Summer Vacation Day 2

What a wonderful day!  Many fewer miles today, but just about as many hours in the car.

We rose early from our hotel in Salt Lake City to get an early start to Grand Teton.

We piled into the car and spent the next hour or so trying to get out of SLC (don’t even ask about it.  I’ll just say lost pillows and confusion over the GPS instructions were a frustrating way to start the day).

An hour or so later, we crossed over into Idaho for the first time . I remember spending a little bit of time in Idaho when I was a kid, but haven’t been back since.  We all liked Idaho quite a bit.  Beautiful land and so green.  We would like to go back and spend some time there.

 

We finally arrived at Grand Teton about 4pm and just couldn’t believe it.  It is so beautiful it defies description.  Despite the fact that we took almost a hundred photos, we couldn’t do it justice.

We spent the first few hours driving around the park and admiring the wildlife.  For instance we found a dead woodchuck, a half a leg of a deer, and we personally killed a snake.  There were plenty of living animals too…

We ended with a picnic of chili/Frito Pies beside Jackson Lake.  Wow…what an amazing day.  We’re looking forward to some fishing, canoeing, and hiking tomorrow.

The sunset over the lake was breathtaking.

Joshua Tree Sunrise

Here are some photos of a beautiful sunrise at Joshua Tree NP.

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Monday night as the kids prepared for bed we heard an awful noise.  It sounded like a very angry, and very large cat meowing...or hissing...whatever.  It occurred about four or five times in a row.  I heard it from the kids rooms and on my way up the stairs. 

Then, I heard it again after I was upstairs and went to the back balcony to investigate.  It was dusk, so I couldn't see anything very clearly.  However, I heard and saw several deer hopping away rather quickly from the backyards immediately behind our house and up into the "tree line" of the mountain above.  Of course, the quail took off once the deer arrived, so it was rather noisy.

Then, I heard the MEOWWWWWwwww again and noticed that one of the bushes in the yard diagonally behind our house was shaking violently.  Rather odd, no?  I went in to get a flashlight, but as you might expect, Marcus had taken them all to who-knows-where for some kooky experiment or something.  So, I came back in and didn't worry about it.  Madison ran up and asked in her sweetest eight-year-old-girl-voice...

Do you think that was a mountain lion?

To which, I in all my paternal wisdom, replied,

No.  It just sounded like a big cat.

Duh.  That's exactly what a mountain lion is.  So about an hour later, we receive a call from a concerned mother in our neighborhood alerting us that one of the new fawns was attacked and killed by a mountain lion!  Right behind our house!  The guts and stuff were still in our neighbors backyard. 

Now that is not an everyday occurrence back in home.