We had a beautiful drive south into Wyoming and through Yellowstone. Here are a couple of the photos that we snagged during our brief visit in the park:
Skyler and I in front of the Grand Prismatic Spring at different spots. The photo of Skyler gives a taste of just how bright the spring is. It is one of the brightest blues I've ever seen, much bluer than the sky. Certainly the bluest water I've ever seen. The spring, which averages a water temperature of 160 degrees, pours 500 gallons of water into the Firehole River...every minute.
After Grand Prismatic Spring we headed over to see Old Faithful take care of its business. Unfortunately, Skyler and I agreed that Yellowstone--more so than any other park we've visited--has a real amusement park feel to it. Most of the popular attractions at the park require very little walking or hiking, which allows for tourists (we concede, we're also tourists) to treat the experience like a sports game or a concert. As Skyler noticed, people were quite literally tailgating as they waited for Old Faithful to blow.
Nonetheless, that geyser is pretty darn special. I can see why it's a staple of the country and I'm glad I got a chance to see it. Once we'd gotten our fill of Yellowstone, we've drove another two hours south to Moose, WY which sits inside Grand Teton National Park. But before we arrived we couldn't help but pull over to look at these peaks:
When I called my dad for his birthday, I described the mountains as "almost inconceivable." Half-jokingly, he poked fun at my choice of words and declared that I was officially running out of adjectives. I think he may be right. Many people before Skyler and I--writers and artists alike--have given these mountains much more beautiful and appropriate praise than we will ever be able to express. So I'll leave it to them for now. The Grand Tetons are the youngest peaks in the continental United States, a fact that's not surprising when you get a glimpse of them. Unlike the White Mountains of NH or the Blue Ridge range, which are both quite rounded, the Tetons are very sharp and jagged. It's as if they were sliced up by the glacier just yesterday.
Luckily, we got to absorb this view for 48 hours straight. We drove into Moose to meet my good friend Carter Wilkinson. He is spending the summer at the Murie Center as their writer in residence. The Center is a ranch once owned by the Murie's (one of the most important families involved in the American conservation movement) that now belongs to Grand Teton National Park. Carter gave us a brief tour of the ranch and showed us his cabin which is nestled in between the Snake River and the Tetons....the views not too shabby (Ansel Adams anyone?).
After we got the rundown, Carter, Skyler and I enjoyed a great dinner at a restaurant in Moose. We we're out on a porch as the Grand (the tallest peak in the range at 13,000 feet) towered over us. Unsurprisingly, we had some very interesting conversations with the three of us finally together at one table. I have to say, witnessing two things that you care so deeply about intersect with one another is such a rewarding experience. I had the same feeling when Skyler met Caleb and Jack at Dragons orientation. Seeing that kind of link between two separate people that are very important in my life causes me to feel very grateful for those respective relationships.
Once we'd finished up our meal and conversation we headed to Gros Ventre campsite to set up our tent. On our way Carter snapped a few nice pics of me and Sky:
On our way to the campsite we caught a glimpse of some Bison and Antelope in the distance. It was a small taste of what was to come later in our stay. We said goodbye to Carter for the night and hit the hay early. The next morning we got an early start on the day and set off on a 8-mile hike through Death Canyon via Phelps Lake. I think it was one of my favorite hikes of the trip so far. After the first two miles, the trail spit us out onto a steep overlook above the lake. We continued onwards up the canyon alongside the raging rapids of Death Canyon Creek (creeks in the West are basically not creeks at all. I'm pretty sure that thing could be categorized as Class 5 rapids). The trail wasn't exhausting, but it presented its challenges. There was a series of sharp switchbacks which left Skyler and I out of breath at certain moments. There was also a steep snow field that had yet to be melted on the trail. If anyone were to slip while walking along the snow they would have most likely slid all the way down to that ominously (and accurately) named creek.
Our destination was a remote patrol cabin, presumably used by park rangers. We ate our sandwiches, briefly looked for a moose, and then headed back down to the lake. When we arrived we had our eyes peeled for a 25-30 foot granite slab that cuts out into the lake. It's a prime jumping rock and my good friend Julia had recommended it to me over the phone, so we had to find it. On our hike down we saw it in the distance--at first it looked relatively small, then we saw the tiny little white specks that people created as they splashed into the water. That put its size in perspective.
After some brief meditation from afar (while waiting for 20 loud, obnoxious teenagers to leave the rock) we climbed up and jumped off multiple times. It brought me back to Phnom Penh where I jumped off a ten-meter diving board in an olympic sized pool in the city center. For some weird reason, I just love the feeling of your stomach plummeting as you fall down to the water. Not to mention, Skyler and I are making a habit of jumping into freezing cold, glacially formed mountain lakes. It was quite chilly, but worth it.
As we hiked out through a soft, warm drizzle, we turned back a few times to see the lake. Although the rock was now just a tiny grey speck along the bank, the memory of the pure exhilaration and fear that I had as I jumped off of it gave me some fantastic perspective on the surrounding areas. After jumping from what felt like a substantial height off of that rock, the soaring mountains and canyon walls now seemed to rise even higher into the sky. I also realized that the lake was much more expansive than I had first thought. Once I left the trail and returned to my view of the Tetons, I also gained a much better appreciation of just how prodigious those snow-capped peaks truly are.
We hopped in the car off the trail and headed straight for Jackson, WY which neighbors Moose. I had a delicious Bison burger at a local burger joint, and then Skyler and I got a chance to stroll around the town a bit. It was quite touristy but seemed cool nonetheless:
Skyler and I under the famous Elk-Antler-Arch in Jackson...like I said, we're clearly not tourists at all.
We trekked back into Moose to meet up with Carter one last time. The three of us drove deeper into the park to Jenny Lake, a nice spot for the sunset. We took a 30 minute stroll around the perimeter of the lake, got about halfway in and then turned back. The conversation was fantastic though. On cue, Carter was firing on all cylinders. We ended the night outside the Murie Center as Skyler and Carter discussed their favorite contemporary music. They hit it off and as I mentioned, it's pretty cool to see those personal intersections work out so well. We said our goodbyes to Carter, for real this time. I'm excited to see his writing at the end of the summer. Based on the description he gave me, his ideas seem very interesting.
We headed back to camp, crashed and woke up to a rainstorm at 8 AM the next morning. Although the rain was a bummer, it forced us to pack up quickly so we got on the road by 9 AM. Lucky us because 9 is a prime time to spot Bison in the area:
My dad was right, I'm officially out of adjectives. All I can say is that it was a magical way to soak in our last view of the Tetons. There was a slight layer of morning mist in the valley, the mountains looked they were smoking, and then out of nowhere this herd of galloping Bison appeared on either side of the road. They are striking animals, especially the elderly males and the young new-borns. I had never seen a Bison before in my life and I'm very glad that I got a short glimpse of some.
We had a beautiful, but exhausting drive all the way across Wyoming and into South Dakota (another new state, yippee!). We rolled into Rapid City, SD at around 7:30 PM and found some food and a cheap motel to spend the night. The highlight of the evening was the biblical rainstorm that raged down upon the South Dakota countryside which we could see in the distance from our motel parking lot. Skyler and I spent half an hour sitting outside watching as three to four strikes of lightning cracked every second. It was a beautiful summer storm, heat lightning was flashing non-stop and it was quite flooring. I've never seen so much lightning flash at once.
Of course, the storm soon moved our way. I enjoyed the beating rain for a few minutes as it pelted my body and gave me a long overdue dirt-cleansing. It was yet another experience over the past few days that brought me back to Cambodia. In this particular instance, I felt like I was in of one of the many flash rainstorms we encountered in the Southeast Asia backcountry. I love torrential downpours in warm, humid air. It might be my favorite natural element of summer.
Once we concluded that we wouldn't need to construct an escape ark, we retired to our motel room and began to unwind. We even plugged into the world of sports briefly (GO USA AND GO 76ers!)
Tomorrow we're on to Mount Rushmore, then Wounded Knee and Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and then an afternoon/evening in the Badlands National Park. We are expecting a sharp contrast between the scene at Mt. Rushmore and the surrounding Indian Reservations. Wealthy tourism (on sacred Native American land that was stolen by our government in order to carve four big white faces into a mountain) versus total, abject poverty only a few miles to the west. 80% of residents on Pine Ridge Reservation are unemployed--a figure that I'm unable to wrap my head around.
But I will certainly give much more thorough and accurate reflection following our visit tomorrow. After the Badlands, we'll be heading to Chicago to see some friends and maybe a Cubs game at Wrigley.
On y va.
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