As I am typing this, I can hear and see thunder and lightning (i tend to forget which one is which). As a native Californian, I do not find thunder and lightning comforting or soothing; it still tends to freak me out. I saw some today on my drive and it motivated my usually law-abiding self to drive over the speed limit and get away as quickly as possible.
Started off my trip this morning in cold ass yellowstone. I had to get back to I-90, which is no easy feat. Both the guy at the front desk and the GPS told me to go through Yellowstone, which I did. It took about two and a half hours to get through, but mind you I went all the way from the west entrance to the east. And I do have to say, I'm glad I did, because the east entrance to the park is freaking amazing. It has a much higher elevation, so the roads are still covered in snow
and there's a pass to get through he mountains. Lake Yellowstone was almost completely frozen over, which is what happens I guess when you're a big ass lake 8000 ft in elevation and it's cold out.
Right after yellowstone east exit is the Shoshone National Forest (I think I need to look up what distinguishes a park from a forest). What's amazing about the forest is that it is exactly adjacent to yellowstone but has completely different topography- the temp went up by about 20 degrees, there were mesas, buttes, and shrubs, and snow was nowhere to be found. Very interesting and scenic.
After the getting out of yellowstone and Shoshone, I traveled through Wyoming. I first stopped in a Walmart parking lot to change out of my jeans and sweatshirt that I was now sweating in. Then a trip through Cody, Wyoming, the self-proclaimed "Rodeo Capital Of the World". Jamie
got a kick out of that one.
After going through a bit more of mid-Wyoming, I went through the pass
of the Big Horn National Forest in order to get to I-90 again. Holy crap- that place was spectacular. I became of those drivers who doesn't pay attention to the road and gawked (I have a tendency to do that a lot actually). It was just bog jutting chunks of limestone and trees with a roaring river down it. Incredible. I stopped and took some pictures which I will post later and I'm sure came out poorly. (side note: yes, the only camera I brought along was the camera on my old iPhone, which still takes pictures but not calls. Whoops!)
The top of the pass came at around 9,000 ft- lots of cool views and snow up there too! After the long winding ride down I came to Dayton, Wyoming, population 650. Tagline: "A Little Slice of Heaven". Cute town, but I wish they sold Dayton shirts so I could have bought a couple!
After Dayton, I quickly found I-90, which meant lots of boring time in the car. Actually, the scenery wast terrible- mostly rolling green hills. After 5 hours of them, they just get a little dull.Wyoming is definitely a beauiful state- I might have spoken too soon about my love for Montana.
That's about it. Going to go to Mt. Rushmore tomorrow, then cutting across south Dakota and getting into Omaha. Sorry if I haven't been keeping in touch well over the phone- apparently you don't get good reception while going 80mph in northeastern Wyoming. Another life
lesson learned!
No comments:
Post a Comment