Sabbatical Adventures: Heading West

Leaving the residency at Ucross was difficult, but I was ready to go. All but one of the people I had gotten to know were leaving on the same day and I didn't want to go through another change of residents. It is a special place and I highly recommend it if you are a writer, musician, or artist and you don't mind the side effect of uncontrollable gas at inappropriate and embarrassing moments (this becomes less embarrassing once you establish it is happening to almost everyone). I have this week free so I am spending a few days at Yellowstone and Grand Tetons and then will head to Reno where my parents live and then hopefully to Oakland where my sister and her family live.

Jackson Lake and the Teton mountain range.

Taken by a woman with her iphone and binoculars. She was kind enough
to send me a copy!

My drive across Wyoming was out of a dream. I drove through mountains, canyons and red rock landscapes. I had the voices of my Ucross friends in my head. For instance, whenever something Wyoming-Amazing happened, my friend Amanda would throw her hands up in the air and exclaim "Where are we?!! What is going on?!!" I also thought of Jeff's story about the Indian chief who said that some things are for your memories and not meant to be photographed. I don't think I could possibly recall all of the things I have seen over the past two days, but at the very least, I hope to remember the pure joy I have felt over this past month. Sometimes the drives make me feel lonely and I wish I had someone to explore these parks with, but mostly I feel so lucky to have this opportunity.

The Grand Tetons are AMAZING. I cannot find the words to describe the mountains but I included a couple of pictures. Aside from using this trip to think about how to incorporate landscape into my work, I definitely have other agendas . Ever since moving to New England fifteen years ago, I have been trying to spot a moose. This wish has led me on many adventures and misadventures including damaging my pickup truck, going on countless hikes through New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont, and even hiking for a week along a stretch of the Appalachian Mountain Trail where I saw a massive amount of moose shit but no moose. I am happy to report that I saw my first two moose today. While feeling dejected because I had only seen birds and chipmunks all day, I saw a group of cars gathered at the side of the road. People are like the animal paparazzi in national parks. There are crowds of people carrying cameras with huge lenses and cars swerving to the side of the road. Needless to say, I joined the frenzy, pulled my car over and ran towards the moose like they were Brangelina. I was immediately confused and maybe a little disappointed when I saw the first moose because it looked a lot smaller than I imagined it would be. I quickly learned that it was a calf and its much larger sized mother soon appeared from behind some trees. A friendly woman sent me her moose pictures which she had taken with an iphone attached to a telescope.

On the other hand, finding a grizzly bear has been another story. I have seen a handful of brown bears and black bears in the past, but I love grizzlies. I grow optimistic every time I see a "Be Bear Aware" sign, but still no bear. I am in Yellowstone now and am armed with a map that has symbols of different animals where they are most commonly seen. I felt like the park ranger had handed me a treasure map. I have marked all of the grizzly hot spots. I celebrated my moose sighting by having lunch in Jackson, WY, where the streets smell like burgers and icecream and where women wearing leggings and Ugg boots roam free. It was the first time I have eaten out in a restaurant in over a month. After lunch I spent a few hours today driving through Yellowstone. I don't know if animal sighting pictures are interesting to anyone other than the person who took the photo, but here are some of my animal paparazzi photos: