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Welcome to my weekly update for June 5, 2022!
Well, I thought I was getting back into the swing of blogging a couple of weeks ago but I was obviously wrong. Maybe this will be my week!
We visited Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area and were surprised by how beautiful it is! Seeveral wild horses and one bighorn sheep wandered into our path.
We drove down to Cody, Wyoming for Memorial Day weekend to visit Yellowstone National Park. Saturday was wet and cold in the park but we still loved seeing this iconic place for the first time! We have plans to go again later in June, so we weren’t in a hurry to see everything. Late in the afternoon, we noticed a few snowflakes mixing in with the rain. We went inside a visitor center and 30 minutes later the snow was pouring down! We decided to head out shortly after that and it’s a good thing we did; the roads were getting slushy. The road from the entrance we were using closed an hour after we exited the park. I think we would have been begging for an expensive hotel room inside the park if we had dawdled much longer!
Our entrance was closed again all of Sunday morning so we went to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which is a pretty cool complex. There are five museums inside the center and we made our way through four of them. We wouldn’t have been interested in the Cody Firearms Museum at any time, but especially not in the wake of all the recent mass shootings. Are we ever going to change or are we going to keep sacrificing our children to guns? I’m afraid I know the answer. We did enjoy the Plains Indian Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum, and the Buffalo Bill Museum (William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody founded Cody, Wyoming).
The entrance road to the park opened in the afternoon but more snow was in the forecast so we decided not to risk it. Sure enough, our entrance road closed again a few hours later. Monday morning was rainy and cold so we gave up and drove back to Billings. It wasn’t an ideal weekend but we’re still excited that we got to visit Yellowstone!
Slideshow:
All images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader 2022
- Devil Canyon Overlook in the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area
- Wild horse from the Pryor Mountain Horse Range, which overlaps with Bighorn Canyon
- Inside the Bighorn Canyon area. This formation reminds me of the Painted Hills unit in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument (My picture of the Painted Hills)
- The Dragon’s Mouth inside Yellowstone National Park
- The Lower Falls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
- We weren’t excited to see snow, but at least we got a picture of a bison in the snow! I took this from inside the car with a zoom lens from a safe distance. We try our best to follow park rules and use common sense about staying away from wild animals.
- We saw a grizzly bear at a lower elevation as we were leaving the park. Again, we took this from inside the car with a zoom lens from a safe distance. There were about ten cars pulled over and there were a lot of people who were out of their cars and entirely too close though. Yellowstone rangers ask visitors to stay 25 yards (roughly 25 meters) from bison, elk, deer, etc. but 100 yards from predators like bears and wolves.
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The Last Child (Johnny Merrimon #1) by John Hart, read by Scott Sowers 🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time #1) by Robert Jordan 🌟🌟 ½
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 🌟🌟🌟 ½
Thorn (Dauntless Path #1) by Intisar Khanani, read by Shiromi Arserio 🌟🌟🌟
Currently Reading:
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World (Aristotle & Dante #2) by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, read by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken
Up Next:
I don’t know if I’ll actually read it, but I’ve been thinking about finishing off Marissa Meyer’s Renegades trilogy by listening to Supernova. I’ve also been thinking about books to read for Pride Month. I feel like I’m off to a great start with Aristotle and Dante. I guess Supernova would fit the theme a little since there are at least a couple of minor gay characters. We’ll see.
What did your week look like?
Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?
52 Comments
Your national park vacation sounds and looks wonderful! Beautiful photos.
Dramatic photo of Yellowstone. I haven’t been, as yet….
Nice photos. I love Little Women.
Thanks!
Amazing photos! Yellowstone is one of the National Parks that I’ve never been to, yet really want to see. Hopefully I’ll decide to prioritize my personal travel desires soon… Lately (both pre- and post-COVID) I’ve been enjoying traveling with friends, and so Mr. Wyrm and I haven’t been as involved in picking the destinations since others in the group are more opinionated on where they want to go than we are. 😉
My husband and I know that we’re both a bit too passive yet opinionated for group travel. We wouldn’t speak up about where we want to go and then we would quietly complain to each other the whole time. 😀 I hope you choose locations you want to visit soon!
LOL, that makes sense! I guess Mr. Wyrm and I are too used to NOT being the decision-maker when it comes to travel, and so it’s easy to tag along. Plus, we do at least enjoy the places our friends want to go! And we actually made some of our own travel decisions for this fall… fingers crossed everything is still safe to do, but I’ll post about it in October/November as long as it actually happens! (Between the way plans kept changing in the past couple of years and general online safety, I don’t like announcing things like this before they are over.)
Great pictures but snow? No, thanks. I’ve been doing so much rereading that I’m falling behind on review books. I’ll have to buckle down this week. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
One of our criteria for choosing my husband’s work assignments is the likelihood of snow; we try to stay away from it. We failed this time! At least it wasn’t where we’re actually living for now.
Thanks for sharing your photos! And yikes to the people getting out of their cars to see the grizzly bear! The Last Child was the only book by John Hart that I read and liked. It was for a book club a long time ago. I forgot to choose a book for Pride Month! Had some vacation reading plans, but only read one out of three, and now I’m trying to catch up on ARCs and book club reads. Sigh. Never enough reading time, even on vacation!
I agree about there never being enough reading time. I hope that even if you didn’t read as much as you wanted on vacation, you had a great time doing other things.
Yes, we did! This may very well have been the last time we have a family vacation like that, now that our kids are getting married and are so busy with work and travel, and live halfway up and down the East Coast from each other to boot!
Those photos are amazing and your visit as well. What fantastic parks you’re having the opportunity of visiting. Love hearing about those trips.
Thanks!
I love Yellowstone and Little Bighorn! We may be hitting Yellowstone later this summer on our own road trip (I’m still planning it). Have a great week!
We’re excited to explore Yellowstone more! I hope you get to visit.
I love, love, love VIRGIL WANDER. I hope you do too!
I love Leif Enger’s writing, so I have high hopes.
I love your pictures. Yellowstone is one of my family’s favorite places to visit. 😀
Thanks! We’re looking forward to spending more time there.
Amazing pictures! Sounds like a fantastic adventure.
Thanks!
Crazy weather for you at Yellowstone! I love the photo of the bison with the snow falling. Reminds me of Dances With Wolves. And great shot of the bear! Yeah, I’d stay in the car, too. What is wrong with people?!
I’m beginning to put together a trip for Sept & Oct, but weather is always an issue. Will it snow? Or, will there be wildfires? We’d like to go to Glacier and the Grand Tetons, with some time in Yellowstone, but now I’m thinking maybe we should skip Glacier.
I’ll be curious to hear what you think of Virgil Wander. I loved Peace Like a River, but couldn’t get into this one. My husband loved it, though.
You’ve reminded me that we want to re-watch Dances with Wolves. I haven’t seen it since it was in theaters.
We’re debating about Glacier too. It sounds miserably crowded in July and August, which is the time we would be able to go. And the reservation system doesn’t sound like it would work in our favor at this late date. We may skip it for now. We went to Banff National Park in Canada in 2017 and absolutely loved it. We’ve heard that it’s very similar to Glacier but Banff is even better, so we won’t be too disappointed if we don’t make it. We are hoping to hit the Grand Tetons when we head out of Montana though.
Virgil Wander isn’t Peace Like a River but I do love Enger’s writing. I’m a little over halfway through.
I love your photos!!!! And that museum sounds fabulous!! I’d probably want to skip the gun part too.
I really loved Virgil Wander!
Thanks!
Yellowstone is my favorite place in all of America. I worked there in the summer of 1975. Sweet memories. Glad you were able to get such fantastic shots from a safe distance.
I’ve been curious about Virgil Wander by Leif Enger for a long time. I hope you will tell us more about it and Drawdown soon.
We will be in Montana in nine days! Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area…I wonder if it is too far away for us to visit…Montana is a big state like Texas, and things can be very spread out.
There are 2 entrances to Bighorn Canyon. We went through the south entrance near Lovell, WY. It looked like the prettiest side to us. The north entrance is through Fort Smith, MT. It looked like that side was all about the lake instead of the canyon. The two entrances are 3 hours apart. I recommend it if you’ll be nearby but agree that Montana and Wyoming are too big to easily get around.
Oh I love to see those photos. It’s been a LONG time since I visited that area and it was only once. I agree the guns are out of control, have been for awhile. Nobody needs an automatic weapon for recreational purposes. It’s amazing how you go to these different places, did so even through the start of covid. I want to travel but I’m not ready for trips much.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
We mostly choose outdoor activities and still wear our masks when we are indoors. We’re both vaxxed and boosted. We decided to travel with my husband’s job a year before the pandemic started because we love to travel. We modified our activities after the pandemic but decided to keep taking advantage of this opportunity while we’re able.
I agree about automatic or semi-automatic weapons or whatever slight variations gun enthusiasts go on about. There’s just no need for private citizens to have them.
Great pictures!! Its awesome you got to see it and that you will get to go back. That is one of the iconic American things!
Thanks! We love National Parks so we’re super excited to see the first one!
I hope this is my week too Jen, though I don’t have the excuse of your adventures,
Wishing you a great reading week
Sometimes real life just has to take priority, for a variety of reasons. And sometimes we just need a blogging break. I think we’ve all been there.
Great photos! The museum complex sounds totally fascinating. The history of the West is really amazing, and the art is under-appreciated.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Thanks! This western art museum was good but our favorite is the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio. We spent all day admiring the pieces there.
Love the pictures of your adventures! I have recently read books that had canyons in them and it made me really want to see some, so I am extra thankful for your pictures. Have a great week.
Thanks! I’m glad I accidentally provided some visual references for your books. 🙂
What a cool trip. Snow in late May…wow. That is an area of the country I’d love to see oone day.
We were shocked to see snow! I hope you make it to this area one day.
I loved Aristotle and Dante and I hope you do too. I LOVE the pictures you shared and we got to see glimpses of the Yellowstone from miles away. THANK YOU!
I loved the first Ari & Dante book and so far I love the second one. I’m glad you enjoyed the pics!
Hi there Jen! So good to see you on the blog and to see how much you are enjoying life. Never mind not getting time to post, at least you are having fun adventures!
Do take care of yourself and thanks for the lovely pictures!
Elza Reads
I would like to find a better balance between adventures and posting but I’m happy to have more travels!
What a trip! I want to see Yellowstone one of these years. Love the pictures. Especially the wild horse and Dragon’s Mouth. How cool!
We barely scratched the surface of a tiny section of Yellowstone, and on a cold, gray day at that, but we can tell we’re going to love it. The Dragon’s Mouth was so cool! And we were really excited to see the wild horses so close to the (lightly traveled) road.
I would love to see the wild horses. I would absolutely not get out of the car near bears though. Watching from inside would be fine! Ah one of these years I’ll get there *sighs wistfully* 🙂
Wow!! Your pictures are amazing! Especially the first one! And no one would have to tell me twice to stay in my car when there are bears wandering around.
I would love to see Yellowstone National Park someday. Great picture. My page is having trouble loading so I only see one picture.
Hmm… I wonder why you’re having trouble? Sorry about that. I’ll have to look into it if others mention it. Hopefully it was just a temporary glitch.
I didn’t realize it was a slideshow at first, until I read more closely, so maybe that’s it?
Thanks! I was surprised by how close other people were getting to the bear. He looked like he was getting anxious, which means he was going to get unpredictable. Now I’m surprised there aren’t even more news reports about people having negative encounters with wildlife.