A day in the parks

We left the little desert town of Dubois, Wyoming and quickly ended up surrounded by lots of tall pine trees, full rivers and snow. Lots of snow. At one crossing of the Continental Divide, Will (with sandals on), stood in snow that was almost to the top of the "Continental Divide" sign. We realized today how many different climates (micro climates?) we drove in and out of these last 2 days.

Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks far exceeded our expectations. I'm not sure exactly what we were expecting, but we passed it by. Besides being blown away by how huge the landscape was, Lisa was amazed by the natural formations of the geysers and the colors of the rocks around the openings. It reminded her of paintings. Will's favorite was the geysers, the deep snow, all the waterfalls, frozen lakes and the wildlife. (I told him to tell me one thing!) Hunt was in awe of the Tetons and Old Faithful. For some reason, (maybe it's good PR from Yellowstone), I've always wanted to see Old Faithful. Will and I took a walk around the Upper Geyser Basin where Old Faithful is and all of a sudden, Plume Geyser did its thing. I'll also never forget walking around West Thumb Geyser basin along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. Witches brews of hot sulfuric acid and steam, while Lisa, Will and I shivered in freezing drizzle. We were dressed for Atlanta (or at least Denver) in May, not Yellowstone! Of course, we could have spent several more days at those two parks, but we had a road to catch, so off we went. More to come about where we are this weekend--Bigfork, Montana, on the banks of Flathead Lake.