between east and west

Prehistoric to our trip to Dinosaur National Monument was, well.. a lot of driving. But the vast and pancake flat land across Colorado and Kansas held some beautiful moments in the sky. This sunset over the Colorado Rocky's was stunning. And upon arriving to the Rocky mountains there were so many amazing sights to see: a double rainbow after a hard rainstorm, and stunning sunsets.





As we climbed the Rocky's (and by climb I mean in our moving vehicle) the temperature dropped and driving on the way down I even felt a little nausea from the steep decline in elevation. We drove to elevations over 13,000 feet! That's over 2 miles above sea level.









Driving through the Colorado desert we came across many monumental towering rocks. We stopped the car on this bluff and took some pictures. I'm not the biggest fan of heights and standing this close to the plummeting edge was quite a feat for me; but well worth the photo.







On the way out of the Rocky's we camped on a small lake. It was the first time we camped in a designated camping area. John has dubbed this camping as "wus" camping.. but after trying it for a night I can't complain at the instant campsite.. kind of similar to the instant Ramen I have been eating a good deal of. Early morning at this campsite I heard clawing at the edge of the tent and saw shadows of small claws and felt the tent shake. Frozen in the tent, and not by the chilly Colorado morning air, my worst fear of some deep western mountain predator was playing out before my eyes and ears. To conclude the story let me just inform you that this aggressive predator turned out to be a few mischievous chipmunks!











Our fourth of July was spent in Denver, Colorado at our second Hostel. Not as enjoyable as our first Hostel in Asheville but overall the city was nice and we had a good time touring around.

After leaving Asheville, North Carolina we stopped in Nashville, Tennessee to see my number one dream Law School; Vanderbilt University Law. A wonderful woman from the admissions office conducted an interview with me and gave some great tips for my application this fall. I have decided to apply to Vanderbilt, George Mason (in Virginia DC area) and Columbia University in NYC. Vanderbilt Law school is in one main building in downtown Nashville. The school is beautiful and full of the latest technologies and resources for any law student.




West from Tennessee we stopped in St. Louis Missouri to see the Arch and have some good eats. Unfortunately due to a few sporting events going on in the city the Arch was unavailable for tourists to visit. What a magnificent structure from afar though.

One of my favorite historical outings next to the Vanderbilt mansion in Hyde Park was the Supreme Court Case Brown vs Board of Education National Historic Monument in Topeka Kansas. The Old school building houses the commemoration to civil rights and African American rights throughout history. Touring the building not only provided an education on the topic but actually put you into the time period. The exhibits were in the old classrooms and afterwards John and I enjoyed a true Southern lunch like I have never tasted before. We ate at Boss Hawgs BBQ. I don't remember seeing one vegetable on the menu but the BBQ was delicious!

in the wild wild west

Hello everyone! Yes I am alive and well. Surprisingly enough the deep woods of the Western mountains don't have the internet so I have been unreachable. But now I have so many wonderful stories and travel adventures, not to mention photographs, of our travels from east Tennessee to Montana where I am now.

John's family lives here in beautiful Big Sky Montana and have been graciously hosting us for the past two days while we rest up, clean up, and re cooperate after weeks of camping and traveling. The mountains are breathtaking and bears plentiful.. there's even snow on the tops of most the mountains. This is a photo taken from inside John's Aunt and Uncle's House at Dancing Pines.

We just came out of Yellowstone National Park where we explored for three days. Black bear, Elk, Moose, Marmots, Grizzlies,Pronghorn and my favorite, Bison all inhabit the park along with hundreds of geysers and hot springs. We toured it all and even ventured on our most strenuous back country camping yet. Under faulty impression that our campsite was just 3 miles away we packed our hiking packs with the usual food, water, sleeping bags, and lots of bug spray! (the mosquitoes up north here are relentless) John and I have been averaging about a mile every 20 minutes with our packs. A good distance into the hike I studied the map and became painfully aware that we were only half way there. Later we found out the hike was a 6 mile trek. Of course we survived the extra miles but the cake topper was the disappearing trails due to mud, swampy grassland, flooded trails and fallen trees. Looking back I feel especially proud of myself for accomplishing such a feat but have also learned an important lesson on studying trail maps with extra scrutiny no matter what the ranger approximates the hike mileage! Yellowstone was a very neat park to visit. Different than the others we have visited so far in a few ways. First of all the plentiful wildlife called tourists are abundant and may cause traffic jams. Bison have no concern for modern traffic etiquette and will walk on the road without a care in the world- and they are huge! A lot of the forest looks odd at Yellowstone because of the forest fires that in turn repopulate the park. But the burnt and dead trees lay horizontal on the forest floor creating a tree graveyard. And the geysers are so interesting.. hot pools and active geysers have been flowing and erupting for years and centuries...so many geological happenings below our feet!

Prior to Yellowstone we camped 2 nights at the Grand Tetons National Park. I really enjoyed this park that is located directly beneath Yellowstone. There are gorgeous mountains covered in pines and snow and some even have glaciers on them. We camped two nights at the most beautiful back country campsite we have yet to encounter. There was a fire circle and chopped wood and the site was right on Bear Paw Lake. (The picture on the left) The hike to the campsite was approximately 3.7 miles and very enjoyable as we wound through the woods and had beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and lakes. (the photo on the right has the three peaks of the Grand Tetons)







So I guess I am chronologically recording my recent travels in a backward fashion. So before the Tetons was Flaming Gorge State Park. The view from inside our tent was spectacular; a little windy because we were right on the lake but the colors of the rocks were majestic. They range in color due to how the were deposited millions of years ago. I finished a book my parents gave me for Christmas: Randy Paush's The Last Lecture. I must say that the book is a wonderful quick read and do recommend it to all. Thanks for the book!
Prior to Flaming Gorge was Dinosaur National Monument! Now I use an exclamation here because it is, so far, one of my favorite parks. There sadly weren't any real dinosaurs, and just to reassure any confused visitors the signs explicitly explain this, but there is a quarry and hiking trails. The main quarry, on which a visitor center was built, was closed off to the public due to the infrastructure crumbling and shifting of earth plates. But as we explored the surrounding area on our hike we found prehistoric dinosaur bones just chilling in the sides of mountain rocks and really neat thousand year old petroglyphs (drawings from cave people and dessert dwellers)

...to be continued.