Island Park (Mack's Inn)

 Last week Tiff and I headed up to Mack's Inn in Island Park for a few days of fun.  A good friend of mine, Drew, works up there and runs a dinner theater.  He hooked us up with the cabin below and dinner and show every night we were there.

The cabin was nice and cozy, and most import kept the animals out.   Our first adventure up there was a drive up Sawtell Peak.  Sawtell Peak, the picture below, is one of the great peaks that overlooks Island Park and sits right around 10,000 feet in elevation.

 The drive was beautiful and scenic until the very end when the road switch backs up the mountain.  Luckily no cars passed us because there was no way I was getting over in my lane.  I usually don't get too nervous around high cliff roads, but this one dropped off thousands of feet and was pretty scary.

 Up on top it was nice and flat with a 360 degree panoramic view of Island Park.  The air was smoky with all of the wild fires burning in the area, so some of our views were limited.

 Behind me is the great Henry's Lake that I fished last year, and will be returning to again in October.

If this picture was clear, you would be able to see, Island Park reservoir and a lot of the Henrys Fork of the Snake River.

 The next morning we planned a hike along Targhee Creek.  This was suppose to be a nice easy hike, but the only draw back was that this area is the home of a Grizzly Bear.  Hiking in Grizz country, where one has been spotted frequently had Tiff on edge.  So we brought along a little bit of extra gear.  Our two cans of bear spray were probably plenty, but you never can be too careful.

 The trail followed along side Targhee Creek for the first 3 miles and then starts to switch back up the mountain.  We followed the trail for about 3.5 miles before deciding to turn around.

 There were a couple of places where we had to cross the creek and the thick trees had Tiffany really nervous.  We read that you should make a lot of noise while hiking in bear country, which Tiffany did a lot of. 

What was that noise?

 Floating the Henry's Fork River.

Part of the Henry's Fork comes out of Henry's Lake but the other part is a spring creek and you can see big bubbles of water coming right out of the ground.

 Some German dude built this cabin years ago right where the water comes out of the ground.

 We floated a 5 miles section of the river in a canoe.  The river is very calm, as you can see, with absolutely no rapids.

 It was a very scenic float, and Tiff quickly figured out how to paddle a canoe by herself, since I was fishing half of the time.

 On our whole trip we did not see any animals except for some baby ducks in the river. 

In the evening we went to the Playhouse dinner theater for a prime rib dinner and a show.  We saw two different shows: Three Amigos, and one Drew wrote called Home School Musical.  Drew is one of the funniest people I have ever met.  A lot of times he would start to make stuff up on the fly, and at times had the whole cast and audience in tears laughing.  If you are every in Island Park, you definitely need to stop and see one of his shows.  Our last night there, they pulled two people from the audience, which one happened to be me.  Drew promised that it was a mistake, however he did embarrass me pretty good and had me sing "I'm a little tea pot" by myself.

Drew in Home School Musical. He is the lady.

JULY

 Early in July we went up in the mountains with some friends of ours to hang out for the day.  We spent a lot of the afternoon taking the boys on 4 wheeler rides.  They were hooked, much better than walking around!

 Later that afternoon before we went home, Andrew took us to a place he found while he was exploring on his 4 wheeler.  The boys absolutely loved this place and crawled around on the rocks and bridges for a good hour.

Ty and Justin inside the walls

Top view of the walls

Tyson climbing a cool stairway

 There were about 3 different bridges connecting the different areas together.

 A few weeks ago, the boys and I went up to Matt-Warner to meet up with an old professor of mine.  We rowed around the lake for about an hour while the Jace and Zack trolled their lures.  Zack really wants to be a fisherman when he grows up.

 The fish below was awesome.  I think he is as fat as he is long.

 Later that day we cruised down the road to Jones Hole to fish a bit more.

 Jace and Zack's favorite part of the whole trip was wading up the stream.  Zack had long pants on with his cowboy boots, but insisted that he was getting in too.

 Tyson 2nd Birthday (7/15/2012)

 Tyson had just woke up from his nap and would not open up presents on his own.

Not quite sure what it is!

 Tyson was afraid to open up his big present, so he just peeked inside to see what it was.

 All the boys putting together Tyson's big wheel bike.

 Zack's 5th Birthday (7/20/12)

 For Zack's birthday when went up to Pole Creek campground for dinner, cake and ice cream and some rafting fun.

 Zack's big present was a new bike. 

 All week long Jace and his friends have been taking our little rafts down the canal behind our house. Since Jace has been using the rafts without him, Zack had been begging us to get out and use the rafts too.

 The rafts had some small holes in them from the older boys this week, but everyone seemed to stay afloat.

 Jace left to Salt Lake with the Mons family on Sunday the 22nd of July for a week of fun.  Zack cried when he left, and the next day he spent the ENTIRE day in his pj's watching TV.  Finally around 7:00 pm he got dressed and said, "Well, I am ready to play."  He got on his bike and found some of the neighborhood kids to ride with for a bit.  After that we decided we had better plan some activities to keep him busy.

 

 We hiked up a canyon just a few miles from our house where Ashley Creek comes out of.

 Carrying the boys!

 On the 24th of July we got up early and drove over to Spirit lake.  From there we took a trail that looped around to Jessen and Tammarack Lakes.

 

Jessen Lake

 Taking a break by Jessen Lake.

 Tyson grabbed one of the fishing rods we brought along and thought he was cool trying to fish on his own.

 Our destination was really to a lake called Judy, which did not have a trail to it.  After about 20 minutes of trying to cross thick forest with fallen trees everywhere and even running across a fresh bear track, we decided that we would not be making it to Judy Lake with the kids.

 There was a big beautiful meadow where we stopped and fished for awhile.  We even saw a big old moose standing way off in the distance.

 Over all we hiked 4 miles and saw 3 lakes.