Our days off

Baby otters


Views of Trout Pond



Bison along the road side



Lake Yellowstone Hotel



Snow along the road side in the mountains


On one of our days off Nancy-a friend and I took a tour of the north east part of the park. Going thru a mountain pass we found a lot of snow on the road sides. We checked out Roosevelt - Canyon and Lake Lodges. Lake is the most beautiful Lodge- it sits right on Lake Yellowstone.

Yesterday on our day off we went on a 4 mile hike to Trout Pond. It was so beautiful. The pond was full of trout as they were there to lay their eggs.
We also saw a mother otter with two babies. After the hike we went to Cooke City, MT for lunch. Cooke City is a small old west town with 2 places to eat. Surprise the food was great. We drove around for a time- every were you look it just beautiful. There is still snow on all the mountain top. On the way home we saw all kinds of animals. The best was the two bull elk. We were sorry to have to head home-but Saturday is a work day.

Yellowstone we're finally here

Pictures from the Roosevelt cookout


We sign in at 8am June 8th in Gardiner. Than went up to Mammoth Hot Springs to get our room. We lucked out and got a room on the bottom floor with a private bath. It took all day between meetings to get moved it. I’ve met a lot of really nice people.

My first day of work I take a tour of Yellowstone with four other new employees from reservations. We went on a regular tour with guest of the whole park. We left at 8am returning at 6 pm. They sent a boxed lunch with us. I was getting paid for this. Life is good. On Friday evening of the first week of training all new reservation and front desk people got to go on the Roosevelt cook out. It was great-they took us by wagon-than we had a steak dinner cooked on an open fire. A good time was had by all-but it was really cold. The rest of the time has been spent training. On days off we’ve been hiking and touring the park. I have finally finished my training and have worked two days on my own-no major problems so far.

Animals of Yellowstone

Baby Bighorn Sheep


Mothers and babies Bison


Bighorn Sheep



Young male Bison playing



Bull Elk

Yellowstone we're finally here

The wonders of Yellowstone


We sign in at 8 yesterday in Gardiner. Than went up to Mammoth Hot Springs to get our room. We lucked out and got a room on the bottom floor with a private bath. It took all day between meetings to get moved it. I got to met a lot of really nice people.

My first day of work I take a tour of Yellowstone with four other new employees from resverations. We went on a regular tour of the whole park with paying guest. We left at 8 this morning returning at 6. They sent a boxed lunch with us. I was getting paid for this. Life is good. I start training tomorrow so I won’t be bogging for a few days.

Flowers in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City/Park City

i

Nancy & Nancy on the Ultra Zipline







Pictures from Salt Lake and Park City






We decided to go to Salt Lake City on Friday, as they were have a paraded and motorcycle ride on Saturday. they were shutting down some of the road.

We found us a nice hotel and jump on the light rail to Temple Square. We did tours of all the historic sites. I think the most fun we had was when we went to the genealogy library to check out our family history. We also went to the Temple-Tabernacle-Conference Center-Beehive House. We ate at The top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building which had a beautiful view of Salt Lake and the mountains.

The next morning we toured the Capitol and than went back to Park City. We went to the Olympic Park. What a great place. We got to see aspiring Olympic athletes from all over the world train on their Nordic jumps, freestyle hill, terrain park and bobsled, skeleton and luge traks.

Well we had to be part of the action. We decided to do the ziplines. We had a ball. In fact we had such a good time that we went back the next morning. We both did the zipline again and Nancy K did the Quicksilver-Alpine Slide

After we headed on to Deer Valley. It was just a pretty as everyone said. We went to the St. Regis Hotel and rode their Funicular up to the hotel. What a beautiful place and view. Well all good things have to come to an end. We need to get on the road as we start work on Tuesday.

Timpanogos Caves/Park City

Pictures on the way up to the caves










On our way to Park City we decided to visit with Robert Redford at Sun Dance. Guess he wasn’t home, but we found some thing better, Timpanogos Caves. High on the slopes of American Fork Canyon are three moderate sized limestone caves. O’ boy we said, we need to do this. We paid our money and off we went. They did not tell us that the trail up to the steep northern slope of Mt Timpanogos is physically demanding. You climb 1,092 feet in 1 ½ miles straight up. It ended up being a 3 ½ mile straight up and down hike. Signs posted along the way - Warning watch out for falling rock-red stripes mark the areas of greatest hazard on the trail. Do not stop in these places. Be alert for the sound of falling rocks. If a rock fall comes towards you- move out of the way. Pace yourself-rest- catch your breath. The best sign of all was this is rattle snake country.
The caves were beautiful and worth the trip. We were to tired gals when we finally arrived at our hotel in Park City.

Zion on to Nephi Ut.

More beautiful pictues of Zion







We liked Zion so much we decided to do one more hike before heading for Park City. We did the Emerald Pool trail which is three trails in one. The trails lead to a waterfall on the lower one. The second one to some Emerald pools. Nancy K decided to hike the third one and I hike the Grotto trail. We met up at snack bar. We hated to leave but had to get up the road. We stay in Nephi ( a place in the middle of nowhere on our way to Park City.

Hiking in Zion

River sidewalk






A great day for a hike








Green canyons, red cliffs, blue skies: Zion’s colors can stop you in your tracks. We got up early and hike the Riverside Walk before it got to hot. The hike follows along the bottom of a narrow canyon along the Virgin River. We than take a short hike that one of the bus drivers told us about to a water fall. It gets up into the
90’s here so after a nice lunch we went back to our motel and enjoyed sitting on the porch by the river.

Zion National Park

On the way to Zion we stop at the Red Canyon for a short hike and more beautiful pictures. Than on to Zion.






















You wouldn’t believe the road into Zion. It is all curves and straight down. We went thru a tunnel about a mile long cut out of the mountains.
We’re still having a problem getting a room because of the holiday. We did end up with a nice one and than they upgraded us because our air conditioner wouldn't work. We are now in a suite with a private porch by the river.
They have a great shuttle system here. You can leave your car at the hotel and be transported into the park and than catch another one for transportation all thru the park.
We had another good day of hiking and pictures.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Views fron the top of Bryce Canyon





Views from Sunrise Point





Walking down the trail




The switch back trails







Nancy K & Nancy D at the bottom of Bryce Canyon







"Hoodoos" a pillars of red rock, usually of fantastic shape left by erosion. This is what Bryce Canyon made of.

We arrived at Bryce Canyon early in the morning as we planned to hike down into the canyon before it got to hot. We were lucky to find a place to park as it was Memorial Day weekend and there were lots & lots of people. We use the Bryce free shuttle system to get around for the rest of the day.

We decided to take the Queen/Navajo combination loop trail for our hike. It takes you from Sunrise to Sunset Point. It’s called the World’s best 3 mile hike. It has steep grades with “down & back” elevation changes of 500ft. Great hike but we were tired at the end-so treated ourselves to a nice lunch at the Bryce Lodge. After lunch we took the shuttle to Bryce and Inspiration Points. Both had short hikes with great views.

We sent the night at Ruby’s Inn - a neat hotel next to the park.