amazed by nature

For this summer’s family trip, we planned a National Park double feature, flying into Jackson, Wyoming to explore Grand Teton National Park for a couple of days before driving north through Yellowstone, eventually flying out of Bozeman, Montana. It was as awesome as you know, if you’ve been, or as you’d expect, if you haven’t.

I was honestly more amazed by nature on our two main hikes in GTNP, first at Jenny Lake, where we spotted a black bear just off the trail (on our first hike!), and the next day at Taggart Lake, possibly the highlight of the entire trip for me (less crowded, truly stunning views, Zen moments, and a moose sighting), though it’s hard to choose any one thing.

I was easily the family member most freaked out about encountering a bear, buying bear bells and whistles for everyone, and renting bear spray for two of us to carry. It’s not that I didn’t want to see wildlife in general, or bears in particular - I did! - but I am not ashamed to say I had no desire to encounter a grizzly bear on a hike. I think my fear of bears is totally within normal and rational range, but a memory did pop into my mind at some point on our trip of seeing White King as a young girl. If you’ve ever driven through Elko, Nevada, just off of I-80, perhaps you’ve seen it, too (or read about it in Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Elko). White King is the world’s largest mounted polar bear tucked just inside the Commercial Hotel and Casino. My grandparents lived in Winnemucca, while my great-grandparents lived in Wells, so we’d often leave early and stop in Elko for breakfast on our drive from one to the other during weekend and summer visits.

In total, we saw 3 grizzly and 6 black bears, all from a very safe distance (like the grizzly bear above, seen around 8:30 am in Yellowstone’s Hayden Valley).

On the drive back to Jackson our first full day in GTNP, we made an unplanned stop at the National Museum of Wildlife Art, the only museum in the U.S. dedicated solely to art representing wildlife from all around the world. Some collection highlights for me:

In Yellowstone, I was most visually mesmerized at West Thumb Geyser Basin, our first stop after we entered the park from the south entrance.

Well, that and the surprise bison herd crossing during our hike around Mud Volcano at the southern end of Hayden Valley.

It’s moments like these when I think artists are, at best, trying to imitate what we experience in nature.

As a mostly vegan vegetarian, the less successful part of this whole trip I blame on the sort of faux cowboy aesthetic that is so central to the tourist marketing of this part of the country in particular (to marvel at a wild bison in the park and then eat a bison burger for dinner requires a level of cognitive dissonance I’m no longer capable of, thankfully…sorry to seem judgy, but you have to admit it’s a little weird). And when there were vegan or vegetarian options (like in Canyon Village for the two nights we stayed in the park), they were often sold out fairly early in the day (which could be a clue to have, I dunno, more vegetarian options??).

But we did find a few bright spots in a sea of BBQ, including Thai Plate in Jackson, Wyoming, pictured above, and Neptune’s Taphouse and Eatery in Livingston, Montana, pictured below.

Never thought I’d miss tofu. Did you know you can put BBQ sauce on it?

In other news, I finally updated my website! My old website I built myself using Adobe Dreamweaver, but it was a real pain to update, meaning I hadn’t really done so since shortly after grad school.

I kept my domain, of course, but pointed it to a Google Site I built after watching this tutorial (I’d never thought to use Google Sites to build a portfolio before!). It’s not perfect or fancy, but it’ll do for now.

Finally, I announced the next iteration of the podcast project, so to speak, so hop over to my other Substack newsletter to catch up there (or take a shortcut straight to the survey to be part of this next chapter!).