Tuesday - Covered Wagon Ride & Cookout

Months ago I had booked this covered wagon ride and cookout, not really knowing what it would be like. It was amazing and will go down as a highlight of the trip. We left from a corral near Roosevelt Lodge in Yellowstone. The wranglers hitched up a team of Percheron to a covered wagon. The horses names were Jed and Jake. We traveled through Pleasant Valley. The scenery was amazing. We saw bison, coyotes, prong horns (the boys look like Elvis) and yellow bellied marmots. The wranglers were great story tellers and made us laugh. After about an hour in the wagon, we arrived to a flat spot in the valley. The food smelled so good! It was cool outside, but we were comfortable in our coats (so glad I threw them in the car last minute!). We were treated to steak, Rosie's baked beans, corn bread, coleslaw, watermelon, and apple crisp! YUM!

We also drank "cowboy coffee" made over the campfire served in a tin cup. It hit the spot! The kids played in a little pebble stream and Molly even did some cartwheels with the mountains in the background.  Soon a cowboy jumped up on a stump near the campfire and started singing and telling stories. We ended the campfire time with "Home on the Range". We were all smiles. 

Back on the wagon, we learned that the bison we saw on the way to the cookout had moved onto the trail and we would have to travel very near some grazing bison. These are the young male bison that have been driven out of the herd and they can be grumpy. Soon our wrangler said we would be bunching up the covered wagons and trotting the wagons past the grumpy bison. When bison raise their tales it means they are mad. Bison do not have good eye sight, so by bunching up the wagons and trotting past (while making lots of noise), they are intimidated and *should* not charge. Key word is should.... eeek!  So, Jed and Jake got a little antsy and started into a trot, the wranglers started yelling and waving their hats and we passed feet from two ticked off bison. You could say our hearts were racing! We made it past safely and arrived back at our car with full tummies and stories to tell.