this one time, at yellowstone, abbie almost smooched a bison

hey everybody,

since our last post, we’ve covered a lot of miles and packed in a lot of madcap adventures. we left billings for yellowstone, where we spent one night in a motel and one night camping. we then spent a day recovering in scenic bozeman, and as i write to you we are in a hostel on the edge of glacier national park, poised for another plunge.

that last night in billings, abbie insisted that we go out and do some heavy drinking. i was about to ask her why when i remembered what the morning held in store: a drive on the aptly-named beartooth highway. i probably don’t need to explain that a winding, cliffside-ish highway through a countryside full of bears does not thrill abbie the way it might some other people. the only way you could make it worse for her would be if the car actually took flight, harry potter-style (or worse, thelma and louise-style).

i’m kidding about the heavy drinking, of course, although we did enjoy some fine beers at the montana brewing company, including a saison. it’s a style we had never had before, apparently originating with french farmers, but anyway worth trying if you ever come across one.

and the beartooth “could’ve been worse” according to sweet abbie. after a certain amount of white-knuckling during the initial climb, she got to where she enjoyed the amazing views.



we got out onto a snowfield, had a snack, and attempted to glissade (that’s where you sort of ski in your boots) while some daredevil types were skiing down the other side of the valley. ultimately, we just frolicked.



once we got to yellowstone, it took an hour or so to adjust to the scale. if like me your impressions are mostly formed by a certain cartoon, you sort of can’t really believe how big the real thing is... maybe ten trillion acres, give or take. anyway, we pretty much just drove through it that first evening, taking in the sunset and enjoying the sight of a few hundred bison.

our motel had a certain style.


we got a decent campsite that next morning and set out to explore the wacky volcanic features. we’d been told by ben and meredith, good friends and road trip veterans, that yellowstone made you feel like you were on another planet. we didn’t really get it until we started smelling sulphur and dodging flying bits of boiling acidic mud. i did not remember this from the cartoon.



stupefying as the geysers and springs were, probably more memorable was the time a bison almost kissed abbie on the cheek. we were on the way to the first geyser basin and some cars ahead of us were stopped. we had about five seconds to wonder what everyone was looking at before three bison came walking calmly down the middle of the road. they were walking around the stopped cars, seemingly not bothered at all by (nor particularly interested in) the cars or their gawking passengers. not so with my dear abbie. when they got to our car, two came along my side and the third on abbie’s. i was staring at mine when abbie let out an indescribable noise, and i whipped around to see a big ol’ bison head in her window... either just taking a look, or maybe she smelled good? or he was hoping she would scratch his shaggy chin, which she could’ve done without reaching out of the car. to her credit abbie “only freaked out a little,” and whenever we saw bison after that, she seemed to feel bonded, like they were her homies.

i guess i should mention that there’s a lot of what abbie called “propaganda” (fliers and posters mostly) that warn people to stay away from the wildlife in general, and bison and bears and wolves in particular. as far as we could tell, we were the only ones who followed this advice.

we managed to see some elk that day, including a big old bull with beautiful velvety antlers...


...and (abbie’s favorite non-bison experience of the day), a coyote that crossed the road in front of our stopped car and tripped daintily down the trail. it reminded me of a fox we saw in minnesota one morning getting chased across the road by a duck-sized bird that might have been a pheasant.

that night in the tent, as abbie lay awake with bearanoia, she listened to coyotes calling and bison grunting, both amazingly loud and echo-y in the valley.

we hiked a ten-mile loop through the grand canyon of the yellowstone. abbie loved the quiet meadow at the beginning, the canyon view in the middle (called sublime point), and the riverside part at the end, not to mention the yellow-bellied marmot that sniffed at us near the waterfall. we also got to see some more mudpots and springs (without so many people around this time).

happily exhausted, we got very lucky on the way out of the park: three pronghorn, three black bear cubs, and a glimpse of twitching moose ears and antlers. we didn’t manage to see any wolves or adult bears, but maybe that’s okay.

i’ll end this rather long post by mentioning just briefly that bozeman is a pretty great little town, featuring a truly spectacularly great co-op (where we ate two delicious lunches). also must mention the salmon fly honey rye beer made by the madison river brewing company, which rocketed its way onto abbie’s all-time top five beer list.

tomorrow we start in on glacier - depending on what the rangers recommend we’ll probably spend a night or two. see you on the other side.