Yelowstone Day 4 - Water standing still

After our long busy day in Cody, we decided to take a day off an stop to smell the flowers.

We all slept in late, and after a delicious breakfast of pancakes and spam we decided to take a drive and see where we ended up.

We discovered a perfectly beautiful spot (you really can't go wrong here in Yellowstone) at a place called Sheepeater Cliff.  There was a river running through a field of wildflowers, and a really interesting cliff  of pillar rock formations.  

Luke loved picking the wildflowers and  wanted me to wear all of them in my hair.  I don't think it is legal to pick flowers so I was sure hoping a park ranger didn't see me - but how can a mom refuse flowers from her favorite 2 year old?

The river water was cold - there was still snow melting on the mountain tops - but Derek braved it.  Sort of.
  

 Dylan and Nathan take a quiet moment to commune with nature.  Can you see the chi flowing through them?

 Luke had high hopes of climbing the cliff.  He started at it and he got a lot further then I thought he'd get.  I sent Dennis to go rescue him...

but Dennis just helped him climb up higher.

The kids (Dennis included) kept scaling up and down this cliff like they were Spider-Man and I did my best to try to not have a heart attack.

The kids did discover some baby bats hiding in a crevice on the cliff.  I managed to climb up, even in my flip flops, high enough to see them.  So cute - but I didn't get a decent picture.  I did, however, manage to not break my neck.

In the end we were 8 for 8 alive and well.  Its a good day in Yellowstone when no one falls off a cliff. 

After some more exploring we discovered Joffee Lake.  It wasn't far, or remote, but tucked away and hard to find.  We are so glad we found t because it was absolutely beautiful little lake surrounded by cattail and wild flowers, with forests and soaring mountains all around.  Everywhere you looked was a picture postcard perfect view  We were there for hours and were the only people there the whole time.  In fact we couldn't see any signs of humanity anywhere, except for us and our car.  It was like we were all alone in the world.

The guys spent hours fishing.

I took pictures of flowers, butterflies, and the illusive blue dragonflies, and read Twilight (reading is a rare pleasure for me) while they did their thing.  I did see a snake slither away just under my feet, and the boys were bummed that they didn't see it too.

In the end, nobody caught any fish, but we didn't seem to mind.  It was such a magical place - our own private lake.

More deer spotted on the drive home from the lake.

Back at camp we feasted on spam (fresh fish was originally on the menu, but as luck would have it, we had some spam left - same difference) and more of Dennis' famous peach cobbler.  Even though it was a relatively relaxing day, it was enough to wear Caleb and Lukie right out.  They never made it to the peach cobbler and hot cocoa.