Driving high above and in the dark (thankfully, not at the same time)
Day 7: July 20th
I’m on a roll here, so let’s continue with this journey! 4 more days!
Morning had us on a hike around Devil’s Tower. Despite it starting to rain and gust, we just plugged on through, and it ended up being a relaly nice walk. It would’ve been silly to make the additional trek to devil’s tower to have only seen it in the dark. In the light, the feeling of awe and majesty remained, like being an ant looking up at a tree. I took a picture of a climber making an ascent of Devil’s Tower. I’ve circled him in red.
We retreated from the inclement weather, and then started towards our next destination, Yellowstone Park, and the landscape on the way was pretty wild. I really enjoyed the juxtaposition of the lush greenery in the desert, even if it meant that they must have been pumping mad amounts of water to keep this stuff growing,
This would have totally kicked my ass if I did this drive in the dark. That place was amazing though. We ascended so quickly from the base of the mountain, up and up to alpine meadows, where we drove beside glaciers. At the highest point, we took a short break, and I got in touch with my inner mountain goat.
| By the time we arrived at the entrance to Yellowstone Park, and stopped at the nearby town for dinner, , it was pretty much dusk. It was really there that we first got a sense that something had changed. Maybe it was a West Coast influence, where we came out of the midwest and into a place where even the cuisine |  |
| had shifted, almost imperceptibly. Beyond that, there was something different in the people, mainly in those we worked there, at the restaurant. These were people, who had come to enjoy the park, rather than a place consisting mainly of immigrants who just were there, working tourist traps as they tried to escape something worse, or to discover America. Because I still hadn’t learned my lesson regarding hotels, I had booked a hotel on the other side of the park, in West Yellowstone. We didn’t want to lose money from our reservation, so off we went, booking it across Yellowstone in the dark. I suck royally at night driving, and Katie swooped in and saved the day, making the brutal 2 hour drive in the forest at night. It was damn epic. We drove right past buffalo walking down the opposite side of the road, the same way people do when they are stumbling home from the bar. It was scary in how we didn’t see him until we had almost driven right past him, his shagginess absorbing all the light. At certain parts, we knew we were driving past geysers, not from the sight of them, but rather, from the smell of them. Perhaps most amazing of all was the incredible night sky. Being so far away from the any city, the light pollution was next to none, so we stopped at an overlook, and looked at the Milky Way sweep across the sky. We stood outside leaning on Ezra as we gazed upwards at the wonder above for a few precious moments, before we couldn’t bear the feeling of being eaten alive by the hordes of mosquitoes who had found us serving ourselves to them on a platter. Finally, we made it to the motel, and inside, a bag of free samples! Sweet! | |
Yay, good job plowing through this huge blogging exercise you set youself! I’m having a great time reliving the trip through your words and photos.
Comment by Katie — July 11, 2007 @ 10:47 pm
Thanks for the support, love!
It’s not as impressive as your nanowrimo, but liek you said, it’s great reliving all of this…
the next couple days is kind of short though. we didn’t really do much except drive and freak out a bit. hahaha
Comment by A Vagrant Ant — July 12, 2007 @ 8:41 am
yeah, im really glad u’re finally finishing this. it’s great to hear all the wonderful things u two did. makes me kinda wish jo was my boyfriend … that or i want to go on a road trip (with jo & co.) again … the tradition must live on!
perhaps when i get back from hk … (not likely considering how busy u now are)
Comment by mark — July 21, 2007 @ 2:33 am
yeah, a road trip would be pretty rad, dude, not sure if i can go on any kind of extended one this summer though… i’ve already taken like a week off this summer….
Comment by A Vagrant Ant — July 22, 2007 @ 9:28 pm