our first buffalo

Butt aches, and other whines

Okay, 10 hours in the car yesterday, and ten hours, so far today....with an hour to go....and it was a supposed to be a SHORT day today!  But the journey involved various turn-outs and photo ops!  

And....our rump-roasts are talking back!!!!  So are our hips and every other joint.  I cannot describe how cramped we are.  Nobody but the driver, John can extend his legs.  Two coolers, stacked between the front two seats, held in place by a book-laden backpack, supported by a Colman lantern plastic hard-case,that has become my arm rest in this journey, epitomize our storage situation.

the kids have not gotten wild or punchy.  I'm proud of them.....

(BTW, an ocean sized lake just appeared on my east side/right: Yellowstone Lake.)

Unfortunately, Taylor Swift whines about yet another guy who left her,slipping through her hands....bye-bye baby....Argh!!!  Thankfully we have have a limit to the number of TS songs per day!! 

We also had to endure Taylor Hicks, an American Idol....worst winner ever! "Do I make you proud!!"  ...off key,of course.  Do any Taylors know how to sing?

Okay!   Honesty check!!  Some vistas in Yellowstone, aren't:  beautiful, that is....but the people in the car still are!

Fortunately we're staying in a cabin at least for tonight.  It's pricier than in NYC, seriously, but at least we'll be safe from bears and moose, plus we won't have to set up camp tonight.  We need to be up early for our Saddle and Paddle expedition tomorrow!  

John and the boys do the S&P on Wed, so tomorrow they'll find us a campsite that's $15/night, with a vault toilet, whatever that is.

Until later....

Buffalo really DO walk through your campsite!

At Norris campground:

a buffalo butt

a buffalo head

There are at least 3 here!  

Beauty and the beast

Anna thinks she is going to die.  "I came on this trip to have fun, NOT TO DIE!!!"(eye to eye with bison bull)

Maybe we should stick with the $235night cabin!

Everybody is screaming now!  Luke just puked on the side of the road.  I don't know if it's from 10 hours of driving, or if he caught the Noro virus in advance...apparently it's one of the` wildlife here. wildlife here.  

this mountain, is almost 8800 ft high.  From a distance Brian proclaimed theat he could climb it in 15 min!!  When we acutally got close to it:  Massive!!!

Then we had to slow down to 25 mph and wind around cliffs, john white knuckling it!  We were rewarded with a mini Grand Canyon!  spectacular!

`

our first buffalo

Seriously?: #trafficjam

A Grand Teton National Park traffic jam has afforded us the opportunity to discuss what everybody will be called once they start becoming aunts and uncles (by their middle names apparently), while we wait, on safari to see our first grizzley!  

Our first stop in the area, Sports Authority, was to purchase Bear Mace!  It shoots out 25 ft.  John was looking at the vast selection of mace-type sprays, perplexed.  Along came a clerk who directed him, after he heard we were camping in Yellowstone, to the Big Bear Mace!!!  He informed us we're more likely to use it on a moose, than a bear!

I'm grazing on Sam's blueberry's now, quite bear-like.  They're horrible.  Voluptuous, purple blue, mush, and tasteless!  I wish the baby berries along our snowy trek to Lassen's sulphur pits, Bumpass Hell, had been ripe!  While huckleberry lined the paths along redwood trails, blueberry scrubs clung to the cliffs creating the illusion of security along the 3 ft wide rocky path, feet high slippery snow/ice marked trail.  Grace bravely traversed the points where she had to "bear crawl" --stay low--so-as not to slide down as she ascended or descended.  Remarkably, tourists from around the world:  China, Japan, India, Germany, Netherlands...traverse this trail, and similar ones, without apparent trepidation. These balance on a precipice attempting the perfect background vista...usually one that presents the object as daring in the face of a precarious natural setting.  And let me tell you, nature sets THE stage for dare devils!

I recall twenty-somethings at Grand Canyon jumping off 2 ft stone built safety walls protecting one from a straight fall into the Canyon after a simple slide across rocks.  One pierced through, tattooed upon "kid" staged a jump about 5 times trying to catch the perfect air, in the perfect shot! Afraid for him, we stayed far off the edge, as per John's directions!

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We just entered Yellowstone, leaving behind the Tetons that actually spring from a small lake on the east.  The valley, Elk Valley, is on land that is sinking more quickly than the block upon which the Tetons rest.  Apparently, there is the same limestone on the mountains that is 4 miles below the surface of the valley!

Wildflowers bloom in abundance!  I love the lupine, in which we took pictures in Maine last summer!

We're passing a gorge/canyon now.  It is a small version of Grand Canyon.  I didn't expect it.  A wild river   runs through it, which we'er riding along  now.  It has rapids some larger than others.  Water seems abundant.  Meadows, boggy, with streams lacing through, still ponds...Wildlife won't get thirsty here, and neither will we, for we had to buy a CASE of Blue Moon type beer at Sam's.  Shoot!  It takes a huge party or a year to drink through a case!!

Minutes later, we've descended and a slow moving stream, almost a long pond remains parallel to the van.  A faster stream,with rapids just made its way to our stream, and now I'm passing a meadow with 8 ft creeks meandering around.

A HUGE lake, Lewis Lake, just appeared, on the other side, western side, of the road.  A beauty of Yellowstone:  Brigadoon appears around every corner.  My understanding is that Yellowstone looks reborn daily!  That is the joy of this place.

Some people fish, shoulder high, in what must be frigid water.  I imagine they've said nothing for hours.  Just listened, listened.  Another gift of Yellowstone...

------again, in reverse order of our experience:

Lewis Lake (named after Lewis and Clark?)  We just passed the continental divide marker!  7088 ft!

A random pond in marshy meadow.

The canyon with Snake river.

The Snake River, which runs to the Pacific going through Idaho Falls, where we spent the night in a Comfort Inn last night. (good waffles and coffee, this morning!  Great pillow too)

 

We've yet to see significant wildlife here, although a moose presented itself to us, standing in a brook, about a half mile from the WY border in Idaho.  John back-tracked so we could see it.

ugh

 

Departing Jackson Hole, WY

And up,up we go, again!  Coldplay softly intones, "Vida la Vida"  old but still one of my favorites1

Someone gasps.  "Ahhhh!!!  I startle and stop blogging about Elk Valley, location of the annual Elk migration.  We jerk our heads Westward.  Grand Teton!!!  It rises 7000 ft above the valley in which we're located.  Solid rock for half its surface, it's imposing countenance

was seen as we approach from the west for over a hundred miles!!!

What is most impressing is that the monsters suddenly protrude out of Elk Valley.  No immediate build up from the Eastern approach.

Marvelous.

Pretty much in  the clouds, says John!!

Another wonder of the world:  forcing children, some, to gaze up from an iTouch long enough to reflect for a few nanoseconds.... I pray these images are the stuff of daydreams.

As a metaphor, they represent the heights to which God expects us to rise...Our soars, by grace, shall soar into Shekinah!!