‘Many Visitors Have Been Gored By Buffalo’: Yellowstone National Park

When I arrived, I found out that the UW Outdoor Program was running a trip to Yellowstone for Labor Day weekend and even though it meant missing the Oregon vs. LSU game, I decided to go. I definitely wanted to visit Yellowstone during my time here, but I didn't think I’d get the chance to go so soon.

We left campus a little after 6am on the Saturday to begin the eight-hour drive there. The trip was almost entirely international students, there were only two Americans. The rest of us were from the UK, Germany, Mexico, Estonia, China, the Netherlands and a guy from Libya I sat next to on the way there called Ishmael (who, to my disappointment, introduced himself with “my name is…” and not “call me…”).

We stopped for lunch in Dubois – a tiny town of under a thousand people, but where, surprisingly, I met a man from Doncaster who works in the gas station. Since Yellowstone is on the other side of the state to Laramie, we saw a lot of the varied Wyoming landscape (it didn’t seem like eight hours) and when we turned a corner, we got an amazing view of the Tetons.

Old Faithful

We visited Old Faithful, which was great. While waiting for the next eruption, we looked around the famous Old Faithful Inn, which was built in 1903 and, although damaged by an earthquake in 1959 (which led to the permanent closure of some of the upper staircases), still attracts many visitors and guests, who can watch Old Faithful’s eruption from their viewing platform. My pictures don't capture it terribly well, but it really is very impressive.

Old Faithful Inn

When we arrived at our campsite, we had someone come and speak to us about bears. At one point, he said “I hate to be the bearer of bad news”, which got a bit of an unintentional laugh. We were told we should not have anything in our tents except our sleeping bags – all cosmetics, food, water bottles and so on had to go into the ‘bear box’. Although I didn’t see any bears while I was there, I definitely heard other wildlife outside our tent at night and while in the park and during the drive we saw elk, bison, a bald eagle and pronghorn antelope.

Bison

We were told by the trip leaders to pack lots of layers as it gets very cold at night – the forecast overnight was 32°F (0°C) and last year on this trip, it snowed! Although it didn’t snow for us, in the mornings, ice had formed on the cars and the outside of our tents.

We did a tour of the lower loop of the park and saw the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (where it gets its name from) – one of my favorite parts, the Grand Prismatic, lots of geysers and a strange bubbling-mud spring, which fascinated our group for a good twenty minutes. It was completely beautiful (the park, not the mud, as fascinating as it was) and I definitely want to go back at some point.

Mud Pot

On the way home, we stopped in Thermopolis to go to the hot springs. I spent only 20 minutes in the 104°F (40°C) springs, but it took me days to get the hot spring… odor out of my hair. Since we drove back a different route to the way we came, we got to see more of the state. The scenery really is stunning. I think before I came, I expected Wyoming to be mostly empty and, to be honest, kind of dull. Although it certainly is empty, it’s gorgeous – red mountains, rolling hills, unusual rock formations, dramatic canyons. I love it!

Wind River Canyon.
Taken from inside the car, but you can still see how beautiful it is.

Yellowstone was great and I'm looking forward to exploring more of Wyoming.

Yellowstone Lake

Hot Buttered Rum in Steamboat Springs

After the first week of classes, I went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. My friend Reilly is friends with one of the musicians in Hot Buttered Rum, a bluegrass-y band from the San Francisco Bay Area, and they were performing in Steamboat Springs, so Reilly, two friends and I headed down for the show.

The drive down was simply beautiful – Steamboat is west of Denver in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains and the drive included some great views of Colorado. We crossed the continental divide (something that has happened quite a few times since my arrival). The town is a popular skiing destination in the winter, but the weekend we were there, the USA ProCycling Challenge was coming through town, so every hotel was full and many fans were staying in tents or RVs on the pass, hoping to catch a glimpse of the cyclists. There were many amateur enthusiasts who were cycling the start of the route before the professional teams, as well as plenty of high-spirited supporters.

Since all the hotels were full, we too decided to camp (but in a campsite, not on a verge by the pass). Unfortunately, we erected our tent at dusk and some unseasonably-late mosquitoes attacked my back, meaning that when we returned to the venue, the Ghost Ranch Saloon, a short while later, I had to keep seeking out hard surfaces (including trees) to scratch my bites, giving me the unfortunate appearance of a bear (more on bears later).

The band and an energetic fan.

We got to hang out with the (super-friendly) band over dinner and then watch them perform. They were fantastic! It was so much fun – the music was great, there was plenty of dancing, lots of Stetsons and a guy named Lucky taught me the Two-Step. And then I tripped over a bucket.

The offending bucket.

It was a great weekend.

Welcome to Wyoming

So much has happened in the last month that it’s quite difficult to capture it all in one blog post. In the future, I hope to write updates more frequently, but for now, I’ll try to provide some idea of what I've been up to since I arrived by writing what may be a slightly-disjointed post.

I flew into Denver on August 8^th, spent the night and a lovely day there before driving up to Laramie in a rental car (which turned out to be a very good idea from my parents). In my first week or so, the high altitude (Laramie is at about 7200ft) and dry air gave me three nosebleeds! The house is great – trying to sort out housing from such a distance was a bit of a headache, especially since a couple of places fell through, but we got a great place in the end. I’m living with another American Studies grad student and her boyfriend and their two dogs (almost everyone here has dogs, even students). I spent quite a bit of time – and money – getting my place all set up. There was a lot to buy, since my room was unfurnished and I was limited in what I could bring with me, but I actually quite enjoyed shopping for everything (think Extreme Makeover: Home Edition when they’re in Sears). It definitely feels like home now. The house had no internet for the first few weeks, which meant I became very familiar with local café Coal Creek Coffee Co. and their free wi-fi. I went every day and must’ve tried most of their drinks (I can tell you about the Orange Slider, Hot Snow, Peach Ice Tea Cooler…), but we’ve, thankfully, now got internet at home (which works most of the time).

I met a lot of nice people in my first few weeks, many of whom are not from the area originally, but who love it and have decided to stay. Almost everyone I’ve spoken to has warned me about the winter – the snow could come as early as the end of September, and often hangs around until May or June(!) I’m really hoping to try skiing while I’m here, since it’s so popular and it makes sense to make the most of all the snow.

The Cooper House, where American Studies is based. Isn't it lovely?

I’ve just finished my third week of classes and they are going well, although there’s quite a lot of work to get used to. I'm enjoying learning much more about the history and evolution of American Studies in my graduate class and I'm hoping to go to the American Studies Association conference in Baltimore in October. I'm quite enjoying TA-ing for Introduction to American Studies and grading papers has certainly been interesting! I was elected the secretary of the UW College Democrats. I really enjoyed getting involved with the College Dems in Oregon, so I'm excited to get involved here too, even though Wyoming’s political landscape is obviously slightly different to Oregon’s!

Freight trains - they actually look oddly majestic crossing the landscape.

I went to one of the western wear stores downtown, Martindale’s. They have all manner of cowboy boots, hats, belt buckles, shirts… it was great. I spoke to the (“NRA lifetime member”) owner briefly about rodeos and was particularly interested by something he said to a couple visiting from Pennsylvania. They said he should visit them back east and he said he didn’t want to – “I hear there’s people standing shoulder to shoulder from the Mississippi to the ocean”. It was similar to something that someone I met from Casper (Wyoming’s second biggest ‘city’ at 55,000 people) said – that he wouldn’t want to move any further east because there’s too many people. People out here (many at least, probably not all) have interesting attitudes towards space – they are very committed to the notion of freedom that living in such an empty state seems to bring.

Finally, a picture of two guys I saw on campus. There are many people in my classes who wear cowboy boots, but these were the most impressive outfits I’ve seen yet.

Move 'em on, head 'em up,
Head 'em up, move 'em out!

Kirsty Goes West*

Welcome to my blog. I hope it will serve as a way of keeping you all up-to-date with what I’m up to and, from time to time, I hope to write posts on particular things that interest me about living in the West or the US in general.

I’m in Laramie, Wyoming for two years to do an MA in American Studies, thanks to an award through the British Association for American Studies. I’m going from East Anglia to the Mountain West, the ‘Fine City’ to the ‘Gem City’. Laramie has had an interesting history. It is a town that was established along the transcontinental railroad, which for a time was a place of gambling, prostitution (you can take a tour of where the various brothels used to be) and general lawlessness. It is a much more respectable place now of course, but I kind of like that I live in a town that was very much part of the mythic West.

When I told people back home that I’d be coming here, I was met with a range of responses, from the “Really…? Wyoming?” to questions about cowboys, Matthew Shepard and Dick Cheney. It is the tenth largest state, but has the smallest population, has mountains, desert, high altitude and has not elected a Democrat to Congress for more than thirty years. It’s certainly one of the more unusual destinations for a Brit, but I really like it so far. In fact, I might go as far to say that I’m falling in love (don’t tell Oregon).

My year in Oregon was one of the most incredible experiences I could have asked for, and now I am really excited to see what Wyoming has in store. I am taking, as my friend put it, something of a reverse Oregon Trail (though hopefully with less dysentery and fewer dead oxen).

Here’s to an adventure!

Forever West.

NB: The name of this blog comes from one of the state’s mottos (the main one is ‘Equal Rights’ due to the state’s apparent history of equality for women, including giving women the right to vote in 1869 – the first state to do so) 
* 'Kirsty Goes West', at least in my usage of it, is a reference to ''Fievel Goes West', from the 'An American Tail' series, which tells the immigrant story through mouse Fievel and his family. Just in case you were wondering.