When they were still in limbo on their golf fate, we decided to head to the Ousel Falls trail and hoped that the rain would stop. We sat in our car for just a couple of minutes at the trailhead and then the rain did stop! Woohoo!
It was a lovely, though damp, trail through a forest that led down a hill to the West Fork Gallatin River and some waterfalls. The earlier rain meant we had the trail nearly to ourselves!
I love a good mountain stream/river! So peaceful and pristine.
This trail kept right by the river and crossed it a few times with some really nice bridges!
Finally, after a 0.8 mile hike, we reached the big waterfall, Ousel Falls. There were a few different vantage points, and we enjoyed the fine spray coming off of the falls. But we received word that our friends were waiting at Lone Peak brewery, because golf had been cancelled at the last minute, so we made the return trip up the hill to the car and back down to town pretty quickly.
We found our friends, and the kids (Owen and Carson) picked up as if they'd never been apart. Hadley always takes a bit longer to warm up. We had a rushed, but expensive, dinner at the brewery and pressed on to Bozeman.
It took the kids a while to settle down once we got to their house, but we had a busy next day planned, so they did get some rest eventually. Our first stop in the morning was at the Museum of the Rockies. We had visited this museum before, but it was great to see it again when the kids were a little older.
New for us this time was the Living History Farm. They relocated a house built in 1889 to the museum and have volunteers that demonstrate life at the turn of the century. They even had their own garden with 19th-century crops.
Inside, they had a working kitchen, manual clothes washer, and a loom that the kids could try their hand at. They were enrapt by the hard work that went into life 100 years ago! And the volunteers made sure that it was clear the pioneer kids did their fair share of household chores. Everyone had work to do on a farm just to maintain life.
Hadley was a good sport in modeling a girl's dress and even played us a song on the piano!
The water pump was a hit. The farm encourages visitors to not waste the water and to put it on the plants instead, so that's what we did!
Then we got back to the dinosaur exhibit, which is what they are really known for.
MoR also had a traveling exhibit on Genghis Khan, which was really interesting. I guess I did not know much about GK, so I learned a lot. The boys liked the weaponry; Hadley did not like the ceremonial masks.
Reagan rejoined us after her dance camp, we had a tasty, albeit slow lunch, and then we headed west to Lewis and Clark Caverns. The weather did not look to be our friend again, but we drove through a short, intense downpour just before arriving there, and then the rain was over. Lucky us!
We timed it pretty well to get on the next guided tour (the only way to go down in the caverns). Just a few spare minutes to potty and layer up for the hike and caves.
It was a bit of a hike (0.75 miles uphill) to the cavern entrance, but the scenery was beautiful, and there were fossils to find periodically in the rock along the trail.
Reagan and Hadley became little trail buddies and insisted on being first pretty much through the whole cavern tour. I guess it's a second child thing...
Group pics! Melissa is a picture taker, like me, so I actually get to be in some pictures. :) We had to be quiet near the entrance because it was bat baby time, and if momma bats are startled, they drop babies to their death! We got to see a cluster of bats inside, which was pretty awesome, but I did not get a picture since they were far away and I didn't want to kill any bat pups.
I think this was the kids' first cave experience, and Owen was a little unsure about it, but they ended up having a great time! The girls loved leading the tour group, the older kids enjoyed seeing the different cave formations and bats, and near the end the guide turned out the lights for a minute or two of total darkness. Both kids clung to me and we marveled at not being able to see our hands in front of our faces.
I will say that as caves go, this one had a few extra-snug passages. This isn't a great picture, but it's of the "Beaver Slide", a part where you actually had to sit down and scooch on your bum to get through. This led to "Backscratcher Alley" where you had to waddle pretty low to keep your back from hitting the rock ceiling.
The Caverns had a long path that went up and down quite a bit. The trail map claims 600 stairs on this tour! Near the end we came to this one marking 5,280 feet above sea level. Weird to think about that while you are underground.
It was an impressive passage through the mountain. Before total darkness, the guide also showed us what the candle light version would have been 100+ years ago when a local entrepreneur led the first tours into the caverns. It was quite different than the pre-lit sections they have today! He also apparently encouraged tour-goers to break off thousands of stalagmites and stalactites to take with them as souvenirs. So sad to see that irreparable damage!
But there were still lots of intact features, especially further inside the caverns. To exit the cave, we walked through a very long tunnel to the side of the mountain.
The walk back was much easier (i.e. flat), and we checked out some of the original photographs from the early days of spelunking tour groups in the visitor center. The girls liked the faux cave - guess they didn't get enough real cave..?
It was a short visit, but we packed a lot into our time together. And the kids still found some time to play (and dance!) together. So cute!
I can't say enough about these friends and what they meant to us in Idaho! I'm so glad we still get opportunities to meet up and catch up like old times. Love them!
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