





Desde Provo, Utah hasta Jackson, Wyoming. Dia largo en la ruta. Las tierras agricolas de Utah (frutales, ganaderas, cerealeras) tienen como fondo centros de ski. El paisaje se completa con iglesias mormonas por doquier. No entramos a Salt Lake City ni vimos el lago Salt Lake porque el objetivo era llegar a Jackson, Wyoming de dia para entrar en el parque nacional Grand Teton y llegar a nuestro nuevo sitio de camping: Flagg Ranch (a mitad de camino entre los parques nacionales Grand Teton y Yellowstone). En Wyoming paramos en Afton para tomar un cafe en Burger King (a falta de algo mejor!) y el pueblo recibe con arcadas y grandes propagandas donde siempre hay animales salvajes. Cuando nos faltaban 50 millas para llegar, mala suerte! el camino cerrado por deslizamientos y obstrucciones. Tuvimos que tomar el alternativo. Esto agrego emocion pero alargo el viaje. Finalmente llegamos a una pequenia y hermosa ciudad: Jackson, Wyoming, tipo alpina, para ingresar al parque Grand Teton. Temiendo que se nos viniera encima la noche, seguimos rumbo a nuestro camping. En el camino tuvimos la suerte de encontrarnos con una manada de hambrientos ELKS (creo que son alces por la raiz linguistica, pero estoy en duda, porque la traduccion de moose es alce, bueno no recuerdo la traduccion de elk, si hasta comi carne de elk en Suecia...). Llegamos finalmente y nos esperaba una hermosa y confortable cabania de troncos. Siiiii, nos la dieron por el precio de poner una carpa (habremos dado pena???) Total que estamos en ella muy comodas, afuera 0 a 5 grados y nieve casi todas las noches, adentro 23 grados con ducha y todo confort. Todo el dia en Yellowstone, el regalo de un dia soleado y fumarolas, geysers, la tierra silba, ruge. Estoy muy conmovida con este paisaje, algo que nunca habia visto ni sentido, y un cosquilleo cada vez que pienso que estamos paradas sobre un enorme volcan. Continuara....
Travelling from UT to WY was a challenge; it's farther than we thought (and we had originally planned to leave from Kanab or the Wave, both of which are even further south!), & also because of the weather. It was snowy and wet, not icy, thank goodness, and when we got to WY, we had to take a long detour around a mudslide that's still impacting travel on that road. We were planning to camp, but when we finally arrived in Jackson & found that there were only 2 campsites open, all snowy & wet, and only first-come first-served, we decided to take William at Flagg Ranch up on his offer of a cabin for the cost of a campsite. What a treat! The only things it's missing are electronic communications, so we're getting pretty good at pulling over on the highway to search for signals, though they're often spotty & weak. Since it took us a full day to get here, we'll spend a day at Yellowstone and then another at Teton National Park, heading up to Bozeman thru Yellowstone on our last day. It will be great to see family, and I hope that maybe Suzanne & Eric will let us babysit or take Talia for a walk so they can have a little time alone together, since he'll also be just getting home from his work in the Grand Canyon. Becks, we'll celebrate your birthday too, before we head east so Maria Rosa can connect with friends and family in NY. Our next page will let Yellowstone speak for itself; we took too many photos there, but it was crisp & clear, and full of exciting seismic and animal activity. One thing we didn't get to photograph was at the end of the day, when a bear walked past the cabin as I was cooking soup out on the porch. I think she liked the smell of the soup, but when she saw that another creature had first dibs, she just ambled on. That was a close encounter (she was about 6 feet away); & I guess I handled it right, because I am here to write to you about it today.