As I mentioned in the last entry, we were awake at 8 and started out shortly thereafter. It took about an hour to get back to Yellowstone's entrance. We needed to go this route from Cody, Wyoming to get to the Grand Teton National Park anyhow, but I had a bigger mission. I wanted to see some damned buffalo. I was really kind of bummed the first day having not seen any bison anywhere. Today was going to be our day. We pulled into the entrance and asked the ranger there where to go to find them. Sure enough, he pointed to the one part of the map where we didn't go the day prior. Great.

We drove about 45 minutes around Lake Yellowstone. We had seen the sights from this trip already, so there wasn't any stopping for photos. Frankly, we were more than a bit tired already from yesterday, so it didn't take more than a nod or two from each of us to hint to Scott that we shoudl just plow on through and see some bison. :) I was in the backseat, so I slid over to the right side of the car and peered out the window like a hawk. "Is that one?" they asked. "No. It's a dark tree stump way out there," I said. We kept getting fooled, because our eyes were peeled. We turned a sharp corner and I said (as if I were an expert and knew where to find them) "There they are."

We got out of the car for a look, but they were too far away for photos to really get it all. I knew that since the road went out that way, we'd see them up close. We walked back to the car and noticed another steaming field with people lined around the road looking downward. Scott and I went to go check it out. We were about 30 feet up a cliff looking down on another Calcium-deposited field, with craters and boiling green pits of mud. The sun wasn't out in full-force, so the green here isn't as green as it was on-site. This was DEFINITELY laden with sulfur- nothing I'd experienced the day before smelled as bad as this pit. But the thing was fascinating. Mud? Boiling? Continuously? Unbelievable.

Anyhow, more important than the bubbling mud was that a buffalo had come close to chill out (or heat up) near the pit. Yes!!! Buffalo!!! There was another one who wandered up from the woods and plopped down near the steaming crater. I got my pic taken there and we moved on to see if we could find that herd that I'd seen.

As we drove on, we crested a hill. There, off to the right, was a scene right out of Dances with Wolves. It was amazing. Bison were everywhere. We got out of the car for a closer look and just took in the experience of watching buffalo roaming outside of captivity. We pulled up to another hill where we saw more cars parked and people taking photos. Sure enough, the view was even better this time. An entire bison family was chilling out, even teaching the little one how to romp and stir up dust.

The sound of these buffalo grazing is amazing too...it's a gutteral groaning sound, with piercing grunts. It reminded me of the demons in the first DOOM game, which (I later recalled) were sampled from real buffalo. heh. Many were stirring up dust and romping around with each other, fighting or playing...I'm not sure what these 2,000-pound creatures consider playing or what's considered fighting. It was such a sight to see. I felt so happy.

With the bison experience already complete, we turned around and headed for the Tetons. We saw more buffalo crossing the street. One actually walked up to a Subaru Outback and rammed it from a standing position. We saw the car rock as if it had been pushed, but apparently the couple standing right next to the car were more amused than irritated. I don't know how they did it. I wouldn't stand four feet from something that huge.

Within 30 minutes or so, we were off again and had made it to the entrance of the Grand Teton National Park. While the mission for the day was to get to Salt Lake City, Utah before the sun went down, we wanted to go see the Teton mountains. I mean.. why not, right? The mountains are enormous and rocky (almost like the Rocky's North of Denver). Man, they were incredible to see. We got out and shot some photos of the scenery, and even took a walk through a field for a better angle at these impressive peaks.

We were all starting to wear down by the time we had gotten through most of the Tetons. Forutnately, another place I wanted to see was right there at the base of the park. Jackson, Wyoming (or Jackson Hole) is right there at the South entrance of the Tetons. It's a quaint little ski town, with its share of really great
architecture (just my style!) and that real mountain town feel. We stopped to get some lunch in a diner there. I had a buffalo burger. Not too bad. I liked it better than the one I had in Aurora.

We crossed into Idaho after lunch. The state (at least what I saw of it) was more hilly than I had expected. Our route to Utah took us through beautiful yellow wheat fields with mountainous backdrops. And when we stopped for a break (we were exhausted), we saw a view of a lifetime, overlooking a river and the mountains of Idaho.

We whizzed through the Pocatello area of Idaho and hauled ass into Utah. Our problem was that the sun was fading. Salt Lake City, Utah was 300 miles away and we had about 3 hours of sunlight. We were pulling about 90 miles per hour and didn't stop to take a photo of the Utah sign. We were MOVIN. When we were about 45 minutes north of Salt Lake City, we could see the Salt Lake way out in the distance where the huge mountains stopped suddenly. In a spontaneous decision, we opted to get shots of the sunset of the mountains over Salt Lake from the city of Ogden, Utah. It was the only light we'd get to take advantage of, and by leaving for Wyoming from Ogden, we could shave two hours from the trip. I'm still conflicted over this, because it really sucks that we ran out of time. I'd love to see Salt Lake City, but we were so exhausted at that point, and had about 8 hours to go still. It really kind of pissed me off that we didn't leave the hotel earlier. Since I was tired, I opted not to bring this up, because I knew it would sound snotty and start a snipping match that- after such little sleep and illness in some cases- would get ugly quickly!! Anyhow, we pulled off in a cornfield to get some shots and they were terrific. There was an incredible sunset pattern with the clouds.

The way home was miserable. We had to cut North through Wyoming just to go South again into Colorado. It wasn't ideal, but out there, you have to drive on the roads, and the only road was as I described. Scott managed to drive the whole thing. I was so damned tired that I passed out in the backseat. That's when we stopped for gas to notice a flat tire. We filled it up hoping it was a glitch, and checked again in 10 minutes. Kinda okay, kind of flat. We filled it again and drove home.

I woke up as we were pulling into the apartment complex in Aurora. It was past sunrise- bright and shiny out, around 5:45am. Poor Julie had to be up for an interview at 10, and I had NO intentions of waking up for anything. I was stuffed up and felt awful, sneezing and hacking. I hit the pillow and don't remember anything that happened that day for hours and hours.

I did manage to swing by Mike's parent's place out in Broomfield, to pick up some stuff for Mike that he hasn't been able to get. Camping stoves that have had gas in them in the past can't be flown in or shipped, so he's never been able to get them. I was happy to help, plus it gave me a chance to see Adam and Marty (Mike's dad). We caught up for a while, they showed me the new digs, and I was on my way back to Scott's place.

I was up at 4, thanks to Scott. He got me up and walked me out to my car. I thanked him for one of the greatest vacation experiences I've ever had, and was on my way to Nebraska. It was dark out when I started, but by the time I got into Nebraska, the sun was poking out.

But more on this trip later! ;)