Yesterday, Paul and his family let me tag along with them on a trip to Yellowstone! The day began when they picked me up before 8 AM outside of my residence hall. In the car were Paul, Erica, Erica's father, and Ashley--what a group! Ashley (Paul and Erica's daughter) insisted that I sit in the back with her so that we could read a few of the stories from Deaths in Yellowstone (I had requested that she bring this book along for the car ride). After 1 story, we decided to that it was time to put in a movie. Ashley and Erica have just gotten back from vacation to Florida, so Ashley decided that she needed to watch Jaws now that she was safely home from the beach. So, we watched Jaws until we got to the park.
Our first stop was at the Yellowstone archway. This was the original entrance to the park, near Gardiner, MT. We stopped to take a "tourist shot" and then headed into the park. We stopped at a few overlooks that Paul and Erica knew were particularly beautiful on our way out to the Canyon area of the park. On our way to Canyon, we passed some buffalo walking on the road--very cool! Paul had previously worked in the Canyon foodservice (he oversaw all of the Canyon foodservice operations as well as the employee dining room) and wanted to check it out. He also knows a girl named Alexis who is working as a server in Canyon this summer, so we picked her up while we were there and made her a part of our posse for the day.
Once we had picked up Alexis, we headed out to Mt. Washburn. By the time we got to the trailhead, it was rather gloomy looking and pretty chilly--I am so glad that Alexis let me borrow a pair of windpants for the hike--I would have died in my shorts! As we hiked, the weather got less gloomy and the sun came out for a bit. About half way up the trail, we ran into some pretty solid highly packed snow that we ended up hiking on for the second half of the trip. About 2 hours later, we finally made it up to the top of Mt. Washburn (elevation 10,243 ft), welcomed by a quick hail storm. We took refuge in the ranger station at the top and ate our lunch overlooking some breathtaking views. After lunch, we headed back down the mountain (that only took about 1 hour 15 minutes) and then met Erica's dad who had been driving around the park while we hiked.
After we had all taken off our wet shoes and socks, we got settled in the car and headed out to Roosevelt (an area of cabins and a restaraunt), one of Paul's favorite places in the park. On the way to Roosevelt, we got into a traffic jam. Ashley, Alexis, and I got out to see what the commotion was all about. Down the bank and across the river on the side of the road was a moose and its baby! We could only see it through binoculars, but it was very cool! Once we got to the Roosevelt, we sat on the front porch and watched the rain come down while we waited for our table. Once our table was ready, we ate a delicious dinner and told Grandpa all about the hike.
After dinner, we did another quick hike down to the brink of the lower falls (an incredible perspective on a waterfall!). After that, we returned Alexis to Canyon and began our trip home.
Ashley and I wanted to finish watching Jaws in the car, but both ended up falling asleep. Before I knew it, Paul was pulling the car back outside of my residence hall and I was heading inside for a long, hot shower.
This morning, I was thankfully able to sleep in until about 9:00 AM and then took a nice walk to downtown Bozeman. The walk down Main street is definitely different on a Sunday morning than it was on Friday afternoon--but still very enjoyable. I finally got to visit The Homepage, a coffee shop that I have been wanting to go to since my first day here! It is a very nice shop and a great place to people watch. I enjoyed a Hawaiian coffee (coffee blended with coconut milk) and an oversized cherry scone.
This has been an exciting and relaxing weekend. Tomorrow starts week 4 of the internship. I know that we will be incredibly busy, especially since we are going to do some traveling this week. I am excited to continue working on all of our projects and to take in all of the sights, sounds, and smells of this summer.
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