Miles Driven on June 21: 545
Lodging for June 21: The Utes Hostel, 21 E. Kelsey Ave., (801) 595-1645
Another "A" day. I left Cody at 7:30 a.m. with coffee and a bagel from a cute corner deli down the street from the Pawnee Hotel. I stopped for 2 seconds at Buffalo Bill dam (just long enough to get stung by a bee), and arrived at the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park at 8:45 am. I was impressed immediately (probably because I saw a moose grazing outside the entrance) and it got better as I went through. The hills were covered with fir trees. Yellowstone Lake was huge and perfectly ocean-blue. The bison and elk walked right across the street without paying the jaw-gaping, picture-snapping tourists any mind. Even the sulphur springs and mud volcano were an amazing natural wonder, although the sulphur springs really smelled like sulphur. Yuck! I had to skip some of the lesser geysers in the interest of time, but made it just in time to see Old Faithful go off. I mean I walked up, saw the geyser starting to gurgle, read the sign nearby about how the geyser started with smaller gurgles, took out my camera, and then, there she blew! It was about 12:30 and the next "showing" would not have been until 2:15 so I really got lucky.
I left Old Faithful and continued to head south into the Grand Tetons. The rest of Yellowstone that I saw had been ravaged by wildfires, and I found myself feeling sorry for the charred, lifeless trees that were left standing. That is how moved I was by Yellowstone, how in touch with nature I felt at that moment.
The Grand Tetons were no less disappointing. Even the signs on trash cans warning me about bears couldn't scare me away. Those majestic, snowcapped peaks towering over the crystalline Jackson Lake were incredible. I made good time to Jackson Hole, an area that appeared pretty upscale to me. I stopped at the Visitor's Center, where I was advised that the best way to Salt Lake City was driving over the Teton Pass to Idaho Falls where I could pick up I-15 South. The pass was high and windy (that's curvy, not breezy) with lots of warning signs for winter drivers. I passed the Snake River several times (no wonder it's called the Snake River, it really winds around). The falls of Idaho Falls were pretty but compared to Niagara they weren't that impressive.
I hauled ass from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City, which must be entirely under construction for the Olympics in 2002. Half the off-ramps in the downtown area were closed; fortunately I had gotten decent directions from the manager of the Utes, Socrates. The hostel is cozy and friendly. I stayed up late eating pizza and watching HBO with Socrates and a guy from Australia. One of my roommates at the hostel was from King of Prussia, PA and like me was planning to travel to Lake Tahoe soon. She said there is nothing to see or do in SLC so I don't feel bad that I wasn't going to take the time to sightsee in it. I asked if she wanted to carpool to Tahoe but she declined. I guess I would have done the same in her shoes.
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