The Ball Family Adventures

Day 10 - Grand Tetons and horseback riding

Notice who can't sit on his horse straight?

Wildlife Tally: sandhill crane, magpie, golden eagle, osprey, bison (lots)

A 3 hour horse ride in the Tetons was going to be one of the highlights of our trip. We were up at 5:45 AM because we needed to be at the horse riding place by 7:30. This place was so remote we had to put in GPS coordinates in order to map it. Turns out it is a summer camp in National Forest land that they set up in June and take down in September. The guides are basically camping for 3 months. The camp consisted of a bunch of platform tents, a large mess tent, a horse coral, a couple of generators, a his and hers bathroom/shower located on a trailer and a work area to shoe horses. The best part was that the mess tent was surrounded by a solar powered electrified fence - to keep bears out. They had a lot of rain over the last few days and the place was a sea of mud and horse poop. It was interesting to watch them shoe the horses. The had a vertical table that they maneuvered the horse next to, then they strapped the horse to the table and rotated the table horizontal. So the horse was lying on this big table and they could easily work on the shoes.

Remember all that rain? We had wanted to take a high altitude ride to get some really nice views but were told the trails were to slick to do that. So we had to do a relatively flat ride with some creek crossings. It still had some hills though. I'll let Nicole pick up the story from here.

I Get Bucked Off A Horse

Hi readers! Guess who! If you guessed Nicole then you are correct. But if you are wondering about the title, then you’ll have to wait for an explanation. We woke up early in the morning and drove off to the horseback riding place. Let me tell you this, it didn’t look like I expected it to. It was just a clump of small hut-like buildings and a big pen for the horses. We went up to admissions and paid for a three hour horseback ride for four and they showed us our horses. Dad rode a horse named Cricket (a girl), Mom rode Cocoa (also a girl), David rode Gringo (a boy), and I rode Pedro (also a boy). Cricket was reddish-brown, Coco was black, Gringo was white and had weird markings on his neck saying when he was born and where he was found because he used to be a mustang, and Pedro was black and white and kind of looked like a cow.

We mounted our horses and had a brief lesson about riding. Then we set off on our journey. I was in the lead (besides our Guide) and Pedro misbehaved for me. He wouldn’t do as he was told and when I tried to stop him or slow him down, he would toss his head and try to get the reins off his head. Once he was successful and tossed the reins off of his head and I spent at least three minutes trying to get them back over his ears, so while everyone was enjoying the beautiful scenery, I was having a difficult ride.

A little while later we happened upon a fallen tree and we were told to steer our horses around it, but Pedro wouldn’t go. Our guide got down from his horse asked me to hold onto his reins, pulled out a hatchet, and started to chop the tree in two. At every chop of the hatchet, Pedro whinnied and freaked out. The guide eventually realized that I was having a hard time holding onto Pedro's reins, and an even harder time holding onto Pedro's and his horse's reins. The guide took his horse and tied him to a tree and continued to chop the downed tree in two. About forty five minutes after we passed the tree, we were on some sand. The minute Pedro touched it I was on his neck. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground. I had been bucked off! Not fun, trust me. Sand in my eyes, ears, nose and mouth. Still, something to brag about. After a few minutes Gringo sat down, with David still on him! After I got the sand off, Dad and I switched horses. I now rode Cricket, and Dad switched to Pedro.

I'm now on Cricket. At least we're both smiling!

Back to Glenn again. When Nicole took flight I was ahead of her and the first I knew of it was hearing that "worried parent" tone in something Susan said. I didn't actually hear what she said but the tone caused me to turn around and look. Nicole was sprawled in the sand and Pedro was to the side and rear of Nicole. Susan was behind Nicole and said that as soon as the horse hit sand his rear legs shot out, Nicole was on his neck and then he bucked again. Nicole went over his head and did a somersault before landing in the sand. She came very close to getting stepped on as she rolled to the side of the horse. Nicole came up spitting sand from her mouth and blowing it from her nose. She had enough sense to get off to the side and out of harms way even though she couldn't really see because she had sand in her eyes too. She dealt with it very well. It took a few minutes to get the sand out and get cleaned up a little. She was happy to switch horses with me. We were pretty lucky because if it had happened in another 50 feet the landing would have been on river rock. It was one of those scary things that happens very fast and you have no control over and no ability to change the outcome of. Fortunately all that came out of it is a good story that will be retold many times.

For whatever reason, Pedro did not give me any problems the rest of the ride. But I made sure to hold on to the saddle horn tightly with my free hand as visions of a being in a rodeo danced around in my head. It was really funny when all the other horses had gone around a large bush, but not my Pedro. He decided to straddle it and then have a 30 second scratching session before moving on. I wasn't going to argue with him after what had happened with Nicole.

Susan's horse was a good horse. She did have one odd behavior though. At times there was a split in the trail and Cocoa wanted to go her own way and not follow the other horses. It is a good thing Susan has ridden horses before. It took a bit of convincing to get Cocoa back to the proper trail. In one water crossing she took the deep path. Susan ended up with soaking wet feet despite picking them up in the air.

Crossing a mostly dry riverbed

Time for a drink

We took a bit of a break after the ride and went back to the cabin for lunch and some down time. Nicole and David wanted to sit in the hot tub for a while. A three hour ride leaves you a bit sore. I never realized that horses are not the most comfortable mode of transportation.

You never know where you are going to meet wildlife. A pair of marmots had taken up residence under the ramp into the building with the hot tub. For those of you who don't know what a marmot is, think high altitude groundhog:

A very pudgy Yellow Bellied Marmot

We spent mid afternoon on driving a 42 mile scenic loop in the park. The Tetons are young mountains. As a result they have not been subject to as much of the rounding and softening effects of erosion. They are all sharp edges and towering rock, complete with glaciers. They seem to erupt from the base of the lakes and thrust skyward to 11-13,000 feet. Indescribable. Pictures don't convey it but here are a couple.

Tetons and Jenny Lake

Jackson Lake is the source of the Snake River, which winds its way across the West, eventually making it to the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean. Along the way the Snake has carved some big canyons that are very pretty but here at its source it is flat and peaceful, at least in the summer.

Tetons reflected in the Snake River. We stopped here to look for Moose. No luck.

While the scenery was stunning, we did not have much luck with wildlife. In particular we were looking for moose and eagles. We did see one golden eagle in the distance but not much else. I gassed the car in Moose, WY and we headed out on the northern leg of the loop. By the way I was happy to pay $3.99 to fill the tank. The 2 stations in the vicinity of our cabin were charging $4.29 and $4.59. Anyway, we had another of those chance moments. I had read that this one side road sometimes had wildlife. It was late and the kids were hungry but we decided to make a quick turn down this road. It was worth it.

Hundreds of bison happily munching away! No way to capture the entire herd in one photo.

Bison are big and have no reason to fear humans, at least not in the parks. They are happy to stand at the edge of the road or in the road. In fact pretty much anywhere they want. They have no fear of cars either.