july 17 yellowstone, wy => seattle, wa

this is what 5am look like.


up and at 'em early again- this time our reasoning was threefold- it was, in part, to see the critters, and to avoid the assholes, but it was also because we decided to make it all the way home so that we could wake up in our bed the next morning and have a day to recover. it meant 14+ hours of driving-- our longest day yet.

so we drove out of the park, getting to see LOTS of critters before we left, and out into montana.










he was not happy with us













he could care less about us.












mama black bear and 3 cubs


for the most part we had been on backroads since our first night on the road, but heading home in a hurry meant the highway. i-90 west. luke, face covered in a camping towel and black bandanna, fell asleep just outside the park and so it was up to me to get us as far as i could. and i kid you not, not even TWO minutes after getting on the highway, i was pulled over. the cop, who was visibly younger, was harassing us. though i speculate he thought i was kidnapping the seemingly bound luke. apparently it was from a lack of signal (which i call bullshit on bc he followed me long before i changed lanes- going 65 in a 70- also, i ALWAYS signal). anyway, he eyeballed the glove compartment and everything else he could before sending me on my way with a warning (for what?). and it was off to the races.

we took turns driving, got the teeniest bit snippy with each other for the first time since the trip (luke doesnt remember this, so maybe i was just being irritable), ate at a sonic drive in... mmmmmmmm and made it home at 8pm.












home!

spending day in and out with my favorite person and getting to see and do all kinds of amazing things makes me profoundly grateful. and i would do all of it again in a heartbeat.














best.birthday.ever.

july 16: yellowstone nat'l park

me and poke, and luke via shadow

luke decided that most critters are up early, so to see them, we should be up too.

we left jackson at 5 am (when you go to bed at 8pm you can do this with ease) and headed north to the road into yellowstone. (we saw some elk on the way, but not much else). we bought a national park pass before we left and were VERY excited to get to use it TWICE. (tetons and yellowstone) in ONE day. big stuff.

we were nervous about campgrounds filling up (considering casper was so ridiculous) so we scoped out a spot on the south side of the park, pitched a tent and headed out to see what we could.

let me preface most of this post with this: yellowstone was my least favorite part of the trip, so much so i wish we would have done the trip backwards. and people are assholes. (people would tailgate us and then speed past when they had the chance. they would pull off to the side of the road to see critters and then walk their children out to get a better close. ITS A FUCKING WILD BUFFALO, not a petting zoo goat! would you take your kid into a bull pen?! no! NOT SAFE, ASSHOLES. idiots.)

continuing on...

we saw old faithful! i had been through yellowstone once before but had never seen it erupt.







thar she blows- its the tail end of it, but its the best photo composition

we drove and saw critters.
























critters

and drove and saw pretty landscape.
and drove and smelled sulfur pots.
i think we drove for something close to 8 hours to see all of the park.




driving
(there are a lot of these pics)


anyway, then we headed back to camp and explored around there.














our campsite overlooked the lake so we hiked around to see it. we decided to eat dinner on the water until the mosquitos and weird water bugs realized we were there. we finished dinner in the car. then we zipped ourselves in our tent and read the park literature and watched the stars come out. ahhhhhhh....
















luke fending off bugs

july 15: casper, wy => jackson hole, wy

waking up with the sun is pretty awesome, but god, sleeping in and waking up in a bed is about a zillion times nicer than waking up on the ground. your own personal shower, albeit a days inn, is hands and fists above a koa shower- flip flops not required.

having made it pretty far west, unexpectedly, we took our time heading out of good ol' casper. we decided on the road to head to jackson hole that night instead of up to yellowstone. we were a day ahead of ourselves, so we jumped at the chance to see another place.

it was a gorgeous drive, of course. and we realized hat by that point we had been so incredibly spoiled with views from day one that we were taking them for granted. "oh look, another antelope." eeeesh.










just a day in the life...
the tetons

we drove along side the tetons once we got near jackson and stopped to check out the snake river where luke had been rafting as a kid. i remember an old friend of mine growing up had gone to the tetons and yellowstone and i remember thinking it sounded SO boring. things change.











capital A-mazing

we got into jackson at about 5pm and opted for an early dinner at the italian restaurant nearby. maybe we were just hungry but GOOD GOD that was a good eggplant parm. one beer and a glass of wine later, the high altitude got to me and i was ready to pass out. 8pm and on my way to bed. so THIS is what 30 is about! ill take it!