Day 44: 133 miles in a car and a mountain summit

Today, we climbed a mountain. It was the first summit for Lori and Christy and it was lovely.

I was very excited to round one corner near the top and happen upon a field of bighorn sheep.

And the higher we climbed, the more they were hanging out on our trail.

They didn't seem to mind most of us. There was one lady in hotpants that touched the big horn sheep's special lady friend. He was not pleased.

I told my friends that mountaintops were the best places to get cell reception in most national parks and then this happened.

Our delicious lunch included cheese from Seattle's Beecher Cheese shop. Apparently the red ground squirrels (not chipmunks) really like that.

This guy never actually got our food, but it was not for lack of trying.

When he tried to hitch a ride in Christy's pack, we pointed him in the direction of Ms. Hotpants and explained to him that she was bad at this whole wild nature thing.

And then we made Lori sing the first of many times.

She is good.

And we toured the lower loop of Yellowstone because it feels like something you are supposed to do: see paint pots, geysers, forests, Old Faithful... 

But I don't know if you really need to do those things at all. My future trips to Yellowstone will stick to the top circle: arrive via North entrance, hike in the Northern half of the park and leave the East entrance by the lake because the views leaving are wonderous.

It got way too dark and curvy to drive for very long. We stopped earlier (Pahaska Teepee) than we had planned (Cody). The restaurant and cabins were very nice indeed.