Kilgore

Have you ever been out in the middle of nowhere? I mean feeling like you are truly away from everybody else? Well that's what Kilgore Idaho feels like. On the way home from the trip to Yellowstone, we made a detour to Kilgore. Kilgore is a tiny town on the Idaho/Montana border that Susan grew up in. Last year, Susan's mother died and she inherited some of the property that they had in Kilgore that they used for farming. We had to take a 14 mile dirt road from Island Park to get to it. The feeling of isolation is much different than the feeling you get when you're in the back country of a national park. It almost feels like time forgot about that little spot of earth. When we got there, the 160 acres were covered in large daisy-like flowers. Everything is still and quiet. It is a beautiful and peaceful spot, I hope it always stays like that.



We drove around, crossed the stream and played in the field. It was a nice detour.


The last picture is taken in front of what is called "The Idmon" house (Idmon is an amalgam of Idaho and Montana). The white house is the house Susan lived in when she was a little girl and the log cabin is what her parents lived in the first year they were married. They lived in the back yard of his parents. When Susan was a little bit older, the Hunters moved to the thriving metropolis of Hibbard. That's the house that I would go to when we would go to visit Granma Hunter.

We had a great trip and it's good to be home. Now back to the mundane.

Lost Lake and Miscellany

Brad, the kids and I went to sample Lost Lake. It is a few miles up the road from Roosevelt Lodge. Wood and Susan went to sample Trout Lake and we were going to meet them at the lodge when we were done. I really like the hike into Lost Lake, the hillsides are covered in wildflowers and you hike through a dense forest at the end. It was Caleb's turn to sample the inlet so we had to wade through a marsh to get to it. Other than that it was a very enjoyable hike.


This last picture shows that Rachel is growing to be a first-class ham. We found a spine of some really large animal (I think buffalo) and she wanted me to take a picture of her pretending that it was her vertebrae that was lying on the side of the trail. Whatever!

We hiked down to the lodge and had dinner there and drove up to Mammoth to stay in the hotel there. Other than the kids having to sleep on the floor, it was a relaxing evening. The next morning we sampled six road side lakes and then headed for home. We managed to tree some wild animals next to one lake. We had one more stop before we got home; Kilgore, Idaho.

Sample That

Quite the precipice isn't it? After a nice little breakfast at Keppler Cascades, we all hopped into our cars and proceeded to sample some more water. We drove over the continental divide and discovered that it isn't even Spring yet in the higher elevations. Caleb almost lost a flip-flop (is one just called a flip or a flop?) in a frozen lake. Luckily, there was a long stick close by so Rachel could fish it out. Rachel fell into the frozen lake. Luckily, no stick was required to fish her out.





We drove down to warmer climes and separated to sample two more lakes. Wood and Susan did Trout Lake and we did Lost lake. More on that later.

Country Girl

After all the travels around the world and cosmopolitan experiences that Susan has had, she's still a country girl at heart. She is so cowboy cool!

What? Another analogy.

So here's the situation. Great big pile of buffalo dung in the middle of a steaming hot bacterial mat by the side of Emerald Pool. One lone flower is growing tenaciously smack dab in the middle of the mess. Insert your own symbolism here.

Yellowstone, Oldest and Best

. . .that's what was written on one of Brad's favorite tee shirts. I think he had it until I literally saw it disintegrate off of his body.

The next morning, there was another hike to another lake. This time however, Rachel and Emma didn't want to go so I stayed behind with them with Laura and spent a leisurely morning browsing the gift shop. At about 1:00 we said goodbye to Derek and Laura as they headed back home. Now it was time for the Yellowstone leg of the trip.

We spent the day walking the board walks and watching geysers. We stayed in the new part of Old Faithful Inn. There were a crazy amount of people there. It was very crowded. What happened to the "gas prices are so high that people won't travel as much this summer" tripe that the news has been feeding me? I guess other people didn't get the message. I did notice something interesting though, 90-95 percent of the people we saw at the park were within 1/2 mile from the road. After that, it was basically just us at one with nature.


After dinner at the grill at the Hamilton Store, we went back to our rooms. We were supposed to have a high-level room (whatever that means). We decided that it must mean that our room has bathrobes. Emma seemed to enjoy it.

Is the water coming out of the geyser hot after an eruption? The answer is yes, very.

Eating Out, the Real Way

Grammie and Grampa came up with the brilliant idea of having a cookout for dinner that night. We had all tons of hot dogs, chips, and truck for s'mores. We found a fire pit next to Jackson Lake and had a cookout. A good time was had by all. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the mosquitos were not out yet. I hate 'em! I think everyone had much more fun this way than sitting in a restaurant. Brad told everyone how the scouts enjoy roasting Starburst over a campfire for dessert. Unfortunately, the general store were out of Starbursts, but they had Skittles. I don't think it worked as well but the kids enjoyed skewering Skittles and watching them drip into the fire. I think all kids are closet pyromaniacs.

After dinner, we went down to the shore and played around for awhile. These are some of my favorite pictures.

After dinner, Susan, Wood, Laura and Ellie went back to the cabins and the rest of us went to a ranger program about mountain lions. I think that the kids have a new respect for cougars/pumas/catamounts. In the words of the ranger, "mountain lions are awesome." I think it's funny that Rachel, Emma and Hunter had planned to "go running" in the morning but after the watching the program, they changed their minds.

Bradley at Bradley Lake

On Father's Day after a ginormous breakfast at the buffet at the Grill, we went on our next big hike to Taggart and Bradley Lakes.

Since Caleb walked in a stream in his boots the day before, they were still soaked and he hiked in his flip- flops. I am extremely impressed. He never said anything about his feet being sore. He used his flip flops for the rest of the trip, I estimate that he probably hiked over fifteen miles in them. When we got home, I probably spent ten minutes on each foot with a brush trying to clean the dirt that was embedded in his skin. Kind of gross, I know.

These pictures were taken of Taggart Lake whereas the following ones are of Bradley Lake, where Hunter and Rachel had a run in with the fabled "Hoodie Monster of Bradley Lake."




To illustrate the point of the love the Millers have for the Tetons, my husband is in fact named after Bradley Lake. I'm glad they didn't name him Teewinot.

We had parked the car next to the park stables and while we waited for Laura and Ellie (they didn't go on this hike) we took some pictures at the fence. Since we were doing official research, we had a paper in our car that allows us to park where most park patrons can't. I like that perk.