Summer escape

Summer is so often an escape for me. One in which I try to get as surrounded by nature as possible, as a way to recover from 10 months in one of the biggest cities in the world. Over the past several years I've been doing that by heading into the US's National Parks. This summer was no different. The main destination this year was Glacier National Park in Montana, where there was no shortage of trails to allow me brief forays away from just about anything that reminded me of civilization (well if you could ignore the bear bells ringing from other hiker's packs). As always it was the little moments that really made the week special, and allowed my spirit to recover. Finding a perfect reflection of the mountains in the lake. Noticing that the sun hit my favorite flower, the bear paw, in just the right manner in that field. Reaching Apikuni falls to find no one else there, making the .8 miles up hill well worth the hard breathing. The marmot that just made me smile. That plant, whose inner growth spoke to the part of me that loves symmetrical, mathematical beauty. The different shades of blue that together form one peaceful landscape. Reaching the third waterfall in one day, and finding I only had to share it with 6 other people. Splurging on high tea at the Prince of Wales hotel across the Canadian border in Waterton Lakes National Park. Just the overall peacefulness of mountains, greenery and water helped me to feel renewed.  

American snapshot: Road trip

One of my favorite things about taking off with my mom during summer vacation for a road trip is her willingness to stop at all the random odd sights that I've dug up while researching our route. Often these little breaks end up being the highlight of our trip, which can only be the case when I am with someone who is willing to humor my sense of the absurd and doesn't sigh too much when we only make it a couple of hundred miles in a day (instead of a more normal 600 or so when we are actually trying to get somewhere). Together we're discovering that the journey is definitely part of the fun. A brief highlight of some of my favorites from this summer (thanks in good part to my go to guide: Roadside America "Your online guide to offbeat tourist attractions"):

There was the skeleton boy leading a skeleton dinosaur
somewhere off of I-90 in South Dakota

The graffiti art alley in Rapid City, South Dakota
"My people will sleep for 100 years and when they wake 
it will be the artists who give them back their spirit."

Where we also stopped at a Storybook Island,
the children's section of the city park which had fabulous photo opportunities
with over sized cartoon and movie characters.

A giant spider made out of a VW bug in a field of Lexington, Oklahoma

Oversized metal water lilies in Riverside Park in Wichita, Kansas

Which also had a troll hidden under a grate on one of the sidewalks by the river

The world's largest ball of Sisal Twine in Cawker City, Kansas

Where we also walked the twine trail (no matter how many times we tried to say this out loud it always came out as the twine twail...) which took us by store fronts containing replicas of art masterpieces with a addition of a ball of twine somewhere in the painting.

And my favorite roadside stop of the trip: Carhenge (Alliance, Nebraska)

With stops like these, who cares what the purpose of the trip was?

American snapshot: Grand Teton National Park

If you head out of Yellowstone Park to the south you can't help but drive through Grand Teton National Park, the second national park of our summer trip. You can tell that this park is used to people just driving through and wanting to see a bit of what is on offer. When we stopped to get a bit of information the volunteer was able to give us a driving route, with recommended stops, that would take us a few hours to get through with enough time to actually get out of the car and walk for a bit. The entire time you are in the park the view is dominated by the Teton mountains towering over the landscape. I consistently found myself looking west unable to draw my eyes away from the majestic mountains. We stopped for a picnic lunch along the river where we could soak in their towering heights reflected back by the water. Father along we stopped for a short walk near some of the recreational areas (in some ways the park reminded me of a state park in terms of its recreational usage than a national park, although there is no denying that its natural landscape deserves national protection) where the obvious views were still enchanting but I also was absorbed by the northern version of bluebonnets and paintbrushes with their taller growth. A later stop took us to the chapel of transfiguration where the view was the entire focal point of the chapel. Why put in stain glass when a clear window will reveal one of God's masterpieces behind the altar? A turn and a head back into the park by a different road led us to Snake River Overlook, a spot where Ansel Adams took a few of his stunning photographs. You know I had to do my best to capture a piece of that in black and white. On our way out of the park we took a small detour along a dirt road where we happily stopped to watch the buffalo cross, taking their time, rubbing their heads against posts, bending down to nibble a bit of grass and keeping the calves moving. This park definitely has its own unique draw; even if it is often overshadowed by its larger more well-known northern neighbor.

American snapshot: Yellowstone National Park

I've done so much traveling outside the United States and yet there is so much in the US that I have yet to see that I sometimes feel guilty. That feeling, combined with a need to get some of that fresh air that is sadly lacking in Delhi sent me on a two and a half week road trip this summer that encompassed four national parks. A week after leaving Austin mom and I made it to Yellowstone where we ended up spending three nights in the park (pretty good for only one night reserved ahead of time). I'm not really sure what I expected from the park. I finally decided that all of my preconceptions came from when I used to watch Yogi Bear cartoons as a child. Needless to say that is not exactly a realistic view of the park, although the pine trees were definitely out in abundance!

My Yellowstone experience can be divided into three main parts in my mind: the animals, geothermal activity and beautiful scenery. I have to admit that I probably got most excited about the first. Just the potential to see bears carries a sense of anticipation, regardless of the fact that we didn't see any. Bison were difficult to miss, wandering across the road at times, grazing in fields along the way and becoming the point of much traffic congestion in the evenings. One of them even decided to stroll by our cabin the last night. Driving around one of the hotel we came across a here of female elk. They don't seem quite so exciting as they are without antlers of any type. A day later there was some traffic congestion so I jumped out of the car to see what had everyone's attention. Down by the stream resting under a tree were two male elk sporting quite the racks. The last day a single male decided to stroll across the road in front of our car providing us with an up
close and personal look at one of these beasts simply stepping over the wooden fence I had been leaning against earlier. That was about it for the big animals we saw in the park, a deer, rabbits, birds, and some lizards rounding out the count.

Who doesn't think of Old Faithful when they hear the name Yellowstone? I certainly do! So of course a stop to see the most reliable geyser in the park was in the plans. We had to wait around an hour for the next anticipated eruption; which just gave us plenty of time to stake out a good seat along the edge of the geyser field. While the geyser itself was pretty impressive I might have had more fun watching the reaction of the kids that were sitting around us. The ohs and ahhs were a good reminder that I needed to appreciate the magical experience this really was. So I settled I to shoot photos of the initial steam stream, the spurts of water, the arch of the eruption and the gradual subsidence back to a bubbling water pot. Afterwards we had to stroll through the geyser basin and take in some of the other spouts. Old Faithful is just one of the many locations where you can appreciate the beauty of geothermal activity. My other favorites included the spitting mud pots at the Artist's Paintpots and my sunrise trip out to the Norris Geyser Basin where I was
overwhelmed by the steamy/smoky landscape which made me feel as if I had emerged onto a set for some otherworldly fantasy until the time that the sun began to highlight steam trails as it peaked over the mountains (totally worth dealing with the 40 degree temperatures). There were also the colored terraces by Mammoth Hot Springs (bringing to mind the white travertines of Pamukale inTurkey). I can't help but imagine what it would have been like to be an early explorer venturing through this mystical, unexpected and dangerous landscape.

As for the landscape...well there were sections of towering pine trees. Views over a few powerful waterfalls, my favorite being a smaller one that I passed on a slight hike between the upper and lower falls. Also tower falls was a simple meander off the road. The northern section had more open and sweeping vistas, sprinkled with the random glacier boulders that had tumbled to a final stop. There were, of course mountain fields, ravines with rapids and steam capped views. The two images that stand out the most in my mind though are the moment of watching a bison carefully pick a path through a geothermal area and later the white crusted, dead wood image of a land that has been rendered lifeless by the heat and minerals of the underlying geothermal activity. Both highlighted the very delicate balance that exists in this unusual place.