Healthy 4 Life: An American Safari

Jul 17, 2011

An American Safari

Over the 4th of July we went on our traditional camping trip with Cole's family to Grand Teton National Park. We've gone every year since we've been married. The beauty of the Tetons and surrounding areas never cease to amaze me. This year we were in for a real treat. We've had such a cold spring, there was still a lot of snow in the mountains making it so the animals were much lower than usual. We saw a ton of amazing wildlife. I seriously thought I was watching one of those Planet Earth movies. Because I was caught up in the moment, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but here is some proof of how much fun we had.

Every night, when the animals would come out

of the wood works we would go "animal searching". This was our first night there.

This is what happens when an animal is spotted by a tourist - traffic jam.

Luckily Cole and I were able to sleep in a car or in his parent's trailer. If we had to sleep in a tent, I don't think I would get a wink of sleep because there were definitely bears in the area.

We were so lucky to have a mama grizzly raising her two cubs a few miles from where we were camping. Every night we would go down and spot her playing with her babies. Can you spot the bear and cubs below?

Here's another picture of the bears crossing the road. People got so close outside of their cars that it scared me.

Down where the bear was living there was also a herd of elk with their babies. One night we saw the bear trying to chase them down. Just when we thought that was cool, one morning we went down to the area and guess what we saw?! Seven wolves hunting the elk. The elk were rearing up trying to kick the wolves. As hard as they tried to protect their babies, the wolves got down a baby elk. It was sad, but amazing to see. I was too caught up in the moment to take pictures of that, but here is the herd of elk.

For the 4th of July, we went into Jackson Hole and watched the Bar-J Wranglers sing old cowboy songs - always a good time. We also watched the fireworks. I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures of that day. :(

And of course, we had to go boating!! The water was way too cold to wake board so we ended up just jumping in a few times.

Cole's brother and sister Nick and Jill

What are you looking at Cole?

Why it's a beautiful mountain waterfall!

Got a little too much sun.

Cole's mom, Annie, somehow got a horseshoe stuck in the tree. Watch out!

Nick and Cole played rock paper scissors for everything. Who sits in the middle, who's going to clean up, etc. It was pretty funny.

We all went to Yellowstone the day after a man was mauled by a bear - a very sad story. We visited the water fall which was only about a mile away from where it happened.