A Great Day

The recovery from my surgery is going great. On Saturday I felt well enough to hike. We got up at 3:30 a.m. and drove to Teton Park to catch the 7:00 a.m. hikers shuttle across Jenny Lake.

When we got to the Jenny Lake parking lot and started to walk to the shuttle, Melissa saw something moving in the water a hundred yards or so to our left. She wasn't sure what it was, but the telltale hump told me immediately what it was.....a GRIZZLY BEAR!! Happily that was the only bear that we saw that day. He was headed in the opposite direction from us and only caused us a few seconds of excitement.

Cascade Canyon is a gorgeous area. The first 1.2 miles is pretty steep, but after that it is a mild incline with about an 1,100 foot overall elevation gain to the fork in the trail that we hiked to.

Here we are at Hidden Falls which is near the beginning of the hike.



You go up a steep area to end up above Hidden Falls. Then you come out into this beautiful U-Shaped valley with steep peaks rising up about a mile on either side of you. It is glorious. Cascade Creek flows all along the hike with intermittent ponds formed by the creek along the way. This is our third trip into the canyon and we've seen moose in the ponds each time.

Here are a few scenes from along the trail.

There are deep dark forested areas that are very peaceful and beautiful.



The ponds are gorgeous with clear water and pretty reflections.


The boulder fields are very dramatic and beautiful as well with lots of green colored moss growing on the rocks.


4.5 miles from where we started you come to a fork in the trail. How I wish I were young and in good shape so I could go further. Maybe someday I'll be able to make it to Lake Solitude. I hear that it is gorgeous. But, it may take an overnight backpacking trip for me to be able to make it that far and back.




Instead we decided to enjoy our lunch on a rock overlooking a beautiful cascading waterfall. I wish I could put the sound of the water here for you to enjoy.....


After lunch we turned around to go the 4.5 miles back to the west boat ramp. I sure am glad they have the ferry to cut 2 miles off the hike each way.




On our way back a little chipmunk found some of the trail mix that Melissa accidently dropped. Obviously, he is very used to humans.



On the way home we discovered a very dangerous thing.....the location of the Hagan Daz ice cream store in Jackson Hole.

If you ever want to take this hike....give us a call....we would love to be tour guides for a day!!

Fun Summer Times

Summer always goes by too fast. We try to cram a lot of activity into those three months. Last Saturday was no exception. The girls were running in the Mesa Falls race. It is always so much fun to go and watch them run. This year the four oldest grandkids were old enough to realize what their moms were doing. They had fun cheering for them. They also had fun checking out caterpillars on the road.






Big Judds for lunch was a big hit.


After lunch, Greg and I took off for Virginia City. We hadn't been there for years and I wanted to see what it is like now. It's really a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time in Virginia City before we went to Nevada City (1.5 miles away). I wish we would have gone to Nevada City sooner because there is a living history museum there but it was closing soon and we didn't have time to visit it. I definitely want to go back. You should go on the weekends because that is when they have different things going on in the living history museum as well as the steam locomotive running between Virginia City and Nevada City.

Here are a few photos from the outing so you can see if you might be interested in going there. There are several restaurants and a nightly melodrama. We had taken a picnic and didn't have time to stay for the melodrama. I bet it is fun.

More Redfish Memories

The girls did such a great job telling their favorite Redfish Memories. Here are some that I can think of.

1. Having the twins ride their tricycles over to our camp site every morning to say hello.
2. Playing in the sand with Jade.
3. Taking Jaden to the store so he could buy a present for all the little kids. We had fun picking out a toy for each of them.
4. Watching Jaycie look at everyone's faces. She would just stare at the face of each person who held her.
5. Having a nice Sunday evening visit with Jenn and Mike outside their trailer.
6. Watching Harlee and Jaden dance at the Lodge concert.
7. Watching the bright pink sunset on Sunday night.
8. Watching all my sons-in-law being fantastic fathers.
9. Getting to know Lindsie and Chennelle better. What fun they were to have at camp.
10. Of course, the one foot standing competition was hilarious. It was fun seeing all the different techniques and the competitive spirit of all the contestants even though it was such a silly thing to be good at.
11. It was fun playing "Go Fish" with the grandkids.
12. Having popcorn from the Curtises new popcorn popper.
13. Seeing Jaden's face when he got to have a tour of the Sheriff's boat.
14. Getting all of Harlee's loves and hugs and listening to her sing. Even though she had a rough time sleeping at night, she was so pleasant and fun during the day.
15. Having Greg be so kind about doing things for me so I could follow the doctor's orders.
16. Walking along the creek with Greg and Zoey in the morning.
17. Watching Madagasgar with Harlee and Jaden.
18. I could go on and on........

Good News

I saw the doctor today and he said that my surgery is healing up perfectly. My nose still has a lot of swelling which is causing my headaches, but the doctor thinks that they will be going away soon.

I am so glad that the surgery is behind me even if it did mean that I couldn't do a lot of the things that I normally like to do at Redfish. Even with the restrictions, I had a great time.

I was able to do some reading there of some wonderful books. They are the Refiner's Fire series by Lynn Austin. I would recommend them for anyone who loves historical fiction. They are some of the best Civil War books I've read. The author does a great job of developing her characters. Phoebe (the tall, homely woman who joined the northern army as a male soldier) might just be my favorite character ever in a novel.




I also had a great time watching the kids play. Boy did they ever love that cold water!! They reminded me of Melissa, who used to play in the lake until her lips were completely blue.

As always, the company was the best and the food was great. The weather cooperated fairly well except for a couple of days that were a little hot. No one was hurt and nothing broke down, so all in all, it was a great year at the lake!!