So…because of this little iced coffee snafu, Jenn and I have been sustaining our caffeine addictions entirely with iced lattes (preferably large with double or triple shots). How many shots really depends on the size. There are these weird little huts in parking lots here. They’re everywhere. You can’t find a coffee shop to save your life, but there are these teeny tiny espresso huts in all of the strip mall parking lots. Jenn and I will drink two or three of these lattes a day. The strange thing is, there doesn’t seem to be any consensus between the huts on the exact proportions of a latte. The size, caffeine amount and quality vary greatly. We just ask for large now. At one hut, Jenn and I asked for a large and the woman held up two cups and asked, “Do you want the large or the gigantic?” We quickly looked at the cups and both said we wanted the gigantic. As it turns out, that particular day we out did ourselves. The gigantic (which appeared so small when she held it up), was actually a 32oz cup. It was so big, it didn’t fit in our cup holders.

This espresso high is important to consider because it’s led to a lot of ridiculously funny driving moments. It’s also I think caused us to be incredibly slow travelers. We can’t make it for more than two hours in the car without stopping. And, in the end, it will lead us both to extraordinarily bad headaches when we get home and revert to plain old iced coffee.

Here’s my foot and compared to one of the horse hooves:

On our drive back to Helena today, we took the scenic route through Seely and Swan Lake. It’s a very pretty drive though the mountains. We passed through Lincoln on the way (home of the Unibomber). We stopped to get gas and considered asking a local where exactly the Unibomber lived. But after I got the ‘slow walk by’ by a group of three people (old man with no teeth, very tall creepy kid and a scary woman in camouflage gear) and Jenn got whistled at three separate times while pumping gas, we decided to abandon the plan and get the heck out of Lincoln. Oh well. My aunt Doris told us the Feds carted away his house so there wouldn’t have been anything there.

Speaking of Doris: thanks for mailing me my shirt! It was here in Helena waiting for me. It was even warm in it’s package like it had just come out of the dryer.

What’s the tallest mountain in the continental United States (not including Alaska)?
After asking several people, we came to the conclusion that it must be Mount Whitney (in California).

Are horses native to North America or were they introduced by the Europeans?
We kind of went both ways on this one. We both established that there were definitely horses in Europe going back at least to the Middle Ages. This means that they were probably introduced to North America (it doesn’t make any real sense that the exact same species would be in both places, because if they were they would have had to have been that way for a long long time and probably would have evolved at least somewhat differently). The only holdout though was that we were both pretty certain that the plains Indians had herds of horses. After asking several knowledgeable people about this we decided that the early European explorers introduced horses to North America. It was only later when the settlers pushed the Indians back to the plains that they had herds of horses.

If the entire Flathead area is a reservation, how come so many white people own land on it?
The Flathead Indian Reservation is a very large reservation in northwestern Montana. As we were driving through it to get to my family’s cabin (on reservation land), we realized that there just aren’t very many Indians there. In fact, I’m pretty sure there are more white people that live there than Indians. Back in the 1930′s, the tribes gave parcels of land to individual tribe members. Some of these people sold their land to white people (including 5 acres of lake front property to my great Grandfather for about $300). So that’s why white people own land on the Reservation. Sounds like a very unfortunate circumstance for the tribes. I think this is one of the few reservations in the country that is actually on really nice and valuable land.

Elk kind of look like horses. How come they were never domesticated and ridden like horses?
Alright, I know, this is kind of a silly question, but we were curious (and probably hopped up on espresso). No real definitive answer on this one. I guess we decided that their legs weren’t as strong as horse’s legs and that they were probably harder to catch. They do live in the mountains and all. Also, they have horns (or antlers…pokey thingys). I imagine they’d use them if you tried to jump on their backs.

Saturday — Drove up to Missoula to see the rest of the family. Had a very lovely BBQ with the Fam, and then hung out on the deck drinking beers with our hosts.

Sunday — Went to breakfast at the Ox. Went to downtown Missoula and my sister and I bought a bunch of books. There should be no shortage of reading material at the lake. It was very hot again, so we went tubing down the Clark Fork River. A delightful way to spend the afternoon.

Today — Heading to the cabin at Flathead Lake for the next two days. I plan on doing nothing but reading, playing cards and piecing together a puzzle.

We saw tons of buffalo, and even ones that were right on the road. They are very large beasts. A couple of dumb people were driving their cars right up to them and getting out to take pictures. We tried flashing our buffalo gore sign (previously posted), but the silly people wouldn’t listen. We resorted to drive by shoutings of “You’re gonna get gored!”, with the windows closed and AC on, of course.

At one particular pullout Jenn and I both spotted a large pasty beast about 20 feet into the woods. We pulled over, thinking it was some sort of strange albino buffalo species, but upon closer inspection we realized that it was the rear end of some pale naked tourist. We quickly moved on.

We headed over to Norris, where there is a lot of geyser activity. We decided to do this because we wanted to see that kind of stuff, but had already decided to avoid Old Faithful because of masses of traffic and gawking tourists. Norris was very cool. We took a bunch of pictures (on Flickr now) on our one mile hike around one. There was a longer hike with more geysers, but as we hobbled back to the car, we both agreed that we were much too sore from our seven mile hike.

Later in the day we headed over to Lamar Valley. We were hoping to see some good wildlife, but we only saw a few dears and a bunch more buffalo. Despite that, it was easily one of the most beautiful parts of the park and definitely worth the drive.

Here’s a map of our route through Yellowstone Park, starting from the South Gate and ending at the North Gate. Our route is highlighted in orange.

We stayed in Gardiner, Montana last night. It’s a very small, but cute town. This morning we headed up to Bozeman (my birth place) and ate lunch at the Pickle Barrel. Now were resting in a delightful coffee shop in downtown Bozeman. I really like this town a lot. Onward to Helena we go.

• See more pictures

The hike ended up being about seven miles, which wasn’t so bad except that on the way down it got pretty hot (and I ran out of water towards the end). I got a little bit of a sunburn today.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading through Yellowstone and ending up at Gardiner, Montana. All in all, I can’t say I’ll be too sad to leave the Wyoming desert behind.

Big Game Report

• Saw several squirrels on my hike, but no big game
• Saw a couple of buffalo
• Saw a lone moose, but it was too far away to really get a good look at it
• Saw a ton of elk out in Elk Country (surprise) at dusk tonight

Big Game Report

• Early in the day, not too far inside the park we saw hordes of people standing on the side of the road looking into a field. We decided to stop and check it out. Apparently it was a cluster of some sort of wild goats. We quickly moved on.
• Up just above the tree line there were a group of large beasts laying luxuriously in the grass (well, vegetation). We established that they must be elk (large and scraggily looking). This was later confirmed by a forest service expert.
• While picnicking by a lake, a hungry looking deer approached us. I came within about 10 feet of us. When we refused it food, it moved on the bench a little ways down the hill, occupied by a small surprised family.
• While driving between Steamboat Springs and Craig, a confused deer tried to jump in front of my speeding car. I deftly avoided it. What’s a trip out west without a few close deer encounters?

So, as a final tally, we cruised Rocky Mountain National Park and saw three large lakes at the southern end of it. We considered swimming until we realized that the water was very cold. There was some wandering around Steamboat Springs, and lastly we decided to call it a day when we got to Craig.

Unfortunately, we had made this decision before actually getting to Craig. As it turns out, there isn’t much in Craig. While leaving the Taco Bell, we were nearly run down by a large off-roading vehicle (looked like it might have been in a demolition derby or two). We’ve decided to hunker down in the hotel for the night.

Next stop: Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

• Photos of Rocky Mountain National Park posted on Flickr

We decided that it would be best for all of us if we quickly left the Denver area and it’s masses of concrete highways and headed for the mountains. At least it would be a little bit cooler.On a side note, 104° in Denver, where it’s dry, is nothing compared to 90° and humid in Boston.

There appears to be some sort of gnat infestation in Colorado. I was sitting outside working on my computer and counted about five of them on my screen. That’s not counting all of the ones that I kept slapping on my legs.

My sister’s family drove up from New Mexico to hang out with us for the first couple of days. I finally met my sister’s siblings for the first time ever! (if that confuses you, too bad.) They are twelve and fifteen and really fun.

Today we’re headed up to the visitors center a some peak in Rocky Mountain Park. Then we’re off to Wyoming.

• Estes Park on Flickr

First stop, Denver. We get into the airport around 10:30 pm and somehow will have to make it to our hotel in Aurora, some 22 miles away. Should be an adventure.