The Krells Came to Town
A Family Adventure
The big day finally arrived! Erica’s family road tripped out to Yellowstone to see us and to experience all the amazing wonders of the park. What started as talk last year, gained momentum and turned into a multi-family vacation to Yellowstone. The crew consisted of Erica’s parents, Jackie and Jason, Sisters, Emma and Lizzy, brother, Jack, grandma, Jackie, aunts, Greta and Marla, uncle, Clint, and cousins, Ireland, Avery, AJ, and Mick. There was talk of piling in a few RVs and camping in the park but in the end they decided to rent a house out in Wapiti, WY, outside the East entrance to the park.
Backpacking Slough Creek
The Krell men, Jason, Clint, AJ, Jack, and Mick, joined Davin for a backcountry camping and fishing on Tuesday, July 7th. After some discussion evaluating available campsite options the decision was made to venture up Slough Creek to camp at 2S4, 7.1-miles from the trailhead. Although the mileage was a bit more than targeted, the site was selected as the hike is one of the flattest in the park and Slough Creek is one of the premier Cutthroat Trout streams in the country.
The hike gets a vast majority of its elevation gain out of the way right away as it ascends 400ft in the first mile. Once at the top a bit of doubt as to whether this crew was going to be able to make it to the campsite as the boys were all begging for food. However, after a quick snack and a dowsing of bug spray the boys recovered and the rest of the trip to the campsite exceeded expectations as we averaged 2.5mph on the trail.
The campsite was tucked into the woods along a bend in the creek. After we were able to find a suitable tent site away from the bear-pole we settled in for an afternoon of fishing. You could see the large Cutthroat clinging to the bends in the river and we were able to fish for them right next to our campsite. Everyone was able to catch a fish except Davin and Mick — Davin for lack of fly-fishing skill and Mick for lack of interest. However, after hours of watching fish swim around the fly Davin finally decided to at least catch a few fish with the camera. Unfortunately, the fishing ended before many pictures were taken of the successful fishermen. We did end up releasing all the fish as they were all protected Cutthroat except for one Rainbow Jack hooked but it fell off right before it could be landed.
The evening brought a brief rainstorm but everyone took it in stride. We kept the fire going through the rain and dried by its warmth for a while before the Krell family retired for their 8:30 bedtime. I guess a little hiking went a long way to draining the batteries after a few long days in the car.
Visiting Old Faithful
On Wednesday the men hiked out from their backcountry site and the ladies awoke in Wapiti to drive into the park for a reunion at Old Faithful. Per Erica’s guidance the ladies stopped in at the Canyon Area to view the Lower Falls on their way to Old Faithful.
Once everyone was at our cabin we rallied the troops and walked over to Old Faithful to catch the next eruption. We got to the visitor center in time to take in the informational post and peruse the gift store a bit before Old Faithful entertained the crowds with a timely eruption. After the show everyone stopped in at the Geyser Grill for a bite to eat, took a peak inside the historic Old Faithful Inn, and then piled into the cars for a return trip to the Wapiti house.
Rafting Cody
Thursday was designated as the family rafting day in Cody, WY. The clan awoke and was out the door by noon for our rafting adventure. We dropped into the Shoshone River on the West side of town and rode the rapids, up to class 3, for a few hours down river. The river was a good family friendly trip. The rapids were controllable so nobody unwillingly went out of the boat but with a well-guided entry you could still get some decent splashing over the bow.
It was great to see family again and we are really honored so many people used their summer vacation to come see not only Yellowstone but us as well. It was great to get to share a little bit of this place we have come to love so deeply. It seems like there is never enough time to show visitors all that we would like and this visit was no exception. We had a great time and look forward to the next time we can share this place with them.
