Stone Cold (Yellowstone that is)

I’ll start with another Sawyer story. Yesterday was our day of sightseeing. After the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone – a 1200 foot canyon carved into the plateau – we went to Mammoth Hot Springs. Since we left for Mammoth around 2:00 pm, it was dead certain that Sawyer would fall asleep in the car, which he did. About an hour later, we arrived at Mammoth.

Now, if you have ever been around our family just after Sawyer has been woken, you will know that just about everyone will go to extremes to avoid annoying him. However, given that he is a 3 year-old and his brothers aren’t very good at not annoying people, this is almost always unsuccessful. Sawyer’s mood is less than stable immediately after sleep.

At Mammoth, there was no choice but to wake him up so we could walk the 1.5 mile boardwalk that rose about 400 feet. To keep Sawyer from ruining countless family vacations, Jen decided to carry him the entire way. I would have done it, but I was carrying Quin on my shoulders who was suffering from a cold. Near the very top, after Jen scaled the boardwalk and viewed the hot springs, Sawyer sighed and said “I don’t think I can make it the rest of the way.”

In other news, this is our fourth and last night at Yellowstone. Yellowstone is beautiful and diverse and tough. It has been cold, very cold. The temperature the last three nights has dropped below 30 degrees. During the day, it didn’t rise much more than the mid 50’s, with occasional forays into the 60’s when the sun came out. I keep telling the kids that it’s times like these that bring a family closer. Zachary responded, “yes, like emperor penguins huddled in the Arctic.” No more Discovery channel for that kid.

It was so cold one morning that we turned on the generator in the RV, turned on the furnace, and let the kids watch a video on the TV so they wouldn’t have to go outside. While this definitely runs counter to our camping and outdoor ethos, we did force them to watch a Man. vs. Wild Discovery Channel DVD. They watched the episode where Bear Grylls survived in Mexico. Since then, they’ve extolled the many ways in which the Mexican yucca plant could help us survive if the RV broke down, everyone left the park, the roads vaporized because of rogue geysers, and if the yucca could be found in Wyoming.

Today, I biked about 15 miles from West Yellowstone, Montana to our campsite. Once again, it was one of the most memorable parts of the trip. It was sunny, and I was biking alongside the Madison river, which I think was the inspiration for “A River Runs Through It” starring Robert Redford. Given the strange parallels between his life and mine – uncanny resemblance (without beard of course), Zachary’s middle name is Robert, he was the Sundance Kid and we drove through Sundance, Wyoming, and many, many others – it was life imitating art.

Tomorrow we head to the Grand Tetons where we will meet Karen (Jen’s twin sister) and her boyfriend John. Everyone is really looking forward to seeing and talking to people other than those in our immediate family. Karen’s arrival also reminds me that Jen’s and Karen’s birthdays are coming up. They both have a birthday fetish for cake with butter-cream icing. Normally, procuring such a cake would simply require a stroll to the nearest chain grocery store. However, in a National Park, this may require strategic ingredient substitution. I’m thinking bison lard and elk fat. I don’t think they’ll notice.

Tomorrow, we un-pimp the RV, evacuate the waste systems, refill with water, and head out. Until next time….