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Grand Teton National Park |
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Lessons in Stillness
We left Yellowstone and drove south to Jackson, Wyoming, to spend a couple of days at Grand Teton National Park. This is a much more tranquil place. Jackson Hole is a deep plain surrounded by towering mountains. There are many scenic drives and overlooks, and lots of places to get out and hike around.
Our first day, we drove the main loop around the park, stopping at several overlooks and points of interest.
At Signal Mountain, we walked beyond the paved trail onto an unpaved one, and out to the edge of the peak. From there, you can look down on Jackson Lake and across to the peaks of the Teton group. If you get back in your car and continue up the road, you come to another overlook where you can see the entire span of the Jackson Hole valley. There are so few other people there at this time of year, that we had both overlooks entirely to ourselves for quite awhile. We had to stop and pray together – it is such a privilege to be doing this together, and to partake of such beauty.
We continued around the park to Jenny Lake, which turned out to be my favorite spot in the park. The lake was formed by a glacier, which pushed up a rock wall all around it, then melted to make the lake more than 200 feet deep. The shore is composed of loose gravel and cobbles-- rocks worn smooth by the glacier's activity. If you stand still for a moment, you can hear the water lapping against the rocks. It makes a plinking sound that is nearly musical. I'm finding that it's places like this -- where I can experience stillness-- that touch me the most.
The next day we drove the loop around Antelope Flats to see Mormon Row. Here, a few cabins and farm buildings are being restored. The cabins will be rented out to visitors some time in the future. They may not have very many amenities, but the view is spectacular!
 J enny Lake is a lesson in the beauty of stillness. A hundred-year-old cabin nestles in Antelope Flats, at the foot of the mountains.
 designergrl · Wed Oct 18, 2006 @ 05:38am · 1 Comments |
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Yellowstone National Park |
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Turbulence and Grandeur
We spent several days in Wapiti, Wyoming, about halfway between Cody and Yellowstone National Park.
We visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Center (see previous journal entry) our first two days, while it was raining. As soon as the weather cleared we headed up into the hills to see the famous Yellowstone geysers.
The first thing that struck us about the park was its size. From the east entrance to the site of Old Faithful was a two hour drive! We did catch Old Faithful, then walked around the geyser basin for awhile. It's eerie: like another planet, and not a congenial one. You absolutely must stay on the boardwalk because the earth's crust is extremely thin and you could easily sink into water that is not only boiling hot, but is also so full of sulfuric acid it could eat right through your shoes!
The sulfur has another effect: it smells like rotten eggs.
On the other hand there is a great deal of color. Heat-loving bacteria, called thermophiles, thrive in this environment. Colonies of them produce vivid streaks of red, yellow, and inky black all around. Minerals in the water also lend their hues. Even though the sky was grey, many of the pools were the color of blue topaz.
You find yourself, then, surrounded by boiling water, steam vents, rampant bacteria, and a very funky smell. It's anything but peaceful – although it is fascinating.
We stopped and had lunch at the Old Faithful Inn, originally built in 1904. The architecture is ingenious. It's built with stone and logs. All the railings are made of arched tree limbs. It's decorative and rustic at the same time.
Leaving the park we were in a bit of a hurry. The east entrance closes at 8pm and it was 6 when we left the Old Faithful area. We were making pretty good time, until we had to stop for the herd of bison in the road! I was driving... what do you do in a case like this? I proceeded slowly and cautiously through an opening on the wrong side of the road. The bison ignored us, thankfully. What was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for us was apparently an everyday occurence for them!
The next day we went north in the park, to Artist Point and Mammoth Hot Springs. Artist Point is called the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone," and it turned out to be our favorite spot in the park. There are two falls visible along this drive: an upper and a lower falls. The faces of the canyon carry the same yellow and red tints you see throughout the park, as if they're painted. Perhaps that's how Artist Point got its name.
 A pot of boiling water, laced with sulfuric acid, steams before a hill coated with heat-loving bacteria. Yum!
The "Blue Star Pool" gets its color from minerals dissolved in the water -- not by reflecting the sky.
The Old Faithful Inn, more than a hundred years old, survived a major earthquake in 1959. Its lovely architecture has been well-preserved, but an area called "The Crow's Nest" is no longer open to the public.
Beautfiul Artist Point made us wish we had a much better camera!
designergrl · Wed Oct 18, 2006 @ 05:21am · 2 Comments |
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Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, Wyoming |
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This is the Way the World Would Be
I am a dreamer, a nonrealist. My paintings say, if I had my way this is the way the world would be: beautiful, alluring, idyllic, simple, poetic and heroic. It is a world where I live in spirit and desire, a simple, nomadic, eternal, timeless world.
Earl Bliss
Absaroke (Crow) Artist
I saw this quote in the Plains Indians Museum of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. Bliss has captured the essence of the artist in this statement: the artist creates the world as she/he sees it -- from within.
In a sense, this is what we are doing right now with our life, my husband and I. We are creating our own world, according to our own vision. Our travels across the US were a dream, which is now becoming our reality.
The Buffalo Bill Historical Center is a must-see if you're in the Cody, Wyoming area. You can spend an entire afternoon in the Plains Indians Museum alone -- and there are four other museums and galleries.
What struck us most about the Plains Indians exhibits was the artistry that went into the making of everyday objects. Nothing here was strictly utilitarian. Items of clothing, household items, even implements of war, were beautifully designed and decorated. I know artists who say that their art is a form of worship. I know next to nothing about Native American culture, but I get the sense that their day-to-day tasks were worshipful.
We went back the next day and toured the Buffalo Bill Museum and the Natural History Museum.
Buffalo Bill was a fairly advanced thinker. Here's a quote from a paper he wrote:
I for one say let us give our women absolute freedom and then it will do for us to talk about freeing other nations… I believe in Women Suffrage… I'm not one of the kind that think that God made woman to do nothing but sit at home in the ashes and tend the babies… if a woman can do the same work that a man can do and do it just as well she should have the same pay.
William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody
And another quote, from a plaque in one of the displays:
As early as 1878, Cody was quoted as saying, "Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government." When he was asked for his solution to the Indian "problem," he replied, "never make a single promise to the Indians that is not fulfilled…"
America, Cody stressed, was the Indian's heritage…
Indians (in Cody's Wild West show) were treated as equals in the arena and behind the scenes...
The Natural History Museum was also fascinating. It was designed as a large circle, with ramps leading down through 6 levels. You begin at the alpine level and continue down to the plains level, learning about the different trees, plants, and animals that thrive at each altitude.
The center also includes a firearms museum and a western art gallery. Again, I highly recommend this stop if you're in the area. Plan to spend a couple of days here.
designergrl · Wed Oct 18, 2006 @ 04:45am · 0 Comments |
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Wyoming Back-road: Buffalo to Cody |
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Venturing off the Interstate
Because we're towing a nine-ton rig, we usually opt for the interstate highways. It's no joke to tow a 37-foot trailer, trust me.
Therefore, we were going to take I-90 out from Buffalo, Wyoming, and do an overnight in Billings, Montana, on our way to Yellowstone. Then we learned that US 16 is not as steep, and it shaves at least 100 miles off the trip to the park. In addition, the owners of the campground in Buffalo suggested a shortcut just outside the town of Ten Sleep (love that name!) that would take another 22 miles off our journey. So we decided to take the more scenic route for a change, and get to Yellowstone much sooner to boot!
Good choice! US 16 is a designated "Scenic Byway". It's mostly two-lane, with some steep grades (in the six to seven percent range) and some hairpin turns. However, the turns are well-marked, and the hills flatten out at regular intervals. Sure, we had to downshift at times, but it wasn't nearly as scary as we thought it might be.
We were rewarded with towering mountain views at nearly every turn. Signs along the way point out that the craggy rocks are composed of granite that is up to 3 billion years old. In the valleys there were pristine streams with tree-lined banks, the trees already turned golden-yellow and bright orange. A few log cabins dot the landscape. We hit the summit of our drive at "Powder River Pass," 9666 feet elevation. There were patches of snow on the hillsides around us.
I kept clicking the camera through the windshield as we drove along. We stopped at one pullout and I took some more pictures.
After descending the mountains, most of the drive was through undeveloped prairies. There were a few farms, but it doesn't seem like much is grown here other than grass for the cattle. There were a handful of towns along the way. One of them, Ember, had a population of only 10 people, according to the sign posted at the border.
We switched drivers in the town of Greybull, a little more than halfway to our destination. We usually take turns driving. That way, we both know how to handle the rig, and it makes the day go faster as well.
We reached our campground, about halfway between Cody and Yellowstone, at about 4:30pm. We have a stunning view of the hills right out our back window.
Altogether, this was one of our favorite drives so far. We might even plan to get off the Interstate more often!
 Our big rig pulled over at the turnout just below the summit. Snapping pictures through the windshield as we descend. Prairie, pines, and snow-capped peaks!
designergrl · Fri Oct 06, 2006 @ 04:01am · 0 Comments |
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Mt. Rushmore and Keystone, South Dakota |
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If You Happen to be Nearby
On the way west from the Badlands, we decided to go ahead and visit Mount Rushmore.
It was... there.
I'd have to say that it just didn't have much of an effect on us.
The scale of the work is certainly impressive, as is the effort it took to construct. We enjoyed the exhibits that explained how the artist measured his models and applied those measurements to the mountain. It was interesting to learn about the air compressors, and how difficult it was to get electricity up there. The photos of the construction were also interesting.
So the most impressive thing about Mt. Rushmore was the effort it required. The sculpture itself was just... big.
After walking the Presidential Trail, we decided to head back down the hill to the little town of Keystone for a nice relaxing lunch. It was a beautiful day, so we took a table on the verandah outside the Ruby Hotel to enjoy the fine weather. Unfortunately, almost as soon as our food was served, we were subjected to loud announcements about an upcoming show in the nearby bar.
Imagine this lovely lunchtime entertainment: two grotesquely overweight guys in pseudo-western clothing, shouting incoherently into a PA system that was as distorted as their bloated beer guts. In between shouting matches, they'd strut out into the street to shoot guns and crack whips.
Our "relaxing" lunch turned out to be anything but.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not dead set against hokey tourist stuff. I had a great time at the "medieval" dinner and jousting match when we were in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. Sometimes that kind of thing can be alot of fun.
The two guys in Keystone weren't fun. They were bored, trying to fake enthusiasm, and probably more than a little bit drunk. There was an air of desperation about the entire performance. It wasn't hokey, it was tawdry.
We beat feet outta town as soon as we finished our sandwiches.
I think I'm glad we went, since we were so close. I wouldn't, however, recommend going there as a primary destination. Look at these pictures -- that should be enough.
designergrl · Thu Oct 05, 2006 @ 03:42am · 1 Comments |
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Although we've been "on the road" for nearly a year, we've haven't had much choice in our locations. Our choices have been based on work projects, or visiting family and friends, or because they happened to be along the way to somewhere else that we had to go.
Badlands National Park was our first destination in and of itself: the first place we've been just because we wanted to see it.
A Severe Beauty
"I was totally unprepared for that revelation called the Dakota Bad Lands. What I saw gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere."
--- Frank Lloyd Wright
At some points, you can see for 30 miles all around you. The scale of the place is awe-inspiring. This immensity is dominated by towering rock formations. Millions of years of sedimentation, followed by the slow retreat of a midland sea, left behind fantastic structures of multi-colored rock. Imagine that God built a sand castle 50 miles square, and let you loose to explore it.
The formations are striped with subtle reds, brilliant yellows, ash, and dun. The bands of color extend across the formations. The verticals lines are jagged and uneven, but the horizontal bands give them a continuity that pulls your eye along to the horizon. Between the walls of rock there are lush grassy plains which glimmer in the last light of the day so that they look as if they're illuminated from within.
You look out over this landscape and feel your soul unclench. All the tightness and contraction -- so necessary for survival in this crowded world -- fall away. Your soul stretches and enlarges in this place.
And the sunset! the sunset reaches across this big sky so far that you have to swivel your head to see it all. You hear nothing but the evening song of birds, and the rustle of the grass in the breeze.
There is a beauty in the severity of this land. It is not "prettified." There are few trees, fewer flowers, and almost no water. The bare contours of the earth are revealed uncluttered, unadorned -- and unapologetic. It needs no adornment: this place has good bones.
designergrl · Sun Oct 01, 2006 @ 12:42am · 4 Comments |
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