Happy spud harvest! and Wyoming

So, it's a warm and lazy Sunday. We've been watching the LDS general conference on the internet at home, which means no one's really uh, bothered to get dressed or anything...plus being home all day (AND with it being spud harvest--the kids have been off starting Friday and will be off all week), my husband's cooking gene is going off. Let's just say that food is flowing and baking is taking place and everyone is more or less contented. We couldn't do this for days on end, but it's nice every once in a while.

So today's get-to-know-the-intermountain-west post is on Wyoming. Least-populated state (including Alaska) due to high elevation/tons of impassible snow/short growing season/oh yeah and that supervolcano in Yellowstone that allows boiling water and sulphuric acid to spawn from the ground at any time. But beautiful! We've been trying to see as much as Yellowstone before it closes for the season, and slowly I'm getting around to posting more on the park. We've now seen the whole upper loop and about a third of the lower one. The park closes Nov 8, so we'll see what we can work in before then. In the meantime, here are a few facts about Wyoming/Yellowstone/the greater environs this time of year:



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We may live in the flat and agricultural Snake River plain, but we are close to so many interesting things here! If it weren't for the trees we could see Wyoming from our house. You can from most places in town. And all the volcanoes and springs and raw lava just lying on the ground, and the forests just up the way into the mountains...it's just a really interesting place. I'm quite amazed at the people who managed to settle these areas without any modern conveniences necessities, like cars or central heat or indoor plumbing or snowplows. Who knows how long we'll be here, but we do intend to enjoy as much of it as possible.

Yellowstone, northern loop

The main road through Yellowstone runs in a figure 8, and the bit that gets closed for the season first is the east side of the upper loop. Dunraven pass is at nearly 9000 feet, and while the road itself doesn't feel steep, the whole area is high enough that I'm sure snow comes early and leaves late. It's quite beautiful, though, with the falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It's the part with fewer thermal features, and therefore there are more hiking possibilities. It's definitely my favorite part of the park!

On our awesome tour guide's direction (thank you, Holly!) we started with the lower rim of the falls. There was this shortish trail (Uncle Tom's Trail) we could take from the parking lot to the bottom of the falls, and as it really wasn't very far, we decided to try it. There was a warning sign that people with heart issues and people not accustomed to strenuous exercise at 8000 feet maybe shouldn't try it. But we've been living at nearly 5000 feet, and figured we could do it. And actually, everyone was just fine. I would add that if you are afraid of heights, um, maybe you shouldn't try this one! "Uncle Tom," whoever he was, originally led tours down here on rope ladders. They've since built see-through metal stairs. Just...don't look down too much, and you'll be fine.



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I wish the nice weather would go on and on, but alas, the weather forecast is for gross stuff coming our way as of tomorrow. So the next post about Idaho and environs might be more about what you can see in the populated valley than what you can see up in the mountains. Hopefully there is something interesting in that as well!