Today was my last day at the retreat center, a bitter sweet day for me. I have so enjoyed my time here, the peacefulness and beauty of the retreat center itself, the opportunity to explore the area around it, getting to know some fantastic people and learning about other opportunities to do work away in other parts of the world. I’m hoping I’ll still have a flexible schedule in the winter and can come back for a month to see what it’s like in the winter. I got up early as usual, and packed up the car, then walked the back way to the main lodge so that I could have a last look at the blooming cacti. I spent a couple of hours weeding with Erin, one of the directors and we chatted about how different ways to increase marketing for the center. it is such a hidden gem, I think it is a fantastic place for a family reunion, a teambuilding weekend, a board retreat, or lots of other group events. Erin and I had one last stop at our favorite crêpe place, where they have a deal that if you pay $55 you get a beautiful mug and free coffee for life! If I was going to be in Cody for longer, I would have done that deal, it would’ve definitely paid for itself.
Erin and I said our goodbyes and I headed out to Yellowstone, where I was going to spend my first night on the trip home. My timing was good as there had apparently been a mudslide on the road earlier in the day, and it was completely shut down for a couple of hours, I came through after the road was mostly cleared, and could see evidence of the subsided hillside. There was a lot of rain in the area the last couple of days, so it’s not surprising. There was a mudslide, it seems this is a much rainier time than usual, well, they also had a lot of rain last summer, which caused part of Yellowstone to be shut down. Hopefully it won’t be that bad this year. I passed several small waterfalls at the side of the road, the result of the melting snow, and I’m sure part of the cause of the mudslide further down the road. I had been listening to the Wyoming rock station, which played some fantastic music, but as I got further into the park, I lost signal, so I turned on the CD player, not remembering what CD was in and was very happy to hear the Free To Be You and Me soundtrack! This was one of my favorite albums growing up, and I spent a very happy hour singing along to all of the songs, besides the title track my other favorites are Sisters and Brothers, Parents are People and Atalanta. It brings back such wonderful memories from when I was a kid.
I got my tent set up while it was still dry, the sky was definitely threatening to rain, and headed out for a drive to a couple of places. I wanted to check out. On my way. There are a couple of good downpours, but by the time I got to Gibbons Falls, everything had stopped so I could get out and enjoy the beautiful view of the Falls. I then headed over to Storm Point, an apt place to hike on a day like today! It was a 2 1/2 mile loop through meadows, lodgepole pine forest and skirting the edge of the lake, absolutely gorgeous! While I didn’t see any bears, thank goodness, I did see lots of evidence of them – large bear poops, most of them dried, but one very very fresh that appeared to have been decorated by an earlier hiker, as well as several trees that had been scraped by bear claws and bear fur caught on some of the trees, obviously where they were trying to itch. I kept up a steady stream of songs just to make sure that I was heard as I was walking through the forest.
I headed back to the campground and a light rain began to fall so I decided to work on updating my blog, though I couldn’t post anything until I got to a place with cell phone signal and make an easy dinner that I could eat in my tent. As I sat here typing up my blog entry this blog entry, I looked up and saw a huge bison just outside of my car just in front of my car! As I started to roll down my window so I could take a photo it moved away, and I could hear clumping feet and saw a second, even larger, buffalo bison running up behind it! The second bison went to a grassy area, just outside of my campsite and started rolling around on its back, I’m guessing because it had an itch it needed to scratch? I was able to get it on video and it was so cool! Unfortunately, I have not figured out how to post videos on my blog, but that is something I am going to look into so that I can show this video, it was just amazing.
Just before I went to bed I walked over to the meadow so I could watch the bison eating as the sun was going down. Wow.
