College boy’s university, University of South Florida (USF), has a geological sciences field station in Idaho. He’s there now taking three, two week, 2 credit each classes. The first two week class finished up and the profs took the students to Yellowstone. The students have the weekend free, so my son and his buddies are heading to Grand Teton National park to hike and camp.

Anyway, he sent some pictures. In the one with the tents, his is the green one on the left in the back. I taught him how to pitch a tent. He’s the kid with the bright yellow shirt in the picture below:

I found the hot springs in Yellowstone the most interesting feature.

Looks fun! Where's that rock cave/hole located?

Awesome! I love that part of the country, and I'm sure your son is having a blast.

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Originally posted by m499:
Looks fun! Where's that rock cave/hole located?

I'm curious about that as well.

That’s Indian Tunnel Cave in Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. It’s hard to see in the other two pictures, but he’s climbing around on the left side of the pile of rocks.

This is Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park. He says he went swimming in it:





I’m sure he’s having a blast. I can’t find it now, but he sent a picture of his hand touching snowpack; his first time seeing snow.

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his first time seeing snow.

Don't you guys have a house in Michigan? Sounds like a winter up there is in order!

The Tetons are great. Crowded and very regulated, but very beautiful. We swam in that same water, but further south in the river between Leigh and Jenny Lakes. Kids had a blast ..we may do it again this summer.

We do and we are here for the summer, but it's not easy to get to and we have a dog that doesn't fit under an airplane seat, so getting here is a process. Usually, I drive up with the dog, one kid, and pickup my wife and two other kids at the airport in either Detroit or Flint on the second day of driving. It just doesn't work to come up for a week.

This is the first summer he hasn't been here.

My daughter has been to NYC and Boston in the winter. It was 15 degrees with over a foot of snow on the ground when she was in Boston this past winter.

The youngest doesn't want to miss duck season in Florida. I just gotta say, compared to the Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin, duck season in Florida is OK.

Winter is the true Michigan outdoor recreation season...hunting, snowmobiling, ice fishing, etc....and best of all no bugs! But it's also cold as heck, hard to get around, and the salt will eat your car. I don't blame you for staying in FL during those months...we usually try to escape it for a week or two between January and March whenever we can, and go down to the in-laws in Pensacola.

It's awesome that your sun is getting to experience all of that. Wyoming is my favorite place in the whole country, and that trip sounds like an opportunity of a lifetime. Keep us posted if he sends you pics of any more cool stuff!

Born in Detroit, but spent 24 years in Wisconsin, so I get winter. I spoke to a woman yesterday who had to break her outswing screen door apart, dig snow, and carry it to her kitchen sink to get out of her house this year because 8’ snow drifts had block all her windows and doors.

I got a message from one of my generators that said it couldn’t start. There was nothing wrong when I got up here, but I suspect it was buried in snow and couldn’t get air flow.

As happy as my son looks out there is the same the same happiness I see in my daughter in her pictures from NYC hence why she’s going to NYU this fall. I can’t figure out where I went wrong with her.

Son did a 10 mile hike by Jenny Lake this morning:

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Originally posted by trapper189:

Son did a 10 mile hike by Jenny Lake this morning:

Gorgeous! That's the same area (possibly the same hike) where we had a Grizzly cross the trail less than 10 yards in front of us. Definitely too close for comfort, but he wasn't interested in us at all, and seeing him really was a highlight of the trip.

Well, I won't be telling my wife about that. She's already worried that he's too close to the wildfires in Utah and she saw that woman with the dog grizzly encounter on the national news.

And here we go, a couple of tree huggers:





Son says there were 3 cubs and the mom. My wife is not happy.

Cute little buggers! I imagine the mom maybe not so much, though!

Great photos and stories!

His Geophysics field class finished yesterday, today is a free day, and the students will all be heading home to Florida tomorrow. I don’t know what stops my son and his buddies are planning other than they’ll be driving through Texas on the way back.

Mount McCaleb, the 33rd highest peak in Idaho at 11,682’:






He went up Borah Peak, Idaho’s tallest at 12,662’, but turned back at Chicken-Out Ridge. He said it looked sketchy. Fair enough for a kid born and raised in Florida.

Fantastic pics!

He’s on his way home, so last picture from Outwest:


In the last year, he’s been New Mexico, Death Valley, Playa del Carmen - Mexico, and now this 6 week field camp. I’m jealous, seriously. Geology is a way better major in college than Finance and Accounting. I went to the Chicago Board of Trade and watched guys in colors flashing gang signs at each other, whoopie.

I could go out West, but no. I’m stuck going here at the end of August to move my Florida born and raised daughter into her dorm:



I’ve been watching videos of how people get away with sleeping in their cars in a parking garage to save on hotel costs. Just the parking at one hotel was $80! If my son can sleep in a tent for 6 weeks, I can sleep in the minivan in a parking garage in the 10003 zip code for one night.