When I Roll into the Wild Wild West: July 2013

As I write this I'm riding shotgun looking out a bug-splattered windshield (see below) at the dry Eastern Washington landscape. We're Seattle bound today and excited albeit a little sad because our Wyoming National Park venture is now over.

After Colorado we made our way to the Grand Tetons and after a ten hour drive we were so ready to get back into the woods that we drove right to the Signal Mountain trailhead to hike the summit, which has GRAND views overlooking the park. Signs all over warned us to be bear(y) aware and Jen thought she saw a Grizzly in the woods on our way down the mountain but alas the large bottom she saw was just a well fed and adorable elk. Baby had back. That night we splurged on pizza and beer at the Snake River Brewing Company in Jackson Hole before crashing in our beds at the hostel in Teton Village.

The next morning we said goodbye to beds and walls and headed toward our home of sleeping bags in the Canyon Village campground of Yellowstone, stopping first at a hike in the Tetons that my friend Davis recommended called Amphitheater Lake. It was a 10-mile hike through beautiful woods that passes by the glacial Surprise Lake ending at Amphitheater Lake. If you are ever in the Grand Tetons DO THIS HIKE! And listen to little boys when they tell you to hike up the rocks above the lake to get a great view. Its tough but man is it worth it! After eating lunch with our feet soaking in the water we hiked back down to finish our drive to Yellowstone.

Once in Yellowstone I got WAY too excited when I saw my first Bison so Jen dutifully pulled the car over so I could take a picture. Little did I know I was about to get my fill of Bison over the next four days. We also stopped by the West Thumb Geyser Basin to check out the hot springs and geysers, which left us smelling like sulfur but we didn't mind. Did you know that Yellowstone is basically one big Caldera?! Its one of the biggest volcanoes in the world! SO COOL! Or, hot, I guess. Its underground which is why the place is filled with hot springs and geysers and Jen told me theoretically its eruption is overdue so watch out now!

The next few days were filled with early morning sunrises, daily hikes, evening animal sightings including two wolves, a grizzly, black bear cub, antelope, two bald eagles, moose, a bunch of elk and a TON of bison... who literally walk on the road as if they own the place. I could have hugged about 17 of them who walked alongside our car (I didn't don't worry, they are super cute don't get me wrong, especially the babies, but they are about 800 lbs and I heard horror stories from rangers about parents who thought it would be so great to get a picture of their child on TOP of a bison's back...who DOES that?) We also met awesome people on trails, hung out with cool rangers, picked their brains about wolves, and picked up two female hitchhikers from Poland who are working in Yellowstone for the summer. They were very grateful for the ride despite being crammed between our luggage and our gnarly splintered walking sticks. We saw old faithful erupt, forded waters and swam in the boiling river which is a section of the Gardiner river where it meets hot springs creating a natural hot tub. We also had our tribulations; lost items, change of plans, facial showers with bear spray and hysterically inaccurate maps. Overall this was a crazy wonderful week and I'm still trying to shield my heart from fully realizing that we're driving away.

They say pictures are worth a thousand words, if that's true then why did I just type all this?!