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Published: July 29th 2013
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We left Yellowstone this morning heading south to Jackson Hole, WY and the Grand Tetons. As the famous mountain range came into view, my first impressions were not overly awestruck. The day was hazy, the landscape before and around the mountains fairly routine, and they just didn’t startle me the way Yellowstone’s canyon had yesterday. A tough act to follow, indeed. Todd was dumbfounded at my reaction, seeing as how these are his favorite mountains of all time. He reveres them. My "Yeah, they're nice" reaction did not really compute for him. Don't know why either of us are surprised - he loves looming mountains, I love the steep ravines. Story of our relationship enacted yet again!
We headed past our campground for the next two nights and continued to Jackson, WY to meet with Natosha, one of our former nannies, who is currently spending her summer running the children’s program on a ranch here. It was delightful to spend a couple hours catching up with her over lunch in “the city,” and the kids were thrilled to reconnect with a friend. None of us could really believe we were all meeting here in WY given that she’s from Kansas
City!
The town is picturesque and quaint, with a unique town square gated on four corners by antler arches. We assured the kids no animals were harmed in the collection of these antlers as we snapped our touristy photo!
We took in the Teton County Fair in the evening, not surprised to find it looked, felt and cost about the same as all the other county fairs we’ve tried. But the kids enjoyed it, and there was a large barn full of sheet, cattle, pigs, bunnies and chickens, so that was different. But we opted to skip the rodeo due to rain and chilly temperatures, and headed back north to our campground, Colter Bay.
On a whim, we turned on a side road that Natosha had recommended. Billy is on a quest to see with his own eyes a long list of distinctively western animals. He’s managed to check off most, with a few notable exceptions remaining: wolf, cougar, mountain lion, and moose. So off we went on this drive in search of elk and moose. We were surprised and bemused, therefore, to encounter our first Wyoming traffic jam as a herd of bison surrounded our RV
and a few cars in front of us. What was particularly endearing about this back-up, though, were all the bison calves(?) mingling among the sizable adults. It was a detour well worth the wait!
As we continued along the two-lane highway running parallel to the Grand Tetons, they took on an decidedly different feel. Whereas the mountains surrounding the western edge of Yellowstone were gentle sloping giants, these mountains seem to be standing at attention. They are immense and powerful, erect sentinels of exactly what, I cannot say for certain. But their posture, their severity, their imposing peaks inspire an entirely new form of awe.
Todd loves these mountains. I think we have more pictures of this range than anything else so far on the trip. He is entirely and utterly captivated by them. Their grandeur is still a bit too stand-offish for me. Perhaps tomorrow will bring a new sense of connection, but for now, I feel they are ones to be admired from a distance.
As I write this, we sit in a completely silent, still campsite, pitch black, with a soft layer of pine needles blanketing the ground around us. Were it not for
the bear warnings, it would be an ideal place to take the kids outside to stargaze. We’ll need to find a safer night-time location for that, I’m afraid. And we’ve yet to camp where campfires are allowed – the fear of wildfires imposing a restriction on that particular activity so severe that we are starting to Google recipes for s’mores in a microwave, just in case.
That is, when we have wifi or internet. The coverage and connectivity has been far less than we anticipated, and may continue to be unreliable for the next several days based on our itinerary. We’ll post whenever we can, though, and hope you’ll keep reading with us. We are a little more than one-third of the way through our trip now. And as Todd’s latest t-shirt says, the journey is the destination.
Marcia
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The Other Baldwin Family
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Everyone loves a parade!
Thanks for the great pics of the mountains and the parade of bison! The GT Marching Bison's Band is tremendous. To be able to create such beautiful rhythmic patterns with their hoves as well as those formation changes is always a challenge with such young members. You saw something really special. I heard they are sending an audition tape to Macy's to try and get in their parade later this year. Just one other observation, I can completely understand your reaction when you first arrived on the scene Marcia. Todd always seems to make mountains out of mole hills sometimes, though they must be really HUGE moles building those things. Yea, don't worry about the bears, I'd be more scared of those moles!!!