Sunday, October 16, 2016

09 October, 2016 (Emily Smith)

Sitting in a bathroom with my pal Liv, working on some homework, jammin’ to some Wood Brothers because this if the first time I’ve had my cell phone on in quite a few weeks, and my mind keeps traveling to tomorrow morning when I get to crawl out of my tent and the first thing I get to see is the Tetons. How rad is that? Today was pretty rad in and of itself, the gang traveled to Mammoth Hot Springs, where we’ve been trying to get to during our whole week in Yellowstone but couldn’t due to road closures and weather. Well, we finally made it. The lot of us followed a trail that took us through the springs and up to an overlook that let us see across the entirety of Mammoth Hot Springs. From there we all made our way to the visitor’s center. I thought the coolest part was seeing an actual journal and sketchbook from expedition artist, Thomas Moran. I’m finding that those historical artifacts are becoming my favorite parts of what we’re seeing at the parks. After a quick lunch and leaving that area we shot over to Lamar Valley, another part of Yellowstone that we’ve been trying to get to all week. This area of Yellowstone is special because wolves in the park were extirpated in the 1920’s and were only reintroduced about 20 years ago. The reintroduction was a success and we set out to try and see some. That unfortunately was not in our cards today but we were lucky enough to spot a coyote and watch him run around a hillside for a while. After that, we headed for Grant Teton National Park and it is here that we are making our home for the next few nights. After about a week in Yellowstone it feels good to have uprooted again and continue the adventure with these guys. I still feel so lucky – I still feel like this is exactly what I need to be doing and where I need to be at in my life.


“In daily life we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy”

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