Well...Have you? They don't bite.

(Photo taken of whiteboard sign in Yellowstone)

The last two days had asymmetry all over the place. Order in disorder. A little bit of Tree mind-Hugging too. As nighttime fell on my way to Bozeman, I took a chance to drive through Yellowstone. The going was slow, but with the craziest ledge vistas and switchbacks. Driving in the park is a practice in immersion. Near the end of the three-hour (anticipated 1.5 hours) drive, I did have the surreal chance to see a mini herd of bison grazing at the roadside. And, Bigfoot, as the other picture clearly indicates. Who knew.














Other than that, this trip was uneventful. I made it out the entrance at Gardiner, MT around 8:30pm, only to then realize I had an additional 84 miles to my hotel in Bozeman. 35mph construction zones don't make for good time. I couldn't get cell reception, couldn't find a pay phone for miles and once I did, couldn't find my roll of quarters (surfaced in the bottom of my purse later), couldn't figure out how to use my credit card for a call, and I had to eat a sandwich from the gas station. Not cool.

Oh and then funny story, I slept in 2 hours later than expected and had a 8am bus to catch for my Yellowstone day tour. All the nerves that had been calm and sedate for 9 days tensed right up today. Then nature told me to calm down.

I (miraculously) made it on the tour bus right on time. The tour bus, run by the park service, held myself and 29 other guests. Skewed heavily toward older ages, I was eventually the individual destined to know the answer to the inevitable pop-culture question that arose from the tour group along the way:

Woman #1: (open address to any of us) "Wasn't there a celebrity who said something stupid about Buffalo's having wings and everyone made a big deal out of it?"
-- This, coming after much ado was made about the bison population in Yellowstone --

Me: (after much silent deliberation) "...I think it was Jessica Simpson"
--Immediate shame and self-loathing for providing this information ensues--

Bus Driver, Elise: "Oh! I didn't know that. I haven't had a television for 11 years, so I'm not in the know about this stuff."

Enter, Elise. Our tour-guide/bus driver/voice of reason/provider of fun facts and corny puns from 8am to 6pm, through mud pots, geysers and canyons. This day was shaping up to be OK...

First, here's a selection of the wildlife I saw up close from the tour. First, a picture of my second Bigfoot sighting, which started as a picture of a raven. Clearly Yeti jumped in at the last minute. Also, here's more wildlife on the roadways.

And before I get to the really good stuff, and barring any actual reflective thinking, a sampling of aforementioned bad puns provided on the tour by Elsie.

Pun 1.
The setup: We came upon two male deer in the hill above our rest stop location. Someone noticed "those are two bucks, not just one buck."

The punchline, Elsie-style: "You can' t get anything anymore for one buck, anyway. It's always at least two bucks."

Pun 2.
The setup: A woman asked Elsie if, in her 8 years as a tour guide, she'd ever hit any wildlife with the bus before.

The response: "No, not any animals, but a bird once" answered Elsie. "The bird flew into my windshield once and the only thing I could think to do was to wipe it off with the wiper. Once I did, I looked back to see who I'd flung the bird back at. Turns out, it was a park ranger. I saw the lights go on, and he pulled me over."

The punchline, Elsie-style: "I was cited for flipping him the bird."

That was fun.

And now, some scenery. Asymmetry, pattern and some speechlessness-inducing sights:



1. These trees are termed "bobby sock trees" by park rangers. They coined this term to describe the look caused by the absorption of minerals from the tree roots taken from the bogs they reside in. Thus, the bottoms of the trees take on the whitesh hues and eventually die, turning dark brown at the tops, thus the appearance of bobby socks.









2. A site of a steam geyser, look at this spectacular blue-green color in contrast to the mineral-white and orange surrounding it. The blue color, like other bodies of water, are this color from light refraction.









3. Again, at a geyser site, this orange substance on the ground is all bacteria. They thrive around the hot spots. The steam in these locations can reach anywhere from 200 - 400 degrees. And people are caught trying to climb in these areas, despite warnings against this.
















4. OLD FAITHFUL. Right on time. 12:10 pm anticipate eruption. Actual eruption, 12:10. Length: Maybe 45 seconds.












5. Look at the demarcation naturally created by reseeding following the deforestation caused by fire. On the left, the wave of new growth. On the right is the grayish, dead wood. Isn't this ying-yang type view just perfect, and so....well, natural?





The other main interest of the day was passing by an arrest in progress. A young man, shirtless and gaunt in that mountain-climber-with-inadequate-gear kind of way was being cuffed by a park ranger. As our bus passed, I just caught the incident for a second. I remember the incredulous look the man had on his face. I felt for him. I'm not sure what crime he may have committed. Probably something unsafe to himself, others, or the park. Perhaps smuggling plants, or hunting. Maybe crossing a path not allowed for use. Still, that look got to me. It was the caught, no-way-back-now look. Very haunting, actually.

And that was Yellowstone. Interesting, fantastic stuff.


A mingling of stats:

Gas: nope, still too expensive. Near Bozeman it's at $2.88.

Key tracks, in no particular order: "Last Dance with Mary Jane" by Tom Petty. "Extraordinary Machine" by Fiona Apple. "Good News for People Who Love Bad News" by Modest Mouse (for obvious reasons, I identify with the title of this one, as well. Also, a great album as a whole. Highly recommend.) The Killers' Hot Fuss.

Chain restaurant food I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy: Taco John's, any.