Want to see a teenage view of the trip?
Here is Mr. A’s video: Yellowstone Trip
I told him he should make videos as a business since he is getting quite good at it. I think I watched this one about five times and I’m not tired of it yet. Something about having the photos and videos all linked together make it interesting.
Anyway, check it out….this one is only around two minutes long.
Roadtrip – California, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah
Mr. A loved driving across the Nevada landscape and setting the cruise control at 75 MPH. This was his first real roadtrip where he did a lot of the driving for us. I enjoyed sitting in the passenger seat and soaking in the big skies and the distant mountains still iced with snow.
Although we enjoyed the whole trip, the star of the show was most definitely the Grand Tetons. We were able to swing a room at the Jackson Lake Lodge for part of our trip and it was great home base. It was everything a lodge should be and more.
Wyoming landscapes…sun, clouds, and terrain are quick to change.
My sons were both feeling crummy with colds when we were in the middle of our trip so the long hiking days we planned had to be adjusted. Instead, we drove one day up into Yellowstone National Park and did a quick circle tour of some interesting spots in the southern part of the park.
We walked on the boardwalks around the Lower Geyser Basin. It was a fairly active day and we got to see a couple of geysers spout that don’t regularly put on a show. In fact, we got caught in the spray of one geyser….that was a first.
I spent time on the lookout for interesting wildflowers which were abundant during our trip. This Elk Thistle was interesting and beautiful as it grew alongside the boardwalk.
Our one hike of the day was down the switchback trail to the brink of Lower Yellowstone Falls. The flow was at a near record high when we were there and it was roaring down the canyon. Amazing to stand right at the edge of where the water falls over the rocks!
It was a quick Yellowstone trip but we soaked in the wonderful landscapes and made some great memories. We headed back into Grand Teton Park and alongside the road near the Jackson Lake Lodge we spotted a mama grizzly bear and her two cubs. We stopped across the road and down a little to watch the cubs playing in the meadow. This was a first for our family….we have seen lots of black bears but these were our very first grizzly bears. We didn’t stay long since we really didn’t want to disrupt them but I have to admit very exciting to see this in the wild.
One night we drove up Signal Mountain and watched the sunset over Jackson Lake. As sunset grew closer, the group of us up there got larger. I was pleased that most of us were there to sit quietly and watch with cameras in hand. The one thing about going to national parks is that you realize there are many people visiting from outside the U.S. They have come clear around the world to see what we have in our own backyards. It gives you fresh eyes to think about what you have and need to appreciate.
Those clouds in the sunset photo above turned into thunderheads and by bedtime it was quite a show. We watched from our room window as the sky came alive and the thunder was louder than I have ever heard before…almost like explosions. It rained just a little and then the storm disappeared. Perfect Wyoming experience for the boys!
When morning dawned, the skies were clear and the sun was warm. On our way out of the park we stopped to enjoy the reflection of the mountains in the lake in the early morning light. Breathtaking!
When we stopped to take the reflection photos, I noticed these huge seed clouds at my feet. We looked them up in our guide and identified them as Yellow salsify. The flowers look much like dandelions but the seeds heads are much larger. I had my son put his hand in the photo so you could see how large they are.
Our road trip is over for the summer and we have packed in some great family memories. The boys enjoyed the wildlife and the great food we enjoyed on our trip. I packed breakfast and lunch but we ate our dinners in restaurants. The most memorable meal ended with fresh homemade huckleberry pie. I am going to dream of that slice of heaven for a very long time to come.
It is nice to be home, back to my garden but it is always refreshing to get out on the open road and see some new and exciting things. I have a couple more posts to share with other aspects of our trip so stay tuned.
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| Nest on a Utility Pole – Southern Wyoming |
We spent quite a bit of time away from home in July so I will attempt to break the list down by location.
Backyard/Local
Santa Cruz
Grand Tetons/Utah Trip
If I ever go back to Yellowstone, I will print this bird list.
You can share your link with Tweet and See…click the button above to learn more about the monthly meme. This exercise of keeping a list of birds has opened my eyes to a whole world. I highly recommend this activity for all families, no matter where you live.
Summer nature study is so much fun! There is never any shortage of great topics and this carnival reflects how each family is taking the OHC and making it their own. (If I missed your entry, please email me and let me know and I will add it. The Blog Carnival website had some issues again this month.)
Thanks so much for sharing your nature study.
Make sure to check back tomorrow for the August Newsletter post with fresh ideas for your summer nature study. I will also announce July’s giveaway winner in that post.
Tricia and her children share their sunflower study….their second summer taking a closer look. You can read their entry on their family Hodgepodge blog, Summer Sunflowers.
Mary Jo from Seeds of Peace contributes their Nature Study-Sunflowers entry for carnival readers. Her son did a great job with the details on his notebooking page.
Nicole and her daughter did a sunflower study complete with artwork and baking! Read on her blog, Journey to Excellence, their entry, Sunflowers.
Jenny from Grace in Loving Chaos joins the carnival with her entry: Nature Study Sunflowers.
Nicole from One Hook Wonder writes about their experience with Painted Lady butterflies as part of this challenge. My favorite part of the entry is when they release the butterfly and it goes straight to their garden flowers! Perfect ending to the story of the butterfly.
Brandy writes about their Creepy Crawly Critters on her blog Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood.
Tricia and her family had an bee/insect study in their own backyard. Read their entry, Bees and Buzzy Insects, to see how they learned so much about their bees and wasps.
Susan from Learning all the Time shares their July Nature Study: Honeybees entry with carnival readers.Make sure to see their very well done nature journal entries.
Tristan shares their surprise insect study on her blog Our Busy Homeschool: We Play in the Rain and Meet a Furry Friend. What a colorful critter they found…don’t miss seeing it!
Ann from Harvest Moon by Hand writes about their Bats/Outdoor Hour Challenge. They went on a bat hunt!
Nicole from One Hook Wonder shares their Night Critters post…complete with a sound recording of their subject.
Tricia shares their Summer Weather entry on her HodgePodge blog. They share one day of cloud observations and end with an art project!
Heather from the Tully Telegraph shares their OHC #3 Green Anoles. Don’t miss reading their entry and seeing the nature journals. I love that each one captures a different aspect of their study. Great example!
Ann and her daughters share their Clover Study on her blog Harvest Moon By Hand. What an interesting entry covering so many aspects of this everyday plant. She’s included some recipes again and some wonderful images. Ann also shares their Summer Cattail Study and their One Small Square Study with carnival readers. One last entry from Anne and her girls shows their wonderful Summer Tree Study, updating from their spring study.
Kristin from Broom and Crown shares a wonderful preschool nature study with carnival readers this time. Check out their entry: What’s Under the Dirt.
Kim writes on A Child’s Garden about their Dandelions: A Bilingual Lesson on Plant Study. She used the ideas from the Spring Dandelion Challenge and then added some great activities. Thanks for the great ideas.
Beachcombing- Shark Teeth is another entry from Kim and her blog, A Child’s Garden. She shows us how they studied shark’s teeth using resources other than the Handbook of Nature Study….I love to see how families take the ideas from the HNS and apply them to their own subjects. Great job.
Serena from Casting Pearls shares their Nesting Robins with carnival readers. She has some beautiful images of the eggs and wonder nature journal examples. Don’t miss the update to this entry where they make a positive identification of their nesting bird.
Kim also shares a great bird entry in their post Summer Bird Study: Blue Jays. She shows how their family pulled together a number of resources, including the Handbook of Nature Study, to make their bird study complete.
That completes this edition of the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival. I look forward to reading your August entries and seeing how nature study is accomplished in your part of the world.
What did Harmony Art Mom do for her 27th Wedding Anniversary?
Hiked to a waterfall!
My dear husband and I took a day to hike up to one of our favorite spots at nearby Lake Tahoe. The trailhead is at Bayview Campground and the parking can be tricky. We caught someone as they were leaving and got a spot in the shade.
The trail is not steep or very long but there are sections that are covered in granite rocks that you need to scramble up on or over or around. There are plenty of spots to stop and take in the view as you hike along.
We hiked to the Cascade Falls and then sat and just enjoyed each other’s company and the solitude for awhile.
The wildflowers were blooming along the trail and this one was abundant.
You actually hike to the top of the waterfall so there isn’t a really great place to take a shot of the whole waterfall at one time. Here is a section of it.
We hiked back down the trail in the late afternoon and then made our way over to Tallac Historic Site to have a picnic (including a special slice of cheesecake for each of us).
I worked in my nature journal recording the wildflowers we saw earlier and my husband did some reading until we decided we better take an after dinner walk to burn off some of the picnic calories. I love the long hours of a summer evening and this time we found a place that I want to bring the kids back to.
This promenade in the middle of the forest was the connecting sidewalk between two turn-of-the-twentieth-century hotels. The hotels are long gone but the promenade remains. We tried to imagine what it would have been like to stay at one of the hotels way back then.
It was a perfect anniversary day….hope to do it again sometime!
As part of the July Newsletter Summer Weather Challenge, we looked back to the Summer Series Weather Observation Challenge from last year.
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| Our roses love the heat and this is our Disneyland Rose…sweet fragrance. |
July weather is always hot but this year we have had alternating weeks of HOT and then cooling off to the 80’s. It makes for a nice mix of summer weather. The garden likes the heat but once the temperatures heat up we need to water our garden everyday. We don’t get much in the way of rain in the months of July and August and our heat does not bring any humidity with it.
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| The mullein this year is really TALL. |
The nights are cool so we can expect to have cool breezes sometime in the night that are our natural air conditioning. We do most of our cooking outdoors this time of year, either on the grill or our outdoor oven. This keeps the kitchen cooler and we don’t have to run the a/c.
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| The yarrow, lavender, and butterfly bushes are full of bees. |
We decided to complete these two activities from last year’s challenge:
Here are our statistics.
6 AM 59 degrees and 76% humidity
Noon 74 degrees and 52% humidity
4 PM 83 degrees and 32% humidity
Sunrise at 5:53 AM and Sunset at 8:25 PM
Don’t forget to make your own Summer Weather Observations and submit your entry to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
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| Our Sunflower Garden July 17, 2011 |
Sunflowers are the theme of our garden this year….as anticipated. We planted our seeds on May 10th and they started blooming on July 16th. That is a long time to wait but so worth the time and effort! Now with the July Newsletter focus on sunflowers using the Nature Study Grid and notebooking page, we are slowing down to do some careful observations. This is also made easy by the fact that we are participating in the Great Sunflower Project and counting bees.
Here are the first of our blooms.
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| Sunflower with lots of pollen! |
This is actually not one of the seeds that we planted but it popped up under the birdfeeder. They are a perfect complement to our little backyard feeder garden.
From Renee’s Garden Seeds – Royal Flush. I love the watercolor like colors in this bloom.
Here is another one from Renee’s Garden – Chocolate Cherry. Amazing color in the garden!
I think this is the third seed from Renee’s Garden – Van Gogh.
We found this spider crawling on a big sunflower last week…..he sure blends in.
Here is another image from the volunteer sunflowers around the birdfeeder. If you look carefully, you can see that these are actually two different kinds of sunflowers.
Another bee favorite in our yard is the coneflower. They are rather tall this year and always full of buzzing bees. Coneflowers are on the list of bee attractive plants that you can use as part of the Great Sunflower Project this summer.
How about that bee? He is in our bee balm and loving it. I decided this is a plant that I need to add to more of my flower garden next year.
We have been busy learning some new things and making lots of detailed observations using all of our sunflowers. How about your family? Have you done your July Newsletter sunflower study? I look forward to seeing your entries in the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival.
Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
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| Summer evenings outdoors….with our chiminea. |
We have been working on our July Newsletter Nighttime Critter Challenge all month. I wanted to post a little of what we are observing and learning to give you an idea of how you can pick a few things from your area to study in the evening hours. I will update our list after the end of the month with any new finds.
Our most predominant nighttime critters of interest are the Brown bats that come every single night to fly in our backyard. I wrote about them back in May as part of mammal study. For the July newsletter challenge for Nighttime Critters, I decided to share a few of our other nighttime visitors of interest. This study was sort of on-going because when the weather is hot, we tend to drag sleeping bags out to the back deck to sleep in the cool night air. We all lay awake and listen and watch as the nighttime settles in around us.
Shooting stars, satellites zipping across the sky, the moon, the swaying trees in the breeze, and the night sounds all entertain us as we wait for sleep to come.
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| Fill In The Circle and Fill In With Color Example – Poor owl sketch…he has such a crooked beak. |
One of the things that we have discovered sleeping outside on hot summer nights is that we have quite a few great horned owls in our neighborhood. We can hear them calling back and forth right after the sun goes down and then again at around 5 AM. Here is a link to AllAboutBirds.org and if you click the sound button, you will hear the two types of sounds we hear from our owls: Great Horned Owls. We have yet to actually see them but they are out there…no doubt about it.
We also are serenaded by crickets when the temperatures get just right. It is amazing how you don’t hear any crickets and then all of a sudden it is as if someone turned on a cricket soundtrack and they all chirp at the same time. The lesson in the Handbook of Nature Study gives a great illustration showing the parts of the cricket and an excellent explanation of how he “sings”. (Lesson 82)
“The wing covers are much shorter than the abdomen and beneath them are vestiges of wings, which are never used. The male has larger wing covers than the female, and they are veined in a peculiar scroll pattern. This veining seems to be a framework for the purpose of making a sounding board of the wing membrane, by stretching it out as a drumhead is stretched.” Handbook of Nature Study.
Turn in your copy of the Handbook of Nature Study to read much more in the lesson explaining this interesting creature.There is such a simple explanation of the mechanics of the crickets chirping that it is perfect for sharing with younger children. The crickets and the frogs compete in our neighborhood for the winner of the “background” noise. It seems as if one or the other is singing their little hearts out.
We smell skunks quite a few nights a week. Sleeping outside we hear rustling in the garden and I think it is the skunk. I know they dig around the base of the birdfeeder outside our window but over the years I have decided that if he leaves me alone, I will leave him alone. Here is another entry where I talk about our nighttime visitors.
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| List from the July Newsletter. I cut it out and taped it inside my nature journal. |
One last nighttime critter we have had around the neighborhood is the raccoon. Our neighbor has been sharing how they keep forgetting to bring in the dog’s food dish at night and the raccoon has decided that it makes a easy snack taken just outside their patio door. We have had our share of raccoons in the yard over the years but we haven’t seen any lately. Here is an entry sharing one raccoon experience: Raccoon Visitor.
Well that gives you a taste of what we have around here in the evenings. I just thought of something else I need to put on my list….moths.
I look forward to reading about your nighttime critters. Don’t forget to post your entry and then submit it to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival before 7/30/11 for a chance in the July Newsletter giveaway!
Barb-Harmony Art Mom
The best thing about summer is getting to be outdoors everyday. Where we live in California we can do day trips to just about any sort of environment you can imagine.
Here are a few images from the last week.
The boys took some kayaks out at a local lake…..not too hot and we went early.
Fallen Leaf Lake is an hour’s drive from our front door and we took the short hike around the edge of this crystal clear alpine lake last weekend. The lupine was divine and the sky was equally as awesome.
The wildflowers were amazing! I love getting the chance to experience this Sierra Nevada habitat.
We took a day trip to visit an elderly relative and we took the “long way” home along the California coast. The wildflowers were blooming here as well.
See what I mean? Northern California is such a gift to those of us who live here. Our job is to take the opportunity and get outside!
