Weekend. Part II

I am still recovering. After a good nap after work I am ready to write about the rest of the weekend.

Rodeo fun did not end with the actual competition. From the rodeo grounds people moseyed over to the  bar where a country/bluegrass band was starting to play. Usually the after party and dance are held outside, by the dance hall in town, but because of some town politics (who knew a town of 250 could have such complicated politics) this year it was going to be at the bar. This meant that the normally family-oriented event was now 21+. There was also not enough space for all the dancing and drinking people inside, so most of the crowd was gathered outside.

The population of Wilsall at least doubled for the Rodeo.

The bar probably made more money in this one night than they will for the next 3 months. They closed down all of their good beer on tap and it was now just bottles and cans, mostly PBR, Budlight and Miller. Keepin' it classy. The wait to get a drink was so long that by the time I got to the bar I was thinking I should get something way stronger than a beer, in order to make the wait worth it. My housemate Dave had a better approach, by the time he got to the bar he ordered himself 4 drinks, which lasted him for the majority of the night, but kept his hands busy.

After about an hour the crowd got louder and more stumbly.

My housemates and I decided that we could have a lot more fun back at our house where we don't have to wait for drinks and promptly drove home. We all stayed up late talking about languages and being bilingual.

The next morning, after 4 hours of sleep my housemate Kyra and I got into my car and went on our way to Yellowstone National Park. She is from Canada and has never seen the park and since she doesn't have a car probably wouldn't get another chance to see it before she leaves a week after I do. And I was happy to see the beautiful park again.

We went through the North Entrance, through the famous Roosevelt arch, turned East in Mammoth and made our first stop at the Lower Falls of Yellowstone River. We drove past both the trailheads for the two projects that my crew did in Yellowstone last summer. So many memories came back to me, like racing time on the hike out of Black Tail project, 4 miles uphill. Phew!

It was cloudy, so there was no rainbow around the falls, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We stopped at a look-out point to have another view of the falls.

While driving to the park we stopped on the side of the road when we saw a bunch of other cars parked. Good sign that there is some kind of interesting wildlife around. Two black bears were hanging out at a nearby meadow!

We got back into the car, super happy, and while talking about other animals we've seen kept driving on South. We were going around a turn and as the words "I haven't seen a wolf yet and I really want to" were coming out of my mouth we came upon another pile of cars. Kyra pointed at a shape about 60 ft from the car. A black wolf was hurrying along. I was too mesmerized to even reach for the camera. The wolf went along side the road and then crossed it behind us and disappeared into the woods on the other side. AMAZING!!

After that we drove all the way South to Grand Teton National Park. I knew Kyra had to see the mountains! We had lunch by a lake overlooking the range and then drove on farther South to Moose Junction to check out the possibly the best visitor's center in any national park.

The Tetons looked bigger and more rugged than I remember. As we were driving back we came upon a HUGE pile of cars. Oh, this has to be good. A grizzly mama with three cubs was hanging out very close to the road and waiting to cross. The rangers were controlling traffic, trying to give the bears space to cross the road. There was a young grandma with her grand son parked next to us. The kid was standing on top of their rented SUV and he invited both Kyra and I to jump on top for a better look. While I snapped pictures more and more people arrived, a lot of them getting really close to the bear, even with their kids!!! So dangerous.

We drove back into Yellowstone and headed into the West side of the park. Old Faithful was our next stop. I told Kyra to brace herself for the most touristy, over-built part of the whole park. Unfortunately, we had just missed the latest eruption and the next one wasn't for another hour. We were both pretty exhausted at this point and figured it wasn't worth sticking around for so we drove on. On the way back to Mammoth we stopped at a few of the geysers, which I actually haven't seen before.

On our way back, we once again came upon a bunch of parked cars. What now? A black bear mama with a cub! Bringing our total to - three black bears, one grizzly with 3 cubs, a wolf, a ton of bison, a few elk and pronghorn, and of course deer. Amazing.

We arrived home just after 8:30 pm, completely exhausted but so happy. It was a total whirlwind of a drive through the parks, but if you only have one day it is totally the way to do it!