
Wapiti
Osprey 
These elk jackasses ruined the only scare tactic that Annie and I have ever been able to use effectively. We, along with the parks warning signs, had the kids completely convinced that they'd melt if they stepped off the paths at Mammoth. The kids first thought upon seeing this wasn't hey, check out the elk, it was letting Annie and I know that they knew that we were blowhards.
Just a canyon here, but not just a canyon - pretty spectacular
The Bison were like mosquitos - all over the place.
Mulies
Bald Eagle - this was actually one of the kids favorite.
Black BearHighlight was the grizz with her two cubs that were out of camera range, but fun to watch nonetheless. First time for the entire family to see one in the wild, and the cubs were putting on a good show playing in a meadow.
One of our favorite trips with the kids thus far.... and so good to get away and dumb life down to the simple pleasures for a bit.
4 comments:
Great post and pics. A perfect way to put Butte behind you.
Looks like a great trip, wish we could have joined you...
We have tried to plan that trip with the kids for 2 years now. Maybe next year it will work. As a kid we went there for 9 years straight every June until that big fire. I need to get back.
Eber - no doubt.
Banks - would have been fun to have you, but better to get Mark Sanchez Jr. back in the locker room running his new team.
Brandon - I hadn't been up there for 10 years - kids went into adventure mode within an hour of pulling into the park and didn't turn it off till we got home. I want to hear more about the trails around Crested Butte sometime.
Post a Comment