Jones Hole

My parents came down for a visit, but apparently I didn't think to get my camera out.  They ended up staying just the weekend and then took Braden home with them.  That left Dan and I with just two kids so we decided to go do something fun at Jones Hole fish hatchery.  I thought it was great since I've never been to a hatchery before.  The little fish were so stinking cute.  

Since all my boys love any type of fish they enjoyed this little trip too.  

The Rangers that work there are really nice and took a picture for us.  They also warned us that a bear had been sighted in the area and had charged several hikers, so that ended our plans for a nice long hike.  The day was still fun though.

We walked up the path towards the river and did a lot of exploration, but as I said before we had to stay close to the hatchery.  We didn't ever spot a bear though.  Look how clear that water was.

The ranger gave Landon a little explorers pack with all kinds of stuff in it.  Here he's holding the binoculars.  

This net also came in the explorers pack which Dalin found useful in collect all kinds of disgusting creatures.  He found tons of little larvae of some kind or another.

Landon kept a stash of larvae, worms, and water skeeters in his little explorers cup. It had a magnifying glass on top so he could look through and see them.  We carted those poor things all over the trail.  

I didn't get a picture of it, but as we went down the path we came to a small waterfall which had created a bit of a pool.  Dan, being himself and all, decided to go for a swim and see how deep it was.  Yes, in his clothes.  Turns out it was way over his head, so deeper than we thought it would be.  I was standing on top of a huge rock with Landon looking down over him and Dalin so we could see the big fish.  The water was murky so it was hard to see but Dan kept saying "look there by my legs I can feel them swimming past my legs".  I looked and looked and saw nothing, but then a few minutes later saw a huge thing come up and surface and then go back under.  I looked like the biggest fish I had ever seen in a river so small.  We kept looking and pretty soon discovered it wasn't a fish at all.  It was a river otter.  It jumped out of the pool and ran up the opposite side of the mountain.  Dan and I just stared at each other dumb-founded.  He could've literally reached his hand down and touched the thing.  He had felt it brush against his legs several times.  So now Dan can say he's been swimming with an otter.  Hahaha.