Yellowstone or Bust: Day 8

(Saturday, August 29)

Our reservation went until Sunday, but we knew we had a long drive in front of us, and we'd seen everything we wanted to (and more), so we decided to leave Saturday.  We spent the morning swimming, eating, and cleaning up.  We spend too much $$ at the t-shirt store and the coffee shop, and we finally hit the road around 1.

First stop, Rexburg Idaho, for Yellowstone Bear World.  (Which, in fact has nothing to do with Yellowstone, and everything to do with bears.)  I am still not positive how I feel about that place.  I'm used to Wildlife Safari in Southern Oregon- it is hundreds of acres and truly feels like a preserve.  It's true that I don't know how much land bears need to have to live in a healthy way.  But dang, it sure seemed like there were a LOT of bears crammed in a couple of acres.  A LOT.  Like maybe 30 black bears in 2 or 3 acres?  It could have been like 5 acres, but still!  Anyhow, it was the kind of place where we got to drive through (with windows up!) and get a great look at 2 bison, 2 white elk, several 'regular' elk, 2 grizzly bears, maybe 30 black bears, and one big moose.  The kids loved getting to see things close up, so that was cool.

We hit the road again and this time headed past Craters of the Moon (Garrett cried that we didn't stop, he really wants to go back with real flashlights and tennis shoes and do the 'Boy Scout' cave!), and towards Fairfield, Idaho- where my Grandpa Burke was born and raised, and where my Mom, Aunts, and Uncle grew up.  Aunt Minnie gave me directions to "The Bolt Place" where the family lived from when my mom was in 1st grade to about 5th grade.

They lived there in the spring/summer/fall, but in the summer had to move into town because the road didn't get snowplowed and they would have gotten stuch out there!  It was both cool and heart wrenching to visit this little house.  In some ways it was neat to imagine my family as little kids bounching around the yard laughing, riding bikes, and playing games.  On the other hand, with everything going on with my Grammy right now, it brought me to tears instantly (shock!) thinking of how clean and cute I KNOW Grammy kept the little house and yard.  Now, everything is overgrown, broken down, and we could see the last tenants junk filling the abandoned rooms.  After reports of Grammy having a particularly tough week, I really didn't need another reminder that everything eventually goes to hell.  It was too scary to even get close to the house, so we looked from afar.

Interesting to think that my mom's small feet used to run down these 'stairs' too.

The coral across the road was cool too- hawks sitting on the old wood watching us.

 Garrett, our adventure boy, led the way much of the time- he really wanted to get a good look in.

We walked around for a while as the sun set, and eventually had to leave.  We were parked there, in the middle of the road for 30 minutes, and not a soul drove by.  My goal is to get back there next summer with Papa and the rest of the fam and hear some stories.  I tried to tell my kids as many as I could remember, and they kept asking for more.

By the time we left it was dusk and the sky was getting dark.  The remaining 2 hours to Nampa we were treated to a lightening storm of epic proportions, for us at least!  At one point it was so intense, we pulled over, turned the car off and just watched and listened for 10 minutes.  Incredible to watch the bolts stretch across the sky, or come right down to the ground (from a distance).  When we were almost to my aunt's house, we had to pull over again because the storm had finally caught up with us, or us with it, and the hail was so coming down so heavy that we couldn't see at all!  It was the perfect dramatic ending to our awesome trip!