wyoming

Wyoming is a beautiful state. I have enjoyed both Montana and Wyoming due to the fact that we can constantly see horses and cows and buffalo right from the freeway. It helps keep me smiling along the drive.

From Montana we journeyed to beautiful Yellowstone National Park, one of the most (if not THE most) visited parks in the U.S. When we entered the park, it was snowing so hard we couldn’t see any of the landscape. I was a bit nervous we wouldn't be able to see anything through the entire park!  Luckily things cleared up shortly thereafter. The scenery was the most beautiful by the Yosemite Lake, since the western half still suffered loss from a huge fire in 1988. My favorite part of this park was definitely the animals, since we were able to see and get remarkably close to deer and bison. The shooting geysers, steaming hot springs, and bubbling pots of multi-colored mud that looked like something out of a science-fiction movie were also fun to see. We decided to check out Old Faithful, to see if it was worth all of the fuss. The most amusing part of Old Faithful was the huge crowd that gathered around to watch with cameras poised and ready to go. It was neat to see, but I thought a bit overrated and definitely wasn’t as interesting as a lot of other things we saw.  Here are a few of my favorite pics from Yellowstone:

We traveled to Cody, Wyoming that night to stay with our second “couch surfing” host Pat. She put us up in her R.V. with a space heater (lows in the upper 30’s that night). We found out that Pat had been a backpacker for 22 years, and recently lost her husband to cancer. She was a very interesting woman and I’m sure has more stories than I’ll ever have in my lifetime. As was the case with our other couch surfing host, Pat was a great host, and I just can’t get over the fact that people are willing to put complete strangers up for free in their homes on an ongoing basis. We have certainly experienced a lot of generosity from many people along our journey, and I am very touched and grateful to them all  (Read Guy's blog for more about Pat: http://choosingmyownadventures.blogspot.com/2010/05/latest-from-haitivia-wyoming.html)

The next morning we had a chance to pet Pat’s three horses (pure bliss for me), and then head across the state of Wyoming for a long day of driving. The only other point of interest along the way in Wyoming was our stop at Devil’s Tower…a big ol’ rock jutting almost 1300 feet into the air, named the first national monument in 1906, and a sacred site of Native Americans.