yellowstone RECAP:
Left KC on Tuesday at about 3 pm and got into the hotel in Cheyenne about 11:30 IIRC. Got up early on Wednesday and made the ~6 hour drive to Jackson Hole. Our little cabin in JH was cool and relatively cheap - little kitchenette, bathroom, queen bed, pullout couch:
Goofed off the rest of the day Wednesday meandering around Jackson Hole -- which is actually much smaller than I anticipated. The food is elite and would be happy to provide recommendos.
Woke up and did a tour of Yellowstone's Southern Loop on Thursday. We were a little disappointed we didn't see any moose. Saw old faithful - here's an artsy fartsy shot:
I think the grand prismatic spring is the coolest thing I saw on the trip:
The views in Yellowstone are just totally overwhelming. It blows my mind that there's this much "stuff" within a ~25 mile radius
Watch out big fella!
On Friday we went to the Tetons and hiked around Jenny lake which was delightful. I think our route was about 10 miles, but pretty easy hiking:
If we had to do it over again, we would've been prepared to get in the lake and swim some or rent a kayak or something, which apparently you can do. It was really hot. One thing, when we were hiking some people passed us and were like "hey there's a black bear up there near the trail." We pressed on because we didn't really want to backtrack 6 miles around the lake, and I had bear spray and i'm pretty tough. Anyway, we didn't see the bear but I'm sure we were within 25 yards of it at some point. Side note, don't buy bear spray at the supermarket because they jack up the price like crazy. Who knew.
On Saturday we went whitewater rafting in the morning and went to a rodeo on Saturday night, yeehaw:
I don't know if this is just rodeo culture or what (probably is) but the PA guy at the rodeo was incredible. I've never heard anyone gush as much about the red white and blue as that guy. When we were getting ready to sing the national anthem while the lady road around on the horse holding the american flag, this guy gave an announcement that would make howard finkle blush: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, we want to welcome the most important lady at the rodeo, here she comes now, old glory, the red white and blue..." It was a little strange to hear that much red-meat, unconditioned and unapologetic love for the US of A. Overall the rodeo was great and would absolutely recommend and will be going to more rodeos in the future.
The actual bull/horse riding itself was crazy. These guys are like ALMOST dying every time. And the winners apparently get like 400 bucks or something?
Woke up yesterday morning and were on the road a 5:45. Listened to the new Killers album as a rainstorm followed us out of the mountains at sunrise, which felt like a religious experience:
Got back to KC at 10:30 last night. It was a brutal drive to do in one day, but flights/car rentals were stupid expensive. Anyway, it's a great trip.
