Yellowstone

So here we are in Buffalo, Wy. It's pretty sweet sitting here at Erick Loden's and just chillaxing, watching a movie, and recovering from our long past couple of days.

It all started in Idaho Falls where we slept in the car, not the smartest cookies in the jar. I probably got about 5 mins of sleep, Luke probably got a couple more. Pretty smart. At least we were on the road by 6 am and were the first in the burger king. We also arrived in Jackson by 9 and were in Grand Tetons by 10.

It was beautiful. Cloudy, yes, but the overcastness actually made it beautiful in its own right. We hiked around for a bit but we decided that the Tetons were a place that you either could spend up to 2 hours or over 2 days.

Afterwards we went into Yellowstone. By this time we were getting tired but we still went over to Old Faithful and walked around that Geyser park area for a bit. I haven't been there in about 6 years and it's been even longer for Luke so it was awesome. I do recommend it.

Another great thing about Yellowstone is the complete amazing differences in scenery. At one moment you'll be driving through the geyser areas and then you'll be in an open valley before driving down a beautiful canyon. It's pretty sweet. Also, since we went in eary June, there weren't quite as many other people there though everything is relative, it was still pretty busy.

We spent the night in Madison in the campground. I we both slept much better though I still only got a few hours, the rain flap on Luke's tent doesn't quite cover everything and it is also on 5'11" long and I'm about 6'1". Still, sleeping in a tent is much more confortable than the car and we also got to swim in the river and relax for a bit. Luke even played some catch with the group who camped next to us and had a bunch of little children.

We woke up in the morning to a bunch of Bison roaming through the camp. Not your normal alarm clock. We left early again, around 8 am, and saw a few more sites, upper and lower Yellowstone falls, Mud Volcano, and Mammoth Hot Springs, before heading out the northeast entrance. This was actually the day for wildlife. Luke saw, and got a distant picture of some Grizzly Bears and we both also saw a brown bear, a big horn sheep, and a moose with a baby. Those are not things that one sees everyday.

It is also important that you all know that Wyoming is not a complete flat scrubland that it steriotypically is portrayed as. Some of the mountains we drove through over the Chief Joseph Senic Byway and on highway 16 over the Big Horn Mountains into Buffalo were beautiful. I would completely recommend it, if you have a lot of time.

Tonight, we're staying with our buddy Erick Loden in Buffalo. The family has been really gracious, feeding us dinner and giving us beds. We even got our first shower since Tuesday morning, a real blessing. Tomorrow we'll leave and head out for the Black Hills in South Dakota and find a place to stay there. As soon as possible we'll update you all again.

Cheers, Chrodge