Whew! It’s been a whole week since I’ve been at this computer and while it’s nice to be back it was also really nice to get away for a while. This past week I helped my cousin Tyler move some of his ski equipment from the East Coast to the West Coast for a ski camp this summer on Mt. Hood’s glacier. He met me in Philly and we started out from there on Sunday morning, bright and early. We made it to Chicago that night where we stayed with one of his friends from high school. The next night we stayed at Fort Morgan on our way from Chicago to Denver. In Denver Tyler got some help balancing his new rig at Aspen Seating. While we were in Denver we went to Red Rocks and drove all the way up Mt. Evans. After that we stayed at his sponsor’s house for the night and then moved out towards Jackson Hole the next day. We stayed with Jonathan, one of the guys who has photographed some of Tyler’s ski races. Johnathan showed us around Grand Teton National Park where we got to see elk and bison and pelicans and a moose and so many other cool critters. We stayed two nights and it was great to spend some time in one place. From there we launched off towards Yellowstone with all of it’s natural amazing glory and then headed out towards Idaho where we stayed in Boise. And now? We’re back! Good old Oregon. We drove an (almost) obscene amount… today’s six hour drive was the shortest. I would definitely like to go back to Jackson Hole… I really liked that part of  Wyoming and I liked Colorado. Both were really rugged and very beautiful in their own sagebrushy ways.

Tyler and Pete figuring out whether the monoski was balanced or not. It’s ready to make it’s way up to Mt. Hood in the morning. After we were done in the shop Tyler and I went out to Red Rocks, an unusual formation made out of… yes, you guessed it: red rocks.

I’d hate to be inconsistent when it comes to photos. The last trip was all about bark and this one had a large number of waving grassy shots. I spared you endless pictures of flowers and bugs, oh how I do love my nature shots.

Reeeedddd ROCKS! An amphitheater has been carved into them and anyone you can think of (from the Beatles to ICP) has played there. I’d LOVE to go to one of the concerts there. One day…

From there we wound our way up the side of Mt. Evans. It’s America’s highest paved road, oh man, it went so far up into the clouds!

We saw goaties right by the road…

and when you’ve reached the top…

You’re standing higher than the tallest peak of Mt. Hood. It was bitterly cold and icy. We got out of the car for a grand total of five minutes, just long enough to snap some pictures and get ourselves back into the car. There were some headaches because of the altitude and it took us an hour and a half both ways to get there but it was so worth it! Just look at that view.

And then we were in Jackson Hole. It’s just south of Yellowstone and wraps around the Grand Teton National Park. There was wildlife all over the place and crazily picturesque views to boot.

We even wound up on a boat traveling across Jackson Lake. Tyler got to drive for a while but only after he warned us that he was probably going to do some donuts. He did. Water donuts… heehee.

Yesterday, Friday, we went to Yellowstone. This is one of the signs that greets you when you get out to see the geysers and such. That kid has had better days… he should have stayed on the path. Sucker.

They weren’t nearly as smelly as I thought they would be, mostly steam and pretty colors. There was a stunning amount of bison poops all over the place. Apparently they don’t need to stay on the paths like we do.

A big, aqua, boiling hole in the ground.

Anything yellow WAS stinky. Apparently sulphur is yellow + stinky + smells like the devil.

The pits and pools and pots and geysers had moderately alarming names like “Abyss Pool” and dragon this and devil that. Everything was boiling and churning around like they tend to do.

It took a week but we made it back safe and sound. I got to see the country and shake my head periodically, mumbling “Oh man, I can’t imagine taking a wagon across this. No way would I do the Oregon Trail. No WAY. Oh man…” And so it ended.