Wild Wyoming—Hiking

Hiking with kids is hard. If they're not complaining, they're distracted by every little rock, puddle, creek, flower, or photo op (and I'm not just talking about the little kids). Maybe I'm not hiking the right way. I tend to be a "destination girl." I don't mind admiring the beauty and creatures along the way, but I definitely don't want to spend hours meandering.

In spite of the complaining and meandering, we managed to go on a few hikes with the kids.

The weather was perfect--except on Sunday when we narrowly avoided a thunderstorm. Thanks to our slow-moving group, we weren't very far into the hike before we turned around.

We saw the marmot on that rock multiple times on subsequent days. He/she had a home right by the trail.

We left the older kids home with the younger kids when we hiked with Reyes and Courtney to Hidden Falls. It was a nice, easy hike, but we left late enough in the day that I was fighting a headache most of the time. Reyes took the picture for us, so he's not in it.

Gavin was always willing to pose for a picture.

There's a pronghorn keeping an eye on Gavin who wanted to greet it with a gentle pat on the head. Obviously, we kept our distance.

I was a little disappointed that on all our drives through the park, we didn't see a bear. I didn't want to see one in person up close, but I thought it would be cool to see one from the car.

We passed a ton of people on the trails with annoying bear bells on. On our second day of hiking, a lady said, "Stay aware. There's a grizzly about a half mile up the trail." We didn't see the grizzly. I'm wondering if she was joking, or if we took a different branch on the trail, or if her group scared the bear away. I'm glad we didn't run into one with the little ones with us.

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