the true middle of nowhere

First, Michael says that he is no longer going to blog. He says he is too tired of traveling in the evenings to write about it afterwards, and I rush him too much in the mornings. Which is true, I do rush him. We certainly do not agree on how best to use the hours between 9 and 12.

Yellowstone is a very cool park. There are so many bison and elk that you literally become tired of them. At one point, there were bison all over the road and caused a big backup, and we got out and walked to see what it was. As I was walking back alone (Michael stayed with the bison), car after car asked me what the hold-up was. "Bison in the road" elicited huge signs of disappointment. Who wants a bison when they can have a bear?

We didn't see any bear, but we were lucky enough to see a wolf on our way in. He was white and out alone in the snow. You probably can't see him very well in the picture.

Some of Yellowstone is closed because there is still a lot of snow, but our timing was perfect: the road to Old Faithful opened the day we got there. Geysers are not as cool as bears, but they are cool. Some of them are really beautiful, with tons of colors around them. Old Faithful was faithful and shot off on schedule. It was the only geyser we really saw erupt, so it was cool.

We also drove over to the canyon, which was full of snow so we couldn't get too close. It was really beautiful, with tons of colors. The first waterfall took me totally by surprise--everything is so still in the snow, and so I totally didn't expect it. It gave that feeling of an early explorer encountering a waterfall--as opposed to our modern version, where the waterfall is marked on the map and we are waiting to be impressed.

We entered and exited Yellowstone through Montana, as those are the only entrances/exits that are open. This meant that, when we re-entered Wyoming, we were left feeling that it is the poor step-child of US beauty. That first stretch of Wyoming was the most dull landscape we have seen. But then the rocks started getting some iron in them, and when we turned onto a scenic road running through the Bighorn National Forest, almost immediately the landscape became quite pretty. Not the most spectacular in the country, but it held its own.

On the other side was the town of Buffalo, Wyoming, which seems never to have moved out of the 1950s. It was complete with drugstore cum soda fountain, and had a store called "The Office" in place of a Kinko's. No Walmart. In fact, Wyoming is the first place we haven't seen a Walmart. It's really like the world has forgotten Wyoming.

Since we weren't sure how we would spend a Saturday night in Buffalo, we went on to Gilette. I was concerned Gilette might be a large city, but that was a silly concern. We spent our Saturday night with the local ladies playing Bingo. Wyoming is also the first state I can remember in a long time without a smoking ban. And also the first without any immigrants, although there are a lot of Native Americans.

With love from Gilette,

Sarah