Advertisement
Published: August 27th 2018
Edit Blog Post
A few days ago I got back to Kansas after taking a week-long trip that culminated in me camping in Yellowstone National Park. I wanted to share some pictures, but unfortunately, I haven't gone through them yet. At some point in the near future, I'll make a post of nothing but pictures to
show off share my trip with you.
In the meantime, I wanted to post to talk about some of the struggles I faced while traveling. Before I begin, I should clarify. I don't mean struggles in a woe is me type of way. I was able to spend a week bouncing around five states and camping in Yellowstone. It's something that a majority of Americans can't do. If you think about it, 99.99999%!o(MISSING)f every person that has ever lived has not been able to see Yellowstone. I'm in rare company, and I don't take that for granted. When I say "struggles" I mean it strictly from a first-world spoiled kid from Kansas perspective.
The biggest problem was the cost of the trip. My plan was simple: travel to Yellowstone. I wanted to take my time to take in the sites. I drove through the Rocky Mountains and stopped in Breckinridge for a few days to hang out in the small towns outside of Denver. From there, I traveled north to Laramie, WY, and then over to Cody, WY. After spending four of my 9 vacation days goofing off, I got down to the business of getting into Yellowstone and camping. That part was relatively cheap, although as a tip before you go, stop by Walmart and buy bear mace if you want that sort of thing. In the park, it cost $35 dollars. At Walmart, it's 10-15 bucks.
I decided that I would rather be eaten by a bear than pay $35 dollars or drive an hour one way to get to Walmart. As you might have surmised, I somehow survived, and I'm willing to bet that you will as well.
The problem was finding places to stay. I used Airbnb for most of it but noticed that the closer I got to Yellowstone, the more expensive it got. Not only were the rooms expensive, but they didn't come with much. Finding a room with WiFi so I could work and air conditioning for under $100 was a struggle. For four days, I spent around $500 in rooms. No bueno.
Once I was in Wyoming, I realized I was only six hours from Canada, and thought I could find an Airbnb there. I actually searched for deals and came across a site for
Airbnb deals in Canada. Naturally, I was excited until I realized that I had to be Canadian to use the deals.
Thus, my dreams of going to Canada died that day. I'll probably go up there in the next year or so, after my next trip further NorthWest. If anyone that wants to give me their Candian citizenship for a week, I'm not above a sham marriage.
In short, if you're going to go to Yellowstone, book hotel rooms early. Very early. Not a few days, but a few months. You'll thank me for this advice later.
After I camped in Yellowstone, while I'll write about in another entry, I left and headed to South Dakota to drive through the badlands. The problem was that I left Yellowstone a few hours to late and drove through the mountains after the sun went down. There's only so many coyotes one can see on the side of the road before one pulls over and gets another expensive room.
Short story: I was driving in Illinois back in 2010 on my way to St. Louis at 3am. I was trying to hurry, so I was going around 70, which was the speed limit. I totaled my car by hitting a deer. Since then, me and night driving have the same relationship as Kanye and Kim Kardashian: "it's complicated". That was in the middle of a flat state. I was driving between Yellowstone and Cody at night. There's no light. It's beautiful and frightening at the same time. Another piece of free advice: leave Yellowstone around 7pm unless you're staying there overnight.
The Badlands is a beautiful place. You can see formations that formed over 70 million years ago. It's amazing to think about how much of a blip of time humanity makes up. We're the new kids on the block, the ultimate invasive species. The modern form of humans evolved around 200 million years ago, while the planet came into existence around
four billion years ago. There are rocks on the side of the Wyoming highway that are older than our oldest ancestor. The Badlands is a stark reminder that there was a planet before us and that it will still exist long after our desire for power destroys us.
In short, that's what the trip made me think of the most. We view humanity, and by default, ourselves as if we are the planet. When we say "the end of the world" we don't mean the end of the planet, we mean the end of humanity. We view the beginning as the first steps taken by humanity and the end as when we perish. Really, though, is that accurate?
There were billions of species before us, and there will be billions more after us. We are one species on a planet that is a part of a solar system. Our solar system sits on the outer edge of some random galaxy that only matters because we're in it. That galaxy is one of over 170 billion galaxies in the universe. Are we the end all, be all? The great plan? Or are we just another group of self-centered miscreants that will be gone one day, leaving behind buildings and graffiti? I'm guessing it's the latter. When you look at rocks that formed two billion years ago while driving down the road, it's hard to have an ego.
Seriously, don't drive in Yellowstone after the sun goes down.
Gabe
Advertisement
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0348s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb