Random Yellowstone Pictures from my Parents Trip this Week

Traffic Jam - Yellowstone Style

My dad took this picture out the car window as the Buffalo was passing them.

He was definately keeping an eye on my parents in the car.

My mom took this picture with her car window down.

The Cabin Well

Grandpa's Little Shadow
Best "Buds"

the well -still under construction

Holiday Caching

Since our Lunch time caching didn't turn out too well, we decided to try to catch a few on the holiday. We actually did pretty well. We managed to find 13 caches in around 4 hours. Very good considering how much hiking and the terrain we were dealing with. I've included a few pictures below.

The name of the cache hidden in this park was titled "$25 Fine".

It was kind of a cute little park.

Evidently the person who placed this cache received a $25 fine for doing something in this park.

This was our guess on why they got the fine.

We actually found 2 along this trail. The trail really wasn't too bad. It was a bit cooler in the trees and bushes. We found these caches pretty quick too.

This trail wasn't as easy. It was pretty steep and had a lot of loose gravel. It made it pretty slippery. We started up the trail and continued as it curved to the left. When we made it to the next trail sign we decided that there had to be an easier way and went back to the car.

We did make it to the top of the hill before turning around. We actually found another trail head farther down the road that put us a lot closer to the cache.

This is actually the view from the cache to where we parked.

Very close but it was a steep climb.

The cache was even guarded by this cache protector.

Cheryl said it was a harmless Wolf Spider but I was definitely going to keep my distance from anything that big and hairy. (it's at the top center of the picture)

It's a good thing Cheryl was brave. We managed to get past the spider and find the cache.

This cache took a bit us a bit longer than it should have. We parked along what we thought was the trail head. We really should have paid more attention to the sign that was right behind us.

We spend a bit of time climbing through the trees and bushes on what we thought was the main trail. Unfortunately it wasn't. If we had just followed the sign and driven up the driveway to the parking lot, it would have put us with in a few feet of the cache. No need to stomp through the bushes and trees for this one. We just had to make it harder than it had to be.

The view from a cache, while I waited for Cheryl to climb in the bushes to get it.

I couldn't believe how much cactus was up here. We were really having to watch our step.

Actually might be pretty when it blooms

I really liked this one. It was an old pickup truck off the side of a parking lot.

They modified the spark plug to contain the cache.

Another unique one. This is actually an Eagle Scout project.

They made a 75 year time capsule and included this cache there to.

You actually had to open the padlock to get into the cache. Another fun cache. They drilled out a knot in the tree and glued it to the tube.

I suppose they drilled out the tree as well to make the whole thing hide inside the hole.

Lunch Caching Attempt

Today we attempted to go caching during our lunch hour. We did horrible. We started out with the goal to look for 3 different ones in the Salt Lake Area.

The first one was in a water saving garden that was in front of the DNR building. I like the garden. It had a little path the went through it and a variety of plants. We wandered around a bit but was unable to find the cache. It was a little hard due to the number of "muggles" in the area. One guy even sat in his truck and watched us for a while like he was trying to figure out if we were going to mess up the garden or something.

The second one that we attempted didn't turn out much better. The GPS led us to the side of a building but it turned out to be a popular place for the employee to sit and have lunch. We didn't even bother getting out of the car at that one.

We decided to try for one more before out time ran out. We went to one in a park along the Jordan River Parkway. We started off following the path but ended up going the wrong way as we tried to be on the east side of the river. (we should have stayed on the path) We turned around and then hiked down the path. After a while we came to the coordinates. It was actually a nice little path that looped around. A couple of people were there making laps while we were searching in the bushes. It was about 100 degrees and we felt like we were melting but we didn't give up. We wandered all over the bushes. Cheryl even climbed into the bushes at a few places but we had no luck.

I think we might want to skip the lunchtime caching until it cools off a bit.

Unwanted Visitor

Most people that know my mom know how much she hates snakes. Just the thought that there might be one around sends her packing. Yesterday they went up to Preston to visit with Aunt Fern. Bryan and I were at their house waiting for them to come home when Bryan went out back. Right there on the back porch he found an unwanted visitor. This snake was curled up on the back porch. He came to tell me and by the time I got to the back door it had moved. We spent a while looking all over the porch, grass and flowerbeds until we finally found it curled up in the corner.

We weren't really sure what to do with it. Knowing my mom we couldn't just let it be. We called my dad and tried to get his advice without alerting my mom. That didn't work so well. Needless to say she basically ordered Bryan "to take care of it before she got home or to have his bags packed" She was just joking, I think. Anyway, we decided to see what we could do about it.

After looking around for something to do with the snake we decided it might be best to try and kill in instead of trying to catch it. We wouldn't have to get quite so close to it that way. We found an old sod cutter tool in the shed and Bryan went after the snake with it. He finally stabbed it on the 2nd or 3rd try. That snake was alot faster than we expected. Unfortunately he only got the end of it's tail. So we grabbed a board that was lying in the back yard and he hit it a time or two. Not my idea of a fun relaxing Sunday, but at least my mom would be happier.

Once my dad got home he went out to dispose of the snake. Not something that me or Bryan would even consider. He lifted the sod cutter and the snake started slithering away. Evidently all we had managed to do was cut off the very end of it's tail and maybe give it a concussion. My dad ended up finishing it off and disposing of the thing. My mom however refuses to even go out the backdoor now.

Grandpa's Little Helper

Grandpa and Jake in the cab of the dumptruck at the property

Jake working the horn of the dumptruck.

A Visitor on our Property

We actually got pictures this time of one of the visitors that frequents our property. Technically this pond is on our neighbors property, I suppose it was quieter over there today.

It was pretty hot today. It looked like she was willing to put up with our company in order to stay cool.

Guess she had enough of our gawking.

Seemed like she was still annoyed that we disturbed her.

She did return to the pond after we left.

100th Cache

I finally hit the first milestone number for geocaching. I found my 100th Cache today. Cheryl came with me after work and we searched for some in the Bountiful area. We found 10 in about 2 hours or so which was pretty good.

This is a picture of my 100th find. This one was hidden in a fence post. The fence post cap came off and the cache was dangling from a rope inside the post. It was actually a pretty easy find.

Cheryl seems to be pretty lucky at finding the caches lately. We went back to one that I haven't been able to find by the Bountiful library. I've made 2 previous attempts without Cheryl but was unable to find it both times. Cheryl was able to find it this time in less than 15 minutes. I guess the 3rd time was the charm or at least I brought the right person this time to look for it. Thanks Cheryl!

Now I can't wait to get to my 200th. I have a ways to go though. I'm currently only at 104.