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Day 41: July 27th, 2013: Smith Rock to 30 miles west of Unity, OR

We woke up at six to get an early start to climbing.  I have to admit I tried to get Scott to leave the climbing equipment in Illinois since we were limited on space and it has been quite a few years since we have climbed.  I’m pretty sure we haven’t climbed since Alaska three years ago.  In a rare moment I am glad he didn’t listen to me.  We had a great day.  We had about a ten minute hike to get to Rope De Dope, a top-roping area perfect for the wee ones and the slightly rusty parents.

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Day 42: July 28th, 2013: 30 miles west of Unity, OR to Craters of the Moon National Park, ID

Cody flipped over and excitedly said, “Good Morning Sammy!”  Sammy the dog was near our tent waiting patiently for us to wake up.  The kids were already digging in the dirt this morning.  After all the discussion of volcanoes with the Newberry Volcanic Park and the caldera of Crater Lake the kids have returned to creating volcanic eruptions out of mounds of dirt.  No one would know they had showers less than twenty-four hours ago.

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Day 43: July 29th, 2013: Craters of the Moon, ID to Yellowstone, WY

Scott rolled out of the tent a little after six for a fifteen mile bike ride along the Crater’s of the Moon Loop Road, twice.  We had a light sprinkling of rain at about 7:30.  Which I only mention because we had gone “topless” again last night.  The rain was just enough to rinse off the half inch of dust that had accumulated on the outside of the tent since being in western Oregon.

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Day 44: July 30th, 2013: Yellowstone Part 1

Scott went for a twenty-one mile bike ride in some pretty cold weather.  He said it was definitely the coldest ride he has been on during this trip.

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Day 44: July 30th, 2013: Yellowstone Part 2

Old Faithful

We had impeccable timing for Old Faithful.  As we were nearing the visitor’s center we noticed the large crowd and discovered that the eruptions was “imminent.”  While we waited for a few minutes the kids worked on their junior ranger activities.  While parking in the visitor’s center parking lot we spotted a raven attempting to break into a motorcyclist’s bag.  The ranger program the other night on birds warned that the super smart ravens were frequently seen breaking into motorcyclist’s packs in parking lots.  In fact, one raven managed to open a pack, open the Ziploc bag to a sandwich and even took the onions out of the sandwich before flying away with his feast.  213 of the Earth’s geysers are in Yellowstone.  Yellowstone is actually a gigantic volcano that collapsed into a caldera.  (Does this theme sound familiar? Crater Lake, Newberry Volcano…)  The caldera of Yellowstone is forty miles wide and formed  640,000 years ago when a violent eruption emptied the volcano’s magma chamber.  Yellowstone is sitting atop an active hotspot.  Magma sits 3-5 miles below Yellowstone warming the water in the geothermal features potentially up to seven hundred degrees before the water comes to the surface. Norris is the hottest water feature in Yellowstone at 190 degrees on the surface. Even more than being hot, some pools of water in Yellowstone contain acid.  The sulfur caldron is so acidic it can dissolve flesh.  It is estimated that Old Faithful empties 4-8,000 gallons of water each time it erupts.

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Day 45: July 31, 2013: Yellowstone Day 2 and Tetons Part 2

We don’t know how long the Indian Pond Trail in Yellowstone was, but we are pretty sure it was our longest hike thus far on this trip (We later found out that it is called the Storm Point trail and is about 2 miles long).  Cody was super tough on this hike.  We started this hike at 3:45 and ended by 5.  He didn’t cry at all or even ask to get picked up. Cody and Brooke ran the first ten minutes of this hike.  I couldn’t believe they still had any energy left for the rest of the hike.  Indian Pond is not just a normal pond. It is more evidence of geothermal activity.  The sign stated that the ancient geyser had experienced “hydrothermal blowout.” Instead of releasing steam gradually the ground water flashed to steam so violently that it blasted out hundreds of feet of overlying rock that still lines the pond.

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Day 45: July 31, 2013: Yellowstone Day 2 and the Tetons Part 1

We woke up to a chilly morning around seven thousand feet in Lewis Lake Campground inside Yellowstone.  After breakfast we headed to the Tetons.  On our way to the Tetons we saw Moose Falls.  While we were there a woman pointed out an osprey to us.  We wound up seeing another osprey flying at our afternoon hike back in Yellowstone at Indian Pond.

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Day 37: July 23rd, 2013: Redwood State Park, CA to Elk Prairie Campground - (More) Redwoods, CA

A sign in front of a prison in the Redwood State Park. In the state of California they train prison inmates to become forest fire fighters.

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Day 38: July 24th, 2013: Humboldt Redwood State Park, CA to Oregon Caves

We stopped in Crescent City to try and get some information on the Oregon Caves and check out their library.  Appearances can always be deceiving.  The library was a glorified trailer, but it had incredible Internet.  Like most libraries we have encountered in the west we had to wait until they opened at 11.  Yesterday we had to wait until 12 for the library to open.  Cody pointed out the beautiful flowers and actually asked for a picture by them.  While we waited for the library to open we headed to a magnificent park.

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Day 33: July 19th, 2013: Yosemite National Park

Our campsite just outside Yosemite National Park in National Forest land.