The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

What an amazing day this was! We saw so many cool things!

We drove out of Pinedale just as it was getting light. As we headed north, the land became hillier and finally mountainous, with pine trees all around, streams by the road, and then dramatic cliffs and rock formations. My pictures can't begin to do justice to the grandeur of it all: the landscape is so wide and the mountains so tall. Before I come back here, I'm getting a better camera!

About 30 miles south of Jackson is a little town called Bondurant. This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It's in a bowl, surrounded by mountains. There are meadows flowing toward streams and rivers, and little A-frame houses and cabins dot the valley. There's a tiny center of town, but it's not touristy--yet. Barry, wanna buy some land?

Jackson is great. I can see why the Beautiful People like it here. Everything is geared toward tourists. There are hotels of all stripes, restaurants, pubs (note they're not called "bars"--that's uncool!), and everything is done up in Swiss-chalet "we're in the mountains" style. If I sound a bit sarcastic, it's just because Jackson is trying so hard. But it's gorgeous there anyway: how can you screw up a town that has the Grand Tetons in the background?

Just outside of Jackson we saw a MOOSE! Just standing by the highway! We pulled over to take a picture, and then realized it was just a statue some farm implements company had put up. We had a good laugh about it, and then a cop pulled up behind us. I was worried he was going to give me a ticket for stopping or something, but he just wondered if we needed directions. He was polite enough not to laugh when I told him why we'd stopped, but the corner of his mouth twitched. So we did our good deed for the day: now he has another "stupid tourist" story to tell all his buddies :)

We passed through and headed further north. At first, I took pictures every five minutes, but finally Lulu protested and I realized that there was a great view around every new corner, so I gave up.

Finally: Yellowstone.

As we drove into the park, a beautiful deer ran onto the road. I had plenty of time to stop, but he turned and ran before I could get a picture. Then we saw another one a bit further on. Lulu was thrilled, and so was I. Lulu said, "I didn't expect it to be so beautiful here!"

The first thing they tell you as you enter--and keep telling you; there are signs posted everywhere--is DON'T APPROACH THE WILDLIFE! According to their literature, about 100 people get gored by the bison every year. Bison are fast, and some people are slow and stupid. They also tell you (a la Yogi Bear) not to feed the bears, or anything else. And they tell you to slow down, so you don't run over the wildlife you came to see. Most people do that; in fact, they stop in the middle of the road and leave their cars to take pictures of things, sometimes.

In fact, I did just that myself. You can tell when there's an animal by the road, because everyone stops short to take a picture. At one point, there was a moose (a real one, this time) by the road, and the backup was half a mile long. Lulu and I finally gave up on waiting our turn and, like everyone else, walked up the road to see.

Lulu said, as we got back in the car, "Two deer and a moose! Good time, good times!"



We saw the moose, lots of elk, deer, a bison (from far away) and finally, a bear...sort of. Lulu waited all day to see a bear. That's the only thing I think she really cared about. And finally, at about 3 in the afternoon, there was one of those big crowds, this time with a ranger directing traffic. I asked him what everyone was looking at and he said, "A bear." I said, "Thank God! Finally!" and he laughed. I parked and we went over to see. The rangers were keeping everyone way back. Good thing, too: Lulu wanted to go over and give the bear a letter she'd written for him. It said: "Dear Bear, My family takes cares of sick, lost, and hurt animals. So if you're ever sick, lost, or hurt, come and find us and we'll take care of you. Love, Lulu." Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the bear had decided to take a nap behind some bushes. All we got to see was his head whenever he turned over. We waited for a long time, but he never got up. I took a picture of the clump of bushes. There really was a cute bear with black ears and a brown head back there!




But I've skipped the scenery. There's so much of it. Mountains everywhere. Rivers and waterfalls. Lakes. Geysers all over the place. I though it was just Old Faithful (which did not erupt while we were there--too bad), but they are spread through the whole west side of the park. Most of all, I didn't expect it to be so BIG! We drove around all day, and covered only a fraction of the park.


What struck me most, aside from the beauty of the place, was the fire damage. A huge fire in 1988 burned over half the park, and the damage is still apparent. It goes on for miles. You can see the new growth among the dead trees, and that makes it obvious how much was lost. There are areas that are quite light and open, which once, you can see, were densely forested and dark.




In the late afternoon, we headed out of the park. Just inside the north entrance is Mammoth Hot Springs, a very cute town, and on the median we saw a herd of elk, with lots of babies. Lulu wanted to get out and pet them all, but the rangers wouldn't let us get near, thank goodness.

As you leave the park, you pass through the town of Gardiner, Montana. It's a cute little place with (as you can imagine) lots of hotels and places to rent rafts, canoes, and other paraphernalia with which to endanger yourself in the wilderness.

North of Gardiner about 50 miles is Livingston, Montana. Livingston seems to be the hip new place to be. We stopped at the Albertsons there and there were, mixed in among the bemused locals, tons of L.A. types with face lifts, boob jobs, and Italian sandals. I'm not sure what the attraction is. It is a pretty place...

We stopped at the Best Western in Bozeman for the night, happy and exhausted. We went for a swim in the pool, and the water was the perfect temperature. Lulu said, "This is the bestest Best Western!" We had a good discussion about the merits of the various pools in the hotels we've stayed in, and several other people in the pool joined in. It was a good way to end the day.

Tomorrow, we head for Spokane and Grandma's house.