Still No Bear in Bear Country, by JJ Miles

I thought that once we got out of Yellowstone we would be done with bears, sadly.  However we got to Lake Tahoe and I realized we were still in Bear Country.  There were signs that said Bears and bear safe containers and the guy at the front desk told us to watch out for bears.  Warnings are one thing.
My mom really thought there would be bears too.  We went for a little walk from our campsite to the lake and all the while she thought there were bears around.  That proved to be true.  That night we cleaned up dinner and dessert and put everything in a bear safe container.  I thought we were going to be fine.  I wasn't even worried about a bear coming to get our food.  However Mom woke me up around 12:30 and said, Let's go.  We're going.  I just did what she said and had no clue why we were going.  At first I had no clue what she was talking about.  However I kept asking, why? and I soon got my response.  My mom told me that a bear had gotten into a bear safe container and had eaten our food.  So I found out that there was no way that our parents wanted to stay at our campsite.  Still I wanted to see a bear!  So we hurried into the car and left to go to another hotel.  And that's where we are now.  A wonderful condo with everything we could want and need.  However I wasn't completely satisfied - I haven't gotten to see a bear yet!

South Lake Tahoe by Annie MIles

It was a little bit of a drive from Jackson Hole but we made it. Where did we stay? Oh yeah, a log cabin in Idaho.  Then on our way to Lake Tahoe.  I'm sure a few of you have heard the story of the bear. Well this is the story.
We had our dinner, set up the tent and then sat around our campfire. Eventually it was time for bed and we packed in the tent. None of us knew that this was a big mistake for we were about to have to get away from the campsite and wake up in the middle of the night. We were all sleeping so well until my mom heard something walking and panting. My mom woke up my dad and he looked outside. Then we heard our neighbor scream and run into their car. Pretty fast, a forest ranger came and shooed the bear away. My parents waited for a half an hour to wake us up (they were cleaning up after the bear) and then leave. Matt and I woke up first and the story was that the air mattress was deflating and my parents couldn't sleep there. So Matt and I packed into the car and waited for the other boys to wake. They awoke and we hit the road. Our parents told us the real story and we got to stay at this spectacular condo! We will do some water sports today and I will hopefully blog more today. Hope all is well at home!

PICTURES III

 Church on Sunday - A beautiful nativity outside an Episcopal church, a log cabin

 Downtown Jackson

 The bear posed perfectly!

 Under the antler arch!

 Mommy and Daddy

 Shoshone Falls - 7:40 am Monday

 Beautiful view!

 Lake Tahoe - 7 pm Monday - just missed the sunset!

Get this app - Sky View - so cool! (thanks, Dad!)

 Cowboys in Jackson!

 Cool cabin (with our junk!) in Idaho.

Remnants of the BEAR that CHASED us out of our campsite and we SKEDADDLED into a quite luxurious CONDO at 1:am in the morning!! Tuesday.  (He didn't literally chase us, we didn't see him, but we HEARD him!)

Finishing Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole by Annie MIles

The next day we got to go see all of the geysers and some of the cool wildlife, like Old Faithful. And we got to see a few presentations about bears, wolves, bison and birds. Then we had to leave for the next thing, which was the Grand Tetons.

 

The mountains were huge and we really wanted to climb up the mountain about a mile, but we didn’t get the luck of the rain we hoped to it rained badly and we couldn’t get to the other side. The boats stopped driving and we were stuck in the rain for 20 minutes. But we got to meet some cool people who rock climb up the whole mountain which is like 500 feet up in the air and takes about 2 days!!!!

         It was a long drive to Jackson Hole, Wyoming but worth it. we got to shop at all the stores and eat dinner outside. But, the rain chased us all the way to Jackson and we had to run down the street 2 blocks to our hotel room with dogie boxes in our hands! Luckily we got to sleep in our super comfy beds and relax the rest of the night!!!

HORSEBACK RIDING and Yellowstone! by Annie Miles

Since Shoshone was right near Yellowstone we drove there that morning. It was quite a long drive to our campsite so we didn’t get to see a lot in Yellowstone the 1^st day, but we needed a lot of energy for the fun horseback riding, cowboy dinner ahead of us! I was sooo excited to go horseback riding and the time came for one the things I was most looking forward to! …. 

The cowboy dinner was so fun and we all had a great dinner. The horses all had different personality and mine liked to bite Matt’s horse named Dutch. Some of the horses liked to eat the grass that wasn’t healthy for them, but we all had a great experience

PICTURES II - Badlands to Shoshone

"Don't really know how I got here... I got some pictures on my phone!"  Don't know why these pictures are out of order but hope you enjoy!

 

 

 Arrived at Badlands after a 14 hour drive from Chicago!  It was about 6:30 in the morning!

 So cool!  The most amazing geography I've ever seen.

 

 Don't know HOW Matt spotted this as we were driving along but it was worth stopping!

Super Long and Busy Day by Annie Miles

 

Well I wasn’t able to blog for a long time because of the many things we have been doing and because we had no wifi for days! We left Chicago which feels like 10 days ago, but we left at like 8’o’clockon Monday and drove for 13 hours, through Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and then South Dakota. In South Dakota we went to the Badlands 1^st and saw all the hill sides and cool age lines. We went on a little tour of the place and learned a few things. Like about how old it was and how almost all of South Dakota used to be covered in water. After we explored in Badlands we ate at Wall Drug the famous free water place. Wall Drug looks like an old western town and it set up really cool. After we filled our stomachs with some delicious pancakes we went to see Mt. Rushmore which was cool to look at and we got some cool souvenirs. It was also super cool to see Crazy Horse which is coming along very well. After Crazy Horse we came to our camp site and slept the night away after a super busy day.

 

We woke up bright and early to the sun and cleaned the car out a little bit. All of us had cereal and granola for breakfast. Then we hit the road again this morning for Yellowstone. On our way about 1hour into the drive Matt spotted a moose! He saw the giant antlers and we turned around to see this 1,000 pound animal! We stopped a lot during the drive and saw some cool stuff. Finally we got to Shoshone Lodge around 6 and checked out the super cool log cabin. And tonight we will eat some s’mores and sit around the campfire. Hope all is well in New Jersey!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully I will be able to update the blog again later today!