Garden City to Butt... I mean Butte

The most annoying family in the world had set up camp right beside me, and started being loud before 7:00 am, so I had an early start to the day. I managed to have been in 3 different states by 9:30 am, 4 by day's end. Highway 89 weaved back and forth across the Utah/Wyoming boarder, Utah became Idaho, then finally wound back into Wyoming. The drive was spectacular, through valleys and rolling green hills and the Snake River. I hit Jackson by mid-morning and was on cloud nine. It was even better than I had imagined it being. It's extremely touristy but oozing with old west and ski town character. I'm sure I saw some pro skiers hanging around in the cafe's, but I'm not so hardcore as to know who they were... I'm sure Katie and Derrick would have been all over it. I find it very silly that I have now been to all of my dream ski places (Jackson, Wy; Park City, Utah; Lake Tahoe, California; Big Sky, Montana; Chamonix, France) but only in the summer. Someday I will follow my wishes and take vacation in the winter when I would enjoy it the most.

I only lingered in Jackson long enough to get a snack and steal some wireless internet (parked in my car outside a motel, mwahahahaha). Then I was off to Grand Teton National Park. The entrance to the park was perfectly located at the point on the road where you first caught sight of the enormous peaks of the Tetons. They were absolutely spectacular to see. I took a few pictures while driving, but the main purpose of the day was to put on miles so I didn't really stop much. Traffic was extremely slow and frustrating.

After Grand Teton it was in to Yellowstone. Gillian, Derrick and I had been to Yellowstone back in 2003 (I can't believe it was that long ago!) during Trip Yellowjam, so I zoomed through here as well. I made a cursory stop at Old Faithful to see if it would be erupting soon, but it wasn't for another 40 minutes so I moved on. I stopped and took some pictures at Grand Prismatic Spring and then headed towards West Yellowstone. I had hoped to see some buffalo, since they were so prevalent the last time I was there, but they were elusive this day so I was out of luck.

The rest was just driving and I made it all the way to Butte, Montana (aka. Butt). I checked into the local KOA (I have an affinity for KOA's now) made some dinner. As I was doing my dishes I started talking to the unfortunate-looking girl who worked there. She asked me where I was going, where I had been, and I told her. She immediately said "I hate San Francisco, actually I hate California." I was shocked, I had never heard anyone say such a thing and I couldn't believe that it would be true. She informed me that people were really rude there, stared at her. In fact, she hated everywhere but Montana, and possibly Canada. As I was having this conversation I realized what she was talking about. As I said, she was unfortunate-looking, like the possible result of incest. I have a feeling that people in Montana (and Canada) were generally just nicer to people who were different, whereas those in larger cities just didn't give a damn. I felt really bad for her, but I think she was generally content in Butt, and had a boyfriend in Spokane (which she hated) who probably treated her well. It made me really sad that people have to go through life that way, hating the world because of a lack of compassion from those around them. Jerks!

Anyway, I finished my dishes, chatted on the phone, played a game on my computer and went to sleep, very excited that it would be my last night in the tent.

Arch made of antlers in Jackson... that's a lot of dead animals!

The airport is right there. Very weird to see.

Very pretty spot in Grand Teton National Park

Grand Prismatic Spring

This is for you Jill, couldn't get one of the tourist being gored by the buffalo though