Yellowstone - Day Ten

 `Trail ride day. I am very afraid of horses, but our kids begged us to do a trail ride while we were here. I felt like it wasn’t that unreasonable of a request, so today was the day. 

    We drove down to Teton Village this morning, and of course took Moose Wilson Road to see if we could spot any wildlife. There were tons of people there when we pulled off, and there was a moose and a black bear out today! We never could get great views of the bear as he was in the bushes eating huckleberries, but it was still fun to catch glimpses of him through the woods. 

    We arrived at our trail ride a little early and had a picnic lunch before we got on board. Kade was very nervous and almost decided that he wasn’t going to trail ride after all. All the other kids were gung ho and couldn’t wait to ride. I was a little nervous for Elijah to be riding alone, but he insisted he was ready for such things. I kept teasing the kids about how scared I was, and that I hoped they would give me a pony. They laughed at all my mom jokes, as I got on a full sized horse…unfortunately. We all got lined up with our guide and after a very brief lesson on how to ride and drive a horse, we headed West.

     Our first leg of the journey took us through a pasture with a creek running through it. It had beautiful views of the Tetons and the flat ground and nice horses made everyone a little more comfortable. We found that our horses had similar personalities as their riders. Rylie’s just wanted to stop and snack all the time, Zack’s was a stubborn hose, and Kade’s had constant gas…. We had a lot of laughs over these characteristics. The kids were so cute. They loved this ride so much. Their giggles of delight made my two hour horse ride worth it. My horse wanted to jump, trot and pass all the other horses in line. They should have given me a pony! After our pasture ride, our trail continued up into the mountains for a woodsy journey that was a little more challenging and fun. The kids just loved it. Turns out our guide was a homeschooled kid from Arkansas that has a mutual friend! Crazy how things happen sometimes.

          After our ride came to an end, we went over to Teton Village and spent some time there before coming back to our camper for dinner. We were sitting outside eating at our picnic table when we noticed other campers pointing and taking pictures right down the road. Elijah ran down to see what they were seeing which we figured was just a deer or an elk. He came running back and sat down to finish his taco. We asked him what it was and he nonchalantly said, “Oh, just a few bears…” He said it so casually that we thought he was teasing. He insisted that he was not teasing and that it was a momma and three cubs. We jumped up leaving our tacos on the table, grabbed our cameras and ran down the street. Sure enough, there was a momma and three little cubs walking through the campground! This time we got excellent photos and videos of these adorable black bears. It was so exciting. We were able to watch them for about 20 minutes before they headed back into the woods. We were glad they didn’t end up at our picnic table eating our leftovers! After dinner, we went souvenir shopping and made cookies and played games. We have to check out in the morning and we don’t know where we’re headed, but I guess we’ll figure it out tomorrow.