BadNick

Another very memorable one for me:

I was on a business trip in Idaho, working at a national nuclear research facility in the desert - of course alone, no family with me. My business ended mid day Wednesday, so thinking that I like to explore and have never been in that area, I drove my rental car, an Olds Cutlass, east thru some of the most magnificent fertile fields I've seen, where a lot of the potato farms were. Trying to absorb as much of the fantastic beautiful scenery, stopping often to look around and take pics, I drove along the Snake River in Idaho, then thru the west side foothills of the Tetons, thru the mountains and over into Wyoming. Quite unplanned, I ended up staying a few days at a bread & breakfast in Wilson, Wyoming ...a few miles down a dirt road that you would never travel unless you had reason... the B&B was owned and operated by a very nice guy and his family, who lived there but had several beautiful rustic rooms overlooking the valley, they served homecooked gourmet meals, relax by the fireplace ...I was sure heaven was in Wyoming. The owner had previously owned the first rafting outfit on the Snake R. a few years before, sold that and went to explore the Amazon with his wife for a year, came back and did this B&B, so he was quite an interesting guy and knew the area. He gave me all sorts of tips on where and what to explore. My favorite part was that this was all taking place during the last week of May, so the weather was still cool and brisk but sunny, but there was still remnants of lots of snow around - eight feet of it off the sides of the road in the high elevations over 10,000ft. I drove up from Wilson to explore the Grand Tetons, Lake Jenny, etc, then up to Yellowstone. All the while, I barely ever even saw another human being ...which is what I kinda enjoyed since it was so unusual. Late May is before all the tourists hit the parks and even the park rangers were not yet in most of the ranger stations. As I drove my "off road" Olds Cutlass up some of the back roads into the hills, hoping I wouldn't get stuck someplace cause this was pre-cell phone days, I saw golden eagles soaring over the hills, of cours huge herds of elk, lots of moose, and from afar, even a couple grisly bears. As I drove on some roads, the signs at the entrance would say "caution - grisly area" and I'm thinking I must be the only food around here for miles and not even a gun for protection. At one point in Yellowstone after driving about an hour without another human around, I had to stop on a bridge overlooking a gorgeous valley with a roaring stream, while a large herd of buffalo walked across the bridge, sniffed at my car with me sitting in it with windows rolled up getting close up shots of buffalo nostrils. Because it was late May, most of the animals ...elk, moose, etc. had babies nearby which made it even more interesting watching them from so close. My last night/day, I stayed at the Yellowstone Inn, overlooking Old Faithful ...a pretty neat place with only a few other people there, a lot better than if it was full of tourists.

I wished I coulda shared this with somebody else, but a lot of what made it so intersting for me was that I was so alone for most of it.