Look out Yellowstone....here comes Little Fox.

After a short exploration in Southern Idaho I supervised my roommate packing up the campsite and navigated the car to Yellowstone.  Through my keen observation skills I helped my roommate see many Bison.

I saw a bear from a far distance away but I could not get a picture of it.  However. This chap posed for a  picture for me and he seems happy and beary patriot.

 Yellowstone is a beary interesting place.  There are lots of bubbly thermal areas that are beary hot.  I wish I brought materials for smores.

Enough playing around time to do some adventuring. It’s apparently wildflower season in Yellowstone (that works for me).  Observation peak was the first peak I went hiking with my roommate.  It took us a while to get to the peak, lake and wildflowers.

It was worth it.  The flowers were amazing.  

 A little bit of everything here.  Now if I could only find a ranger to help me identify these flowers and bring me snack it would be perfect. 

You can barely see me on the log enjoying the flowers but I am there.

 Nice purple flowers.....They seem to contrast well with my fur. 

The view from the top was great.  Mountains and lakes all around me. 

After adventuring and eating a filling meal of chicken salad my roommate took me to Yellowstone Falls.  There is an upper and lower falls and my sekrebeary did not indicate which falls this is and I am not in this picture.  What's up with that? (ugh, this is going on his performance review).

Time for a nice rest, as you can see I am not staying in a 4 star resort but at least I have my own space.

A long way up to the viewpoint.

Rise and shine, day two.  Off to the Mt. Washburn fire tower.  I heard that I might see some goats along the way.  As you can see these goats are right in the middle of the trail and they were a little too aggressive for my style.  I had to wait them out before they let me across the trail.

Since the weather was hazy (apparently from the forest fires in Oregon, Washington and Idaho) I convinced my roommate to help me explore some fancy hotels. I did the exploring, he sat in the lobby and rested. 

Manmouth Hot Springs

Yellowstone Lake Lodge

 My last lunch at Yellowstone.  I enjoyed my chicken salad while resting on the dashboard of the car looking out across Yellowston Lake.  Beary relaxing...

 

Part two, Hello Idaho!

My roommates and I took another summer road trip.  We started off driving to Idaho and it's a beary long drive for a little fox.  About 12 hours to our destination,City of Rocks National Monument.  

 It wasn’t really a city but there were many rock formations throughout.  I was hoping we would see some fossils but it's not that kind of area.  

 Since it was beary hot in the city (about 100 degrees which is hot for a little fox). I made the executive decision to take the driving tour.  Lots of interesting rock formations in the city for example this formation is called Chicken Claw, which I thought was a beary good name.  

 

 Hanging out at the arch, I believe this one is Window Arch.

My roommate is back on his kick of taking picture of strange signs.  Apparently he thinks it's funny that there is a practice rock, he kept saying that if the rock practiced and practiced it would be a real rock some day (sigh, humans)....

Since it was so hot we decided to explore a few other areas of Idaho.  My roommate took me on a tour of the Minidoka Interment Camp.  It is a historical site where many Japanese who lived on the west coast of the US were sent during WWII to work and live (against there will).  It was a whole community with schools, farms, and a swimming hole.  Most of the interpretive signs were from the human perspective and I kept bugging my sekbreabeary to research information about the camp from the Stuffy perspective.  Interestingly this never happened, (it’s hard to find good help these days isn’t’ it?).

*****Note:  My sekrebeary just informed me that the picture of me at the camp is missing.  Excuse me while I have to deal with some personnel issues.  *****

Road Trip

My roommates woke me up and told me to pack some snacks, my bag (my bag only has extra snacks), and we took off a few days ago for a road trip.  They were unusually evasive when I asked where we were going so I figured I would just kick back and enjoy the scenery.

Candian Rockies......last days.

I have lost count of what day I am on but I remember the next stop is Lake O'hara.  Now, to get to Lake O'hara you have to make reservations 3 months in advance (or if you don't make reservations you can hike 12KM up and 12KM down to get there).  Needless to say, we made reservations and got to ride on a old school bus that took us up to Lake O'hara and we stopped at a place called "Le Relais" to start our adventure.

After exploring the little store and the lodge (beary expensive for one nights stay) we took a hike to Lake Oesa (it was still covered in snow when we got to the lake, I wish I brought my snowshoes). Along the trial we came across many marmots, pikas, and we saw a couple of other lakes, waterfalls, and streams as well. 

  

On the way back down from Lake Osea we saw this paw print in the snow.  I thought it was a bear but after further examination I think it’s a cougar pawprint.

Being the sly fox I am I kept hinting at staying at Lake O'hara lodge but apparently my roommates are learning my tricks.  The view of the lake and the mountain reflecting on Lake O'hara (near the lodge) were beary pretty.  

This place is so pretty I don't even mind that I am not in this picture. 

The next day we spent time at Lake Moraine and we got moving beary early because the ranger said that parking is a problem.  I can see why it’s so popular.  We took a hike with some tourists from Spain and explored consolation lakes with our Spanish friends.  Then explored Moraine Lake on our own.  I really liked Moraine Lake, there were lots of mountains and the weather was perfect.  I am a lucky fox. 

 Back to the campground.  Lac Louise campground had an electric fence around it to keep bears out and it worked…..no bears in our camp.  Also, along the Trans Canada Highway through Banff National Park the animals have specific overpasses only for animals.

No trip to Lac Louise would be complete without visiting Lac Louise.  We hiked to the plain of six glaciers and visited a tea house about 4 miles up the road.  Of course the glaciers were cool and exploring the Fairmont Lake Louise was neat but on our way back some visitors asked us if we had a bottle opener.  I immediately thought of Sandy and his post when he went through his mom’s backpack and questioned the need for a bottle opener. Well, apparently a bottle opener is needed on the trail, my roommate had one on their key chain so they saved the day.  

Lake Louise - isn't that nice that they built this wall for us to relax on?

Staynig cool under a waterfall along the trail to the Plain of 6 Glaciers. 

Enjoying the glaciers and the cool weather up here. 

A quick stop at the tea house seems in order.  I hope they serve lemonade. 

Our last day was spent getting ready to drive home.  We went through Kootenay National Park along the continental divide.  Monkey and I posed for one last picture and then we slept the remaining 11 hours it took us to get home.  

You can bearly see Monkey and I in this picture.

Day 2 and 3

This elk (not sure????) was hanging out in our campground with her baby.  They were beary friendly and were happy just to chomp away at the grass.  The rangers tried to get the elk back to a more natural area using hockey sticks with streamers attached to scare away the elk.  It kind of worked but we often saw her in the campground.

 
My roommates woke us up early today to take us to a place called Maligne Lake.  The drive to Maligne Lake was beary pretty in fact some of my animal friends were on the road.

This guy was happily walking along the road.  Not scared of cars at all.

You have to look hard to see the Pine Marten but he is there.

The hike was beary scenic.  The clouds were out and we got rained on many times but when you could see the mountains they were amazing.  The lake had a nice blue-turquoise color in it.   

Mountains on Bald Mountain trail - Maligne Lake

Malgine Lake

Maligne Canyon

Of course Maligne Lake flows into the Maligne Canyon (our next stop coincidentally).  A Belgium missionary had trouble trying to cross the river in the 1800s and named it Maligne River, which apparently means wicked in French.  Ben, have you learned this in your French lessons yet?

 My roommates treated us to the good life.  We were allowed to visit the Fairmont Jasper Lake Lodge.  It was beary relaxing, a fox could get used to this lifestyle.  Of course the cheapest room was $499.00 a night so I think it's a little out of my price range.

Fairmont Jasper, Front Entrance

Off to the Ice fields.  We had to leave all the nice animals in Jasper and start heading down to Lac Louise.  The drive was amazing (of course it would have been even better if I could have driven).  So many mountains to the left and right.  We did the touristy thing and took the ice fields bus and it was on Canada day.  Everyone was beary patriotic and had lots of Canadian flags, pins, and t-shirts.  I asked the tour guide if I could drive the ice bus….no luck…perhaps if I had a Canadian T-shirt on she would have let me.   Anyway, we tasted water right off the ice and enjoyed cooling down on the ice.

 

Next stop was Wilcox Pass.  It was a nice hike and get this.  Halfway up there were chairs for people to relax on.  We met some aggressive goats (I hid in the backpack with Monkey) but eventually they let us through on the trail.  It was worth the encounter with the goats, the view was amazing (one of the best on the trip).  Remember all that rain in Jasper, well apparently it helped clear the sky.  It was worth it for the views.

Good news from the mail man

I was relaxing on the sofa and the doorbell rang.  I jumped up hoping it was one of my stuffy friends visiting but it was the mail man instead.  He gave me a package and I had to sign for it....if only I had a pen to do that???

Both items were from Ajdin.  One is this cool card from Beanie sent via Ajdin.  Beanie I had my seKrebeary register the card on your blog.  I hope they did it right.

The other item is this neat pen.....with this dashing animal on it.  What kind of animal is it you ask, a fox of course!  Now I finally have a pen that is all mine.  Hmm, this pen is taller than I am I might have a problem here.

I know I will ask Drunk Fox for his help when I need to write something down with the pen.  Thanks for helping out Drunk Fox and thanks Ajdin for the cool pen and the neat card!!!!!!!!!!!