Montana Journey....1st Day

The wonders that God has wrought in this world are just amazing!  We have driven to many destinations in the eastern part of our country, but this trip is our first west.  I spent the first 5 years of my life in various western states.  My father surveyed for oil and we moved all the time.  I have little memory of those years.  So making this trip was a little like " coming home".  

I was born in Riverton, Wyoming.  We left there 6 weeks afterwards.  One of the goals of this trip was to return there just to have a visual and make peace.  It is a town of about 10,000 and I know much different than 58 years ago.  The approach to it from the south is down a mountain and it was an exquisite view.  We drove through, stopped at the hospital, and then moved on.  Just enough to give me some bearing of where I began.

But I must back up a little and say that Colorado is beautiful!  We skirted the east side of the mountains.  Waking up to a light snow and driving north through uncertain weather for us began a day that would be full of new views, and experiences!

The drive through Wyoming is not for the faint of heart.  As beautiful as the scenery is, there are hundreds of miles of nothing.  Apparently you can still homestead here which answers the questions we had about little trailers in the midst of big land.  But as we moved closer to the west side of the state and into the forests and Yellowstone the visual drama began.

To get to West Yellowstone, our destination, we had to go through the park.  The short route was closed so we had to drive the long which is 100 miles at 45 miles an hour.  It took 3 hours.  In the middle of the drive, from out of nowhere came an elk.  In a flash she was in front of the car.  I clipped her flank with the corner of the car and she continued to run.  Thank you God, for her speed and my quick reaction.  It could have been tragic.

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I write here at the end of today.  I'll blog about it tomorrow as it has been so fantastic.