We write to you from the Bear Country Cafe in West Yellowstone, Montana. We left Anchorage a little more than a week ago, and went to Denali National Park for a few days. Although the cloud-shrouded mountain evaded us (save for a few brief glimpses), Denali was an incredible park full of great mountain landscapes, moose, cariboops (caribou for those uninitiated in the trip lexicon), wolves, DALL SHEEPS, and foxen (foxes).
From Denali we drove north to Fairbanks and then east towards the Canadian border. I've discovered that Canadian border guards are way friendlier than American border guards. Although, one Canadian woman did tell me I got no dessert until I signed my passport. Anyway.
The Yukon was, as always, beautiful and desolate in a way that only the north country can be. We came across the Sign Post Forrest, which is basically a forest full of old license plates and stolen signs and such attached to big wooden poles. It was interesting. Lizzie thought it revelatory. We drove south through British Columbia overnight, and hit Alberta on Friday.
Alberta might be the most beautiful place I've seen on the trip. Jasper and Banff national parks were stunning in their grandeur. We saw rushing waterfalls, jagged mountain peaks, jade-blue lakes, glacial icefields. Good stuff. Oh yeah, and mountain goats. BEARDS. THEY HAVE BEARDS.
My apologies for the lack of pictures recently, but I've lost my picture uploader cable. Once we have a little free time, I'll upload all the back catalog of pictures.
Monday (MY BIRTHDAY BITCHES) we arrived at Glacier National Park in northern Montana, one of the parks I've been most looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint, although we didn't spend a lot of time there. St. Mary Lake, Logan Pass, Many Glacier, Lake McDonald - these places I've been thinking about for years didn't disappoint. Traffic in the park was kind of insane, but it was good.
Today we're at Yellowstone. The drive through Montana to here got increasingly more beautiful the closer we got to the park. Today, we're exploring the park.
But the week brings sad news, too. On Monday, Eddie Page, my grandfather passed away. It was not unexpected, but still a sad time. Eddie and his wife Connie, my grandmother, gave me 22 great years and they will be sorely missed. Monday the 30th (of August) marks the funeral services back in Boston, and thus the end of the trip. Our last stops will be Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain National Park, Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, all in the next 5 days or so, and then heading back east.
It's been more than I could have expected.
More later,
Tom
hope you guys are enjoying yellowstone. sometimes mountains hide from us, that's just part of their mystery and fog is super beautiful too, it just takes the peaks out for dances sometimes and we are not invited into those intimate rituals.
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