Geysers to Canyons
It took cruising through Yellowstone to realize that all of those shows where people wonder if their missing person that fell in the Madison River in winter may still be alive two days later; no, they’re not.
This trip was to see all of the places I’d fallen in love with in movies. What I learned was that the wilderness is no joke and snowmobiling across it creates aches and pains.
Saturday was a free day to grab a meal and visit an animal habitat. This is a great moment to share my photo of Clayton, my wolf that I love. I wanted him to break out and bite as many people as he could.
The front desk clerk asked if we wanted snow mobiles to take out and test in the woods. Excuse me? It would be a leisurely drive to get used to the snowmobiles we lied and said we’d driven before. The woods were packed with young men testing their immortality. I tried to copy them as much as I could. Death was not a fear, I only felt pushback if the move would cause an accident with a fiscal impact. There are over 400 miles of driving paths in the Yellowstone woods and I covered maybe 10% on Saturday. I thought I was ready for the National Park.
I was not prepared. The kids we practiced with had nothing on the tour guide and I never thought to practice going max speed uphill, which we had to do to get to the geysers. I only crashed once.
It was a mini sideline stall, but the tour guide told me to stand still so he could come get me. I walk towards him and drop 3 feet down. Whose bright idea was it to put snow over spots that aren’t level? Fresh snow was never trusted again during the remainder of the tour.
Risking frostbite every time I took my gloves off to take pictures, it was all worth it. I came back to a hotel bar packed with Kacey Duttons watching the Super Bowl. I grabbed a beverage and headed to my room. What’s wrong with me? I joke about a Super Bowl party filled with Kacey’s for a month and then I go to my room and schedule my appointment for my tax returns.
My roommate kept the torch alive and headed to the party. She just got back and is telling me about it, but I’m ignoring her so I can finish this thought.
I have 114 miles across the southern canyon in a few hours. I’ll have my thoughts more organized then, but I wanted to notate how I first experienced snowmobiling across the park.