“Are you really sure you wanna do this, mom? I was planning on camping the whole way…”
My mom has never been much of an outdoorsy person. So to hear her state over the phone that she was ready to ride in a truck with me and my son for 5000 miles through some of the most beautiful country the US has to offer was shocking. ABSOLUTELY shocking. Then she told me the best words any traveller could hear. “I’ll pay for the gas.”
My dad died of colon cancer on September 26, 2016. It was all too quickly. In less than 3 months, he had been diagnosed, received 2 rounds of chemotherapy, and moved into hospice. My dad was my personal life example of an adventurer. He worked for state parks, camped in KOAs across the United States, and always took the chance to tour any Civil War battlefield. He was a historian and a scholar. He was also a philosopher in the most basic sense – he questioned life and meaning and searched for connections.
He was the reason we drove from Washington state to Arkansas. My dad was also a Marine, Lima 3/1 company, Vietnam 1969. Before he died, he made plans to attend the annual Lima 3/1 reunion scheduled for Oklahoma City. He didn’t make it to that day. My mom, brother, sister, and I knew it was our duty to attend in his place. It’s the one reunion he really wanted to attend.
I picked up my mom from the Seattle airport in late August, just a day before my son’s first birthday. After a day of playing, food, seeing close friends, and a smashed banana cake covered in grass, we packed up my truck and said goodbye to Washington. I had spent a fairly large amount of time planning out a route that would allow for multiple stops (cause that’s always needed when travelling with a baby), and put us in bigger towns so that we could find food, clean bathrooms, and gas (also needed when you drive a gas guzzling truck). We stopped in Post Falls, ID for our first night then headed on to Belgrade, MT to visit my close friends Neil and Sarahjess.
Belgrade is just a quick drive west of Bozeman. We spent the afternoon in Bozeman walking around downtown and spending play time at the library. Neil was helping Sarahjess update her website. She is an insanely talented artist, creating jewelry and functional ceramics. Truthfully, she’s kind of a hero of mine. She creates these intimate pieces and displays them in galleries and shops through western and southwestern Montana. All while being a mom and, at the time, a newlywed. Plus her personal style is killer.
The north entrance to Yellowstone is roughly an hour and a half from Bozeman, following I-90 east to Hwy 89 south. At the north entrance we stopped at the famous arch named after Theodore Roosevelt, the president who laid its cornerstone. This was the first time I had ever actually stopped at the entrance, actually taken the time to read the inscription and take photos.
“For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.”
Yellowstone is an impossible park to visit in just one day. With its varying features including geothermal, subalpine forests, canyons, rivers, and grasslands, not to mention hundreds of species of wildlife, you could spend a month here and not see it all. But you have to try when you are on a time crunch. Thankfully, my mom knew she wanted to see Old Faithful and our route dictated that we stay on The Grand Loop to make it to the Tetons. Truthfully, our route was also dictated by coffee and bathrooms. Nothing worse than needing to pee in a bison traffic jam.
From the north entrance down the Grand Loop, you can still see major highlights of the park. We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and Old Faithful. While getting coffee at the Old Faithful Visitor Center, I was reminded of just how much we were missing and how much I still had yet to see. Two younger guys told us about a bear fight at the east entrance over a carcass. Two grizzlies. That’s a once in a lifetime moment to witness.
We stayed the night in Jackson. With an upset baby (he cried for 30+ minutes on the drive), a headache, and no clear view of the Tetons due to smoke it made sense to quit for the day. I discovered that night that Stone couldn’t handle night driving, as though not being able to see in the dark frightened him.
We spent the next day in downtown Jackson. Got coffee, of course, checked out the antler arches, looked at dozens of art galleries, and swooned over Pendleton blankets I couldn’t afford. I will say the taxidermy wildlife caught me off guard. I spent most of the day in a daydream state, imagining buying these $900,000 timber post homes with their large gallery windows; filling it with vivid paintings of mountain ranges and bison, making a warm fire and drinking coffee as the snow falls. I had always had a dream to move to the mountains, a dream that had consumed my thoughts for years. But life threw me in a different direction. I had quit my teaching job and cashed in my retirement so that I could stay home with my son for the first year of his life. I didn’t know then that life would continue to move me to the space I needed to be in. More on that in another post.
We continued eastward. Leaving Jackson put us on a stretching expanse of high plains. Thankfully this was broken just by turning right. We drove south on I-25 then dipped into the Rocky Mountains and stayed at Estes Park. Estes Park is absolutely gorgeous. It is also the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, with loads of restaurants, hotels, and adventure companies from gear to planned outings. We stayed at hotel that more closely resembled connected cabins. Adorable rooms, views of the Rockies, one of the best burritos I have ever had, and lots of elk droppings.
It was a quick drive to Rocky Mountain National Park. Sadly, the smoke from Montana followed us into Colorado. On this particular summer, over one millions acres in Montana was engulfed at one time. The smoke was staggering. I was mainly just grateful that the wildfires hadn’t greatly impacted our trip. We could see fire and smoke but it never came so close that we were in danger.
Stone got his first taste of shuttle life in RMNP. The park, like many others, operates shuttle services to lessen traffic, particularly parking stress. We parked once and rode the shuttle the rest of the way. We decided to do a small, level hike around Bear Lake. Stone enjoyed the view, babbling to people, and hanging out in his carrier.
Up next, the central plains, family, and a bunch of drunk Vietnam Vets…
