Paddle a Horse Up the River

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Geo: 45.0319, -110.705

Weather: High 80s and blue skies. Perfect weather from sunrise to sunset.
Location: Gardiner, MT/ Yellowstone
Highlights: Rafting and Horseback riding
Lowlights: Not seeing a moose or bear yet
#of Swearwords: If "my a&%!i(MISSING)s killing me" counts then 5 or more from each of us
People we met: Chelsa, our horse guide who has a daughter and son. She drives 90 minutes to help out on the ranch. She was the only one left because everyone went back to school. She was really nice and great with the horses. John our rafting guide who is from California and comes here to work in the summer and lives with all the guides on a "ranch" consisting of many different living arrangements including a TeePee and a bus. Mae, Peter, Lauren and Aubrey, a family that was on the same activity schedule with us.
Activities: Horseback riding in the AM and white water rafting down the Yellowstone river in the PM (Yellowstone Rafting Company's raft and ride package)
Hotel: Cowboy Cabins (still awesome!)
Helpful hint: Book ahead for HB & raft (they do allow cancellations). AM ride was warm but not uncomfortable and allowed time to go eat before rafting. PM warm/hot and water felt great. You will get wet.
Restaurants: K-Bar as suggested by guides for good pizza

We woke up again to a gorgeous morning. We had Blueberry pancakes over looking Yellowstone. We had an 11 AM horseback riding adventure up a winding road up the mountain behind our cabin. I got a little nervous that we would be riding along some death trail. We found the ranch high above Gardiner with Chelsa at the reigns. She had 9 horses ready to go. Another family from California joined us. Mae, Peter, Lauren and Aubrey. All of our kids combined were 7, 8 , 9, 10 and 11. They were really nice.

We all mounted our horses with a little apprehension because we were all new or fairly new at riding. These are mountain horses so they are able to climb up and down steep inclines. Believe me, we know. We rode for a couple of hours, about 8 miles she said. Believe me, my butt, our butts knew it. While it was fun, it is not all that comfortable. It is also a bit harrowing when they climb steep inclines. There was a lot of "lean into the climb" and "lean back down the hill." We saws animal bones and lots of sage along the top of the mountain. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. My horse always wanted to be near the front of the line (first or second). Elizabeth and her horse tried to pass us by when my horse Cisco was munching some flowers. Oh no, that wasn't going to happen. He bolted to make it back in front of her horse, Blaser. Paul had Beans, Matthew had ?? and Ben had Charlie.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed back to town to the rafting store. Signed our lives away and hopped into an old school bus to the river. There were two guides, John and, um, can't remember his real name but Matthew called him Rummy because he was this hippy-like guy who named every restaurant and what we good and what he likes to drink there. John was more conservative. He was our guide. Super friendly and good at rafting. We carried the raft down to the river in town. It was freakin' heavy. They can't carry it alone though I wished they would. I was nervous. Never been and never been with kids. It's one thing to worry about yourself, it's another to have to risk your life saving an offspring in danger. Then I realized we were all going to be ok and...wet!

This was a 2 hour rafting trip with multiple 2/3 rapids. It was so much fun. The same family we rode with was in our boat. The kids had fun together. Many of the daring things our kids did encouraged the other two kids to join in. I don't think they would have otherwise.

The kids ended sitting on the nose of the raft which I wasn't thrilled about at first because we would nose dive into the rapids. The kids loved it. Along the way, the kids got to jump in. John also played some games with them like bronco where they stand one the nose of the boat and we paddle and turn and try to knock them off. They loved that. Also another game of trust where they each take a paddle and try to lock the handles together and lean way back off the sides of the boat. Of course, the handles don't hold well and splash. He also took us to a natural spring leaking into the river. They've created a little hottub on the side. Super cool. HOT burning water flowing into the river. This kids mudded up their faces with Daniel...Rummy.

It was such a great day. We ended with dinner at a local pizza place. It was good, especially after a long day of riding and rafting. Our legs were sore and our back were tired. I felt like I paddled a horse down the river.

Tomorrow will be a bit more relaxed day before we hit the road again. Eating in and resting in one place has been the refresher we needed. Kids have been great. They've been sending postcards from each state back to themselves and others, collecting keychains and watching their 50 states videos when we are driving.

See you tomorrow.

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