Firehole Swimming Hole

So this was a memorable part of our trip.  We were headed for Firehole Swimming Hole on our last morning in the Park.  I was of half a mind to just skip it and keep going.  So, I surveyed the crowd "who wants to go swimming?"  Josh of course wanted to and Daniel and Macey said no.  I almost, nearly, just about tried to talk Josh out of it but some small part of me insisted that I let him have whatever adventure he wanted to have and so we stopped.  Thanks goodness for Josh and his ever-chipper mood!!

Daniel refused to get out...he was done with "adventures".  Macey, grudgingly, agreed to go down, but not to swim.  I did not even put my suit on. I figured Josh could dip his toes in, "swim" if he wanted and we'd be back to the car in 20 minutes.  Josh, with joy, changed into his swimsuit and off we went. 

The swimming hole is down a series of wooden stairs and across some rocks...only the nimble dare try it.  We, of course, met the requirements.  Once down to the actual level of the water, the water runs between a sand/dirt beach on one side and and woods that gradually rise to mountains on the far side.  Past the "beach" the water spills over a wide, low waterfall so the "swimming area" is bound on the left by the swimming hole and the right by the waterfall.  Since this is only one of two places in the park where you can legally swim, its not hard to see that the park might have viewed this as a relatively contained area which, all things considered, was safer than some other places might be. 

The actual "swimming hole", perhaps 20 feet in diameter, is around a bend to the left and across a swath of foot-deep water (a foot with toes on it, not a foot as measured on a ruler).  The water enters the swimming hole by pouring in between rising rocks in a rapid almost flat waterfall, swirling in the "hole" and then rushing out in the wider river.  The hole is surrounded on the far side by slick rocks that rise far up into the sky and on the near side by underwater rocks that go from 5 inches under to 10 feet under in a space of no distance at all.  The water is fast moving, reacting to the pressure from the rapids and spinning around the hole before it escapes to the river where the beach is.  Its quite the set up.  And quite cold. 

Josh did some dipping on the beach and then we went across the very sharp, very slippery rocks to the swimming hole.  A family of five was swimming there, the dad and the three kids in the water, the mom taking pictures.  Seriously, if it were not for seeing them having so much fun we would have missed out on one of our favorite parts of the trip.  We decided we would swim too, so I left J and M sittting on a log with very stern instructions and I went back up to the car to get Daniel and mine and Macey's swimsuits.

Daniel, in a fit of pique, refused to come down.  Finally I just told him it was not negotiable, he had to get his suit and come down, I would not let him miss this.  If, after getting down there he did not want to swim, I would not make him get in the water, but he DID have to come down.  Boy was he pissed.  I might as well have been telling him to clean toilets with his bare hands.

So, I changed into my suit right there on the side of the road in between the car doors.  If someone had popped out of the woods right beside the car they would have had quite the view.  Otherwise, no worries! 

Down we went, Daniel pouting the whole way, me hoping that J and M actually did what I told them to do and stayed sitting.  There they were, very obediently waiting for us.  Macey changed behind a towel, Daniel stood there with his arms folded, and we went swimming.  Daniel took some pictures but still refused to get into the water.  Stinker.  We swam for about 30 minutes, mostly in the hole itself, enjoying it immensely.  The water was COLD, but once you were submerged it was certainly tolerable.  We were nearly done when Daniel decided, well, it looks like too much fun and he had to join us.  So we stayed for another half an hour so he could swim too.  Very fun.

The one thing we did not do was hike around the big rocks and go down the rapids.  The family that was there before us was going down in just their suits, the dad and the older kid anyway.  Then as we were leaving there was a group of teenagers there with lifejackets going down the rapids.  With the kids in tow, especially Josh, there was no way I could try it out.  But its now on my bucket list for the next time I go to YNP...go down the rapids at the Firehole Swimming Hole.

A couple of other memorable moments...Macey's flip flops floating down the river, our clothes falling off a rock into the water and being rescued by a kind stranger, josh nearly losing his grip on the rocks and floating off down the river, finding the perfect "spot" to sit just in the swimming hole. 

Looking down from the stairs at the beach.  You can't see the actual swimming hole from this point of view.

Josh dipping his toes in the water.  It was so clear!

Its deceptively shallow where J is...about 10 feet out it gets deeper and the water starts moving pretty fast.  The Actual Swimming Hole is ahead of him, around those rocks on the left.

What a setting for a swim!  As with most of our trip, there were no crowds and
only a handful of people to share the wilderness with.  Late August was a perfect time to be in YNP.

The Lake

So this was an interesting day for us...we started out in Driftwaters with the intent of stopping in Firehole Canyone (cause we had cruised through there but not stopped before and we were considering swimming there) then on to the Lake Area, then sprint for Cody.  Took way longer than we thought...we ended up missing all the places where we could eat (they had closed by the time we got there) and finally ate lunch at like 3 in the afternoon.  Chalk that one up to a day of just seeing how it would play out.  For us, it worked...there are those out there for whom such a willy nilly no set agenda go with the flow "plan" would not...for us, it was a perfect fit!

Continental Divide in YNP

Day 8: Driftwaters to Firehole Canyon Swimming Hole, the Continental Divide, Lake Area on to Cody, WY and the rodeo

On our way out of the park we did some messing around on the YNP sign.  This was the East Entrance, after leaving the Lake area and heading to Cody.  This stretch of YNP is not for the weak of heart.  We were at some seriously high elevations.  I don't know this for sure as I was not paying attention to this sort of thing but this may have been the highest we got on our whole trip.  Not the entrance signs, mind you, but the journey there.  Not many animal sightings but some spectacular views.  It also took FOREVER...this was the one stretch of the park that took way longer than we expected it to take.  And the trip from YNP to our next stop in Cody?  Also stunning terrain with fantastic views but boy, did it take a long time to get from one place to the next.

S'mores with Uncle Steve

All week Daniel really, really wanted to start a fire.  Why, you might ask?  Because he's an 11 year old boy.  He and Uncle Stephen made a fire and we made s'mores a couple of nights.  This night Josh was just done so I took him home and the big kids got to stay and hang out with Uncle Stephen, looking at the Milky Way and the shooting stars.  What a night! 

Day 7: Train from Virginia City to Nevada City..and back again

 The kids are holding their vials of stones from their mining adventure.  Mining was interesting in that we were given metal pans just like the old timers would have used back in the day and we got to do exactly what they would have done...fill the pan, wash the water over it, tilt and shake and get rid of the top layer, do it over, then again, then again.  It was really beautiful day, actually hot at times, and the train was cute and the trip between the "Citys" was actually the perfect length...long enough to enjoy, short enough you did not get bored. 

One thing that happened was that Macey dropped a stick of gum on the little runner where our feet rested after the train started and we tried desperately not to let it fall off but alas, we were unsuccessful.  We could not unbuckle our seatbelts or we might have fallen off (literally...the seats were pretty narrow)...you were kind of sort of just perched there.  That was hilarious at the time.  We also saw a "V" etched into the top of one of the mountains and Josh and I spent some time trying to figure out what it stood for.  One of our train companions, a very nice lady from Salt Lake City, leaned over and suggested that perhaps it stood for "Virginia" as in "Virginia City". Umm, yeah, she was probably right. 

Chubby the buffalo made the journey....there was much angst about making sure he did not fall off of the train or get left behind.

Day 7: Virginia City & Nevada City

OK, in the interest of full disclosure I have to say that this particular day was a bit of a waste...which I hate to say because it was ok and nothing was wrong with it but...  Just another day.  Which maybe we needed in the middle of all the extraordinary things we were seeing, and we had high hopes for it, but it was just kind of blah.  It was fine because we had plenty of time and it was a "decent" side trip but really, at the end of the day, all we did was a spend a day just kind of doing nothing special.  I am sure the tourist bureaus in VC and NC would have something to say about this comment, but well, there it is.  They are advertised as old mining towns with an authentic feel.  All I thought they were was old mining towns with a tourist trap feel.  Disappointing may be the right word.  Mom and I were both interested in seeing an old mining town but it just was not what we expected.  The food was mediocre...the boys and I had pizza (again) and Mom and Macey had some kind of pasta at a different place.  We rode the train between Virginia City and Nevada City which was fun, but more along the lines of something that little kids would like, not my 11 and 9 year olds.  We did mine for gold, which the kids were totally psyched about and which was one of the main reasons why we really went there to begin with (my kids love mining for gold/rocks/etc...who doesn't???) but the guy running the mining thing was very clear at the beginning (and he was spot on) that we were looking at already sifted through dirt, were unlikely to find anything worth anything, and to keep a close eye out because even if we had something it was probably teeny tiny and we'd have to find tons of these to make anything of it.  I say "at the beginning" but really, the beginning was buying combo train tickets and mining passes from the booth in Virginia City well before we could see the mining operation or talk to the dude, who was in Nevada City.  So, while we spent a relatively pleasant day where nothing went wrong and no one was bored, it was also a day of nothing special.  We could have spent the day just as happily hanging out at our cabin at Driftwaters and saved the two+ hours in the car and the cost of the train/mining thingy that we did.  So, just something to keep in mind.  Note that we did not even walk around in Nevada City, having departed the train and set off straight for the mining, and when we knew the train was coming back we sprinted back to the depot to make the return trip.  So maybe we missed out on the coolest thing that this day had to offer.  But I doubt it.  The train only ran every hour or so and we did NOT want to be stuck there for another hour.  Anyway, nothing bad happened and we did meet a couple of nice people who we chatted with (I am not much the chatter so this was actually a "thing" for me) and it was "fine" but it certainly doesn't hit the highlights list. Though, this picture of the kids with mom does: