Mountains!

I think when I left off last I was spending the night in Cody Wyoming. Well, I woke up the next day to clear skies and sunshine. It was cold! But I set off on the road and saw what I was missing the night before. The road into Yellowstone from Cody is a scenic highway and it is just gorgeous. There are mountains and ranches and streams all around you as you wind your way towards the park. And then you get into the park. Yellowstone is the most beautiful place I have ever been. I say that with no exaggeration. There was snow on the mountains and even in some patches on the ground. The streams and rivers sparkled. Once I entered the park it was still 27 miles before I hit the nearest visitors center; the ranger at the entrance told me to look out for wildlife and Yellowstone Lake as I drove. Well... I had been driving for maybe 15 minutes when I saw something that looked like an elephant's butt walking down the road ahead of me. It was a bison. Unreal. I kind of felt like I was at the Bronx Zoo but living inside it. Like as if I had jumped the fences...

Yellowstone is a huge park. The ranger pointed out the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Old Faithful area to me on the park and said, "you'll probably only have time to do these things." She was right. In all, I spent about 7 hours in Yellowstone, and I easily could have spent longer. Not only are the mountains and prairies and forests beautiful, but Yellowstone is a center of volcanic activity. Some of you know this, I'm sure, and I sort of did, but not really. There are geisers and hot springs and mudpools and tons of other stuff that I don't remember the name of all in the middle of this incredible scenery. Basically, you'll be driving down the road and see what looks like smoke coming out from between the trees. At first I thought it was a wildfire because there were signs for those all over the place, but it's not. It's steam. So that's what Old Faithful is. It's only one of the crazy number of volcanic pits around the area.

Knock on wood, I've had terrific luck this trip. I hadn't checked when Old Faithful would next be blasting, but I got there with 30 minutes to spare. The geiser is in a big lodge complex and there are tons of people that gather around to watch. I ended up hiking up into the woods to an observation point. There were only a few other people up there (all from the NY metro area, believe it or not) and we had a terrific view. By the time I got down it was 6:00 and I needed to get going.

I had decided to stay in Jackson because a friend of mine had a friend there who could possibly put me up, and she said it was a cool little town. Well, the friend thing fell through, and as I saw the sign that said 79 miles to Jackson I started to regret my motel reservation. For most of my travels 79 miles has felt like nothing because the speed limit is 75. In the park, however, the limit is 45 at most and half the time it's at 30. I had wind my way down through the rest of the park and then into the Grand Tetons before I got to Jackson. Turns out, the drive was thoroughly worth it. Not because of Jackson; I got in late and barely even saw the town. But because the Tetons were amazing. They are tall and spiky and white capped. The sun was setting as I drove through and the mountains glowed. And to top it off, there were elk on the side of the road. My camera was dying so I didn't get a particularly good shot, but I don't think I'll forget the drive.

By the time I got into Jackson, it was after 8pm so i got myself some mexican food for dinner and checked into my particularly crappy (and yet surprisingly expensive) Motel 6. To give you an idea, the floor by the door was wet. I was exhausted, though, so I crashed and woke up early this morning to move on.

Which is how I got to where I am now: sitting on a beautiful bed in a room in the Best Western overlooking Flathead Lake in Montana. I almost didn't come. I was so fed up with driving this morning that I called Robin to check if it was really worth it. She assured me it was so off I went, over mountain passes (my car was no way reaching the 70 mph speed limit; I was lucky if it got to 45 as I ascended the mountains ), through Idaho, and into Montana. The ride was beautiful. Mountains in the distance, ranches and farms in the foreground. At a scenic road stop break, I met some Jews from Yonkers. They daven at Young Israel of Yonkers, know Rabbi Sirner, and have some Jewish friends in Melbourne. Whaddya know?!

I got off the highway in Missoula and wound my way north, turned a corner and all of a sudden the mountains loomed larger. Not too much later I hit Flathead Lake. Picture Sebago but with mountains. It's gorgeous. The sign says "no swimming" but I'm tempted. I think I'll put a foot in at least to see how cold it is. For the same price as that Motel 6 in Jackson, I'm staying in a beautiful hotel with a lovely deck that overlooks the lake. It's nice to have some luxury!

Flickr is being a real pain and won't let me upload any more photos. (I've reached my limit; anyone know how to get around this? Please email advice. Should I pay for a pro account?) I'm finding it amazingly difficult to get photos up on the web...

Lots of love. Miss you all.

Tamara