Day 6: Casper, WY to Jackson Hole, WY
Total Vomits: 0
Total "Dad Moments" where I lost my patience and became the Herm of my childhood: 2
License Plate Challenge: 48/51 (only missing Delaware, Vermont, and Hawaii)
Listened to:
- Music: Silversun Pickups, The Mowgli's, Arcade Fire, Band of Horses
- Podcast: n/a
- Audiobook: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Today provided us with some of the most barren and the most beautiful natural landscapes we've ever seen. It started with a lot of barren. Most of Wyoming is high desert covered with sagebrush and very little else. It's a sunburnt, yellow country, and contrasts starkly against the lush Iowa plains we drove across just two days ago. If you ask my Uncle Terry, a hardened cowboy and rodeo champion who has spent a good deal of time here in Wyoming, he'll tell you that the best view of the state is the one you see in the rear view mirror.
While I can agree with him for much of the state, western Wyoming is a different story. Once we entered Yellowstone National Park, it was a whole new experience. Celeste and I had both been there in our youth, but it had been so long since we visited our nation's first national park that we had forgotten just how stunningly beautiful it is.
We entered near Cody, Wyoming, drove around the northern tip of Yellowstone Lake, then took the North Rim trail to Red Rock Point. There we beheld one of the most mesmerizing sights we have ever seen. The Lower Falls of Yellowstone River is a massive waterfall that blew us away with its size, force, and the fact that it emptied into what is known as the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone". That Grand Canyon is where Yellowstone got its name, because of the hue of the barren rock walls on both sides of the mighty river. It was breathtaking.
From there we wove our way through the park until we reached the Grand Prismatic Spring, one of the most iconic sites in the park. Yellowstone is essentially a giant volcano buried underneath mountains and rock, but here the volcano pokes out its head to say hello. The water is boiling hot and deadly, and while hot spots and boiling springs like this pepper the park, none is quite as vibrant and, well, prismatic, as this one.
Our last stop in the park was Old Faithful, the geyser that erupts so regularly and predictably, that early explorers gave its name. The famous geyser can shoot boiling water over 100 feet in the air and is worth seeing if you've never been to Yellowstone. That said, it was the least impressive of our three stops.
We ended our day with a long drive south, out of Yellowstone National Park, then into and out of Grand Teton National Park. The views were again shockingly beautiful, even for people like us who grew up around mountains. The Grand Tetons look like they belong in the high alps of Switzerland, and are unlike any other mountain range in North America. The drive to Jackson Hole was marked by countless "Oh my gosh, look at that," moments with mountains, landscape, and a herd of over 100 wild buffalo.
As we settled in for the night, the reality that it was our last night on the road started to hit us. It's hard to believe that we'll complete the last leg of our cross-country trip tomorrow as we drive through Idaho, past Bear Lake, through Logan Canyon, and into Logan, Utah. Logan is the town where we first met, went on our first date, and got married almost 13 years ago. Tomorrow, it will be our finish line.
Go Valencia.
ReplyDelete