Weasel "Ousel" Falls Hike



Ousel Falls



Tuesday, July 31, 2012     Ousel  Falls Hike

Again, another favorite morning of sleeping in- sooo nice!  We all had a relaxing morning until Dave whipped the kids (and me) into shape with a mile run (at over 8,000 feet).  The kids all did very well but I had a problem since my lungs seemed to be on fire.  The downside of being out of shape :)  But it is gorgeous scenery!

We had found this house through friends of Jan and Rob.  We had been told that we needed to do the "Weasel Hike".  Interesting name we thought but maybe there are a lot of weasels there????  So, that was what we planned for this afternoon.  When we reached the trail head, we realized that the name was not Weasel, but Ousel.  We were close....and decided we all liked Weasel better.  There were two interesting signs at the trail head that we don't usually see.  The first one was to watch out for Grizzly Bears in the area....?????????  YES WE WILL!  The second one was to report Noxious Weeds.  Again, ???????  Supposedly there are 4 different weeds that we need to report to rangers if we spot them and then they would be in BIG TROUBLE!!!!  All of this is so new to us.:)  Jan said that she could just NOT turn a weed in, they were too pretty.

So... off we are on our hike.  Again, just incredible scenery and a very pleasant path.  It leads down to a river which we cross over and then on into the hillside. There are waterfalls and canyons that the rivers runs through.  We came to a pool with steep canyon walls running up each side. The kids loved skipping stones here and clamoring over the rocks.  I thought that this was where the hike ended as it was so cool, but no...a little farther up, we found the Falls.



We had fun exploring up on top of the falls and below it.  It is amazingly beautiful, especially when the sunlight glistened off each water drop. Gorgeous!  We briefly walked about heading home to get swimsuits and water shoes so we could go swimming in the falls but then thought...NAH, lets just swim in our clothes.  So most everyone ventured in the falls.  It was slippery work crossing over on all those river rocks and the falls itself was merciless and very powerful. 



Chris getting pounded by
the waterfall.



We got so many amazing pictures and had so much fun exploring.  Christopher even discovered a room under the falls that most everyone entered. It was NOT EASY as the water was so powerful and VERY COLD.  Even Boppa made it out to the underwater room- Way to go Boppa!  It was fun to think that he had found a place that probably not many people know about.



Here is Dave in the Chrissy hotel

under the waterfall.  So cool!



We Praise You Lord!!!!!



My niece, Erin.



We took many pictures there, too many to post but we had some great silhouettes in front of the waterfall.  What an amazing time.  After everyone was sufficiently cold and hypothermia was again a concern, some of the kids slid down rock slides into the first pool that we had come upon.  They had fun sliding down the natural slopes, trying to catch fish and after a while, just trying to stay warm.



Sliding down the slides.



Our Master of Ceremonies!



 We had a nice walk home, warmed up in the hot tub and filled our tummys with a wonderful meal by Nanna.  That night Jonathan declared was to be "Game Night".  He banned the watching of the Olympics (at least until 9:30pm), made medals and we had a blast playing "All in the Family" and "Killer".  The rules to the game "Killer" are that you need to wink at others to get them out.  Oh, that is HILARIOUS, especially when there are people who can't wink.  What fun!  It was a wonderful night of playing games together.  Good job Jonathan!

Well, we are off to another day at Yellowstone tomorrow again (it is a BIG park), so time to get some sleep.  Thank you Lord for yet another incredible day, I don't want this trip to end.