After a week of sunny, smoky days, rain has come to western Wyoming and Montana.
The shops in Jackson Hole have handmade signs in the windows: "Thank you, firefighters!" I'm sure most people here will be glad for a few days of rain and cooler temperatures.
I am not one of them.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not fan of forest fires - but when your life revolves around hiking, cooking outside, and parking your home on dirt patches, rain is kind of a bummer. Oh - and don't get me started on the roof I still need to re-caulk and my miserable windshield wiper blades.
Speaking of life outdoors, I'm getting a little burned out on it.
Grand Teton National Park is gorgeous right now - brilliant yellow and orange aspens in front of steep mountain peaks - but I could hardly be bothered to take photos, let alone hike. Instead, I raced to the gravel patch of an RV park to read Harry Potter by the pool on the last day of summer sunshine. That was Day 24.
Yesterday I had an urban day in Jackson, Wyoming. Jackson is a little island of chichi in a sea of national parks, where you can find $40 elk tartare and interior design shops selling Pendleton-covered Eames chairs (if you have to ask, you can't afford it).
You can also find over-the-top Western kitsch like the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, which has saddles for bar stools.
I took a pass on the chichi, though I did succumb to the temptation to buy moccasins AND a plaid shirt.
The smoke and then clouds wrecked my Jackson pictures - everything looks gray and moody, like the world through Eeyore's eyes - but here are a few photos for you.
Southwest Yellowstone in a nutshell: fly fishing alongside geysers. (Can't see the fisherman? He's that speck in the center of the river.
Obligatory Old Faithful shot:
And just one photo from Jackson. I went for a run on the Jackson Hole Community Pathways - a really great network of trails that wind through the city and out into the surrounding community along the Snake River. Along the way, I spotted these ducks enjoying their little single-serve rock perches. I like to imagine them crossing the rocks stone by stone, like the path to a Zen temple:
Hitting the road to continue south through Wyoming, destination still TBD. Arches National Park, in southeast Utah? Estes Park, near Rocky Mountain NP just north of Denver? The original plan was Aspen, but I have since learned that Aspen is way too cool for RV parks. Arches and Santa Fe are definitely in my future - still trying to figure out what, if anything, will lie between. If you have suggestions, please let me know!!
xoxo, RV Girl
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