Author: laurie

Bison Bison Bison… We got stuck in so many bison jams while traveling around the park. We had a great time on the safari getting up close to the bison as well. E was out official fire builder and maned the wood pile. We explored the Needles Highway and the amazing framed views of Mount Rushmore. The boys enjoyed some rock scrambling and hiking around the lake. They made some friends and showed them all the secret paths they found through and over the rocks. The boys had a fun time shopping at the rock shop in town and gathered some new specimen for their rock/gem collections. E got a fox tail too!

We had a good time at the chuckwagon cookout. We all enjoyed signing along and dancing . We did the hokey pokey and the chicken dance. Everyone really got into it!

We were up way before sunrise and off in the car from Custer State Park in South Dakota to Agate Fossil Beds in Harrison, Nebraska.

Agate Fossil Beds had a great program and lots of room to stretch out and have our own space to watch the eclipse.

We made solar bracelets and sun prints.

We had out own little spot along the edge of a field. We snacked and talked and passed the time until the eclipse began.

We all enjoyed using our solar glasses to look at the sun.

We were able to watch the progress of the eclipse through the binoculars over a white towel. It was neat to see the crescent shapes get smaller and smaller. It was really amazing to see how quickly the weather changed. The temperature dropped about 10-15 degrees. The crickets started chirping and the bats came out. It got dark really quickly in the minute before totality. During totality you could use binoculars to see the corona of the moon. It was especially bizarre when totality ended and the sun became visible again. The colors were so muted. All the photos had this white light line.

Some photos from David’s camera. This is the morning when we arrived. Setteling in and trying to not look at the sun directly.

Shadows became fuzzy during the eclipse. If you looked through tree shadows you could see small crescent shapes too. It was all surreal.

We had a one night stop in Billings on the way to Custer State Park. We opted to go out to check out their state fair. We had a great time seeing all the 4-H exhibits.

Emmerson enjoyed a huge funnel cake. 

Mom found cheese curds! They were yummy.

Opening the oysters.

The highlight of the day was getting to open oysters with pearls in them! We each got a cool necklace to hold our pearl.

 

 

The next morning we were up early and off towards Canada again. Dad stayed behind for a long work day. It is about a 2.5 hour drive through Glacier and up into Waterton Lakes in Canada. Mom got car sick and then was promoted to driver (she never gets car sick when driving oddly). Out first major stop was Red Rock Canyon. Grandma and Grandpa hiked along the rim of the canyon. Mom and the boys opted for the adventure path right through the canyon. The rock was amazing in color and layering. The rocks were slippery and some places you had to pretend you were a mountain goat to pass through successfully.

With some teamwork this area was successfully passed through. However where Mom stood taking the photo was a much easier path! But the boys wanted the challenge. As we walked along there were less and less people until eventually it was just us. It was so peaceful in the canyon.  On the hike out Emmerson fell off the cliffs not once but twice. He survived unscathed but upset he slipped and had a wet foot.

We spent the next few hours driving around he park exploring. We spotted a grizzly bear up in the hills and a fox ran across the road in front of us. Then we encountered range cattle EVERYWHERE. Those lovely HUGE range cattle left big plops in the road that were fun to navigate around at 50kmh.

We visited the Prince of Wales hotel and took in the amazing vista from behind the hotel. What a breathtaking sight! Akamina Lake boasts some of the warmest water in the Canadian Rockies but we didn’t go swimming! The boys skimmed or tossed rocks while the adults enjoyed the view.

On the way back we swung down to Many Glacier in US Glacier NP. We were as impressed after some of the glaciers we had seen in Rainer and Jasper. We headed home and relaxed for the evening.

 

The next day was a lazy morning. Everyone needed to sleep in while Dad was up early on working. We are going to have a difficult time adjusting to Eastern time when we get back home in a few weeks!

We headed out to a fun program called “Critters in the Creek”. It was a citizen science program on aquatic macro invertebrates. That means water insects. Many insects spend part of their time in their larval state as aquatic bugs. We were tasked with collecting and counting these critters to help determine the pollution tolerance of a river in Glacier NP.

After she instruction from Ranger Steve we were off tromping through icy cold water with buckets and nets in tow. We collected many samples in our allotted collection time.

Then came the hard part. We had to sort and count everything we collected. We found stonefly, caddisfly, mayfly and damselfly larvae. It was a lot of work to identify some as they were very very tiny.

It was a great experience and fun to learn about the research side of entomology.

We stopped at the Alberta visitors center (oddly located in West Glacier, Montana) to get some information for a trip to Waterton Lakes International Peace Park. They had a very interactive exhibit and we played for a while. We loved the bob sled!

In the evening we ventured out to the Lake McDonald Lodge and grabbed a yummy dinner before departing on a one hour boat tour around the lake. We learned about the history of the area and some fun stories. I think he highlight of the boat tour was an amazing vantage point for the Sprague Fire that was started by lightning last week. They are letting the fire burn with minimal interference. It isn’t a threat to people or major historical structures at the time. We watched as flames shot high into the sky on the ridge were the smoke was bellowing from.