A picture is worth a 1000 words?

I escaped the confines of Utah and traveled north. I went into Idaho for about a week and then returned via Montana and Wyoming. Add another state to my list that I have set a foot in... 7 more to go. The drive was unbearable, but I would rather drive to see the sights then fly a couple of hours and miss so much.

The drive up to Idaho through Salt Lake City and beyond wasn't that great. Just lots of rolling hills and boringness. I was already into my book pretty much. BF just wanted to drive about 4 hours, but I pushed on and said lets get as far as we can tonight. We arrived in Destination #1 on Saturday evening, ate dinner, and fell asleep quickly. We got up and hit Destination #2 around mid-afternoon on Sunday. Camping for a week without a shower, I have come to realize I am more of a hotel kind of girl these days. I skinny-dipped in the lake several days and savored the shower the first day of the drive, another three day-er, back.

A picture is worth a thousand words - 1921 ad copy by Fred R Barnard

Of course I took a few pictures. And of course I will post them somewhere. I hate posting with HELLO because it doesn't give justice to the photo. And that is where I am going with this passage. You often here the quote above. And there are definitely thousands of words to describe a picture, however; if you did not take the photograph yourself, it will lack one thing...EMOTION or the feeling I experienced while taking the photo.

Some examples---you can't know the feeling of coming down that hill on your bike in the forest right next to the lake and remember you unhooked your brakes at the top because they were rubbing. That fear that shot through my heart hoping that almost sitting on my back tire and feathering the front brakes would stop me before the curve ate me up. Whew that worked. http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0019.html

Of feeling the breeze upon the sunblocked covered skin during the boat ride to find the first of several geo-caches. (www.geocaching.com) The feeling ripping through my arms as I paddled the kayak across the lake and up the narrows to the Upper Lake on another day.

You can't know the exhilarating feeling in every inch of my bones, blood, and soul as I heard the water rushing by at Granite Falls or at the Slippery Rocks area. Or how about that feeling of "holy shit" as I was coming down the slippery slide for the first time. http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0056.html Or how about the water in the creek (or crick) that took your breath away even by placing your toe in it. But the feeling of it was so great especially after not having a shower for a while. We climbed up into this water fall and posed long enough to get the photo taken. Then I jumped off the fall hoping it was deep and quickly swam to shore. http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0047.html

How about the feeling of awe, amazement, and puzzle when BF took me to the Shoe Tree. Here is this tree in the middle of almost nowhere and there are a ton of shoes upon it. Why? Probably the first person to place a pair of shoes there could answer that question. Or possibly the second person who thought they didn't need their shoes. I found it absolutely weird. I guess in a sense it is like graffiti that turns into art. http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0061.html

The sight of the Bison in Montana was spectacular. Now that is one huge animal that I would not like to meet face to face on a dark stormy night. Hell, I would rather not ever meet one face to face for that matter. We entered Yellowstone and after driving through the area for a while, I came to realize why S-Dog always hated the desert and wanted to return to the trees. But how the hell he puts up with the winters I am not sure. I found it amazing that I did not hear that many foreign languages like we get down here in this area. I was disappointed I did not see a bear, but I did see quite a few huge bull elks and one female. http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0069_1.html The sulfur smell at the thermal pools was nose hair wrenching and the first breath was always the hardest. http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0066_1.html The sight of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone was as breath taking as the Grand Canyon of Arizona. And I would have to say almost as beautiful if not more. http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0072_1.html and http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0071_1.html And then there was Old Faithful herself? Surprisingly we made it to the area with about 3 minutes before the next blow. Of course that is just a guess-stimate of when it is going to blow, but she blew within 10 of us being there. It was quite amazing. She bubbled for a while and then WHAM. And it is definitely a sight to see once. http://mtnbkaz.photosite.com/mtnbkaz/IMGP0077.html

We left Yellowstone and headed through the Grand Tetons. The silhouette of the Tetons in the night were just amazing. And I would understand why the freak mountaineers felt the need to conquer them.

So the moral of the story is that although my photos might make you say ah and oh, you won't ever know the real picture unless you get out there and visit the world for yourself. Journey hard, safe, and always with your eyes searching be in the moment.