The photo above sums it up! Wow.
The more we drive through Yellowstone National Park, the more incredible encounters we have. This place is one giant zoo without fencing.
Our first day in the park, we were calling out wildlife spottings with all the ferocity of a fighter pilot calling out MIGs…..
“Two elk, 3 o’clock low!”
I was swinging my camera around like a door gunner and dropping flash memory cards like empty magazines.
As prairie and grasslands finally gave way to hills and mountains, and I was burning up my camera shutter like a Japanese tourist on meth….I knew that our quest, the highlight of our 2 week minivan excursion had finally come to pass:
Yellowstone National Park.
This is the place of true North American wilderness, the place that makes lumberjacks out of boy scouts, the most hard core outdoorsy place that the continent has to offer outside of Alaska (with some apologies to my Canadian friends). The adventure opportunities are only limited by your wild imagination and the mood of the bears. This place harbors a ridiculously concentrated amount of wildlife that puts even Bear Country USA to shame!
There is only one tiny unforgettable problem with this Roosevelt protected, Muir worshiped paradise….
When we rolled into the historic town of Deadwood, I felt a slight tingle of excitement.
My dad and I, both having grown up with a silver cap gun on our hip and taught from a young age that Indians instigated all the trouble back then, were buzzing with the anticipation of saloon brawls and tumbleweeds. My poor mom rolled her eyes silently and hoped that we wouldn’t be too disappointed.
A short time ago Deadwood, South Dakota was the epitome of the Wild West. Now, the same perfectly straight main street where gunslingers once took care of business with 45 caliber Vaqueros, businessmen and tourists were taking care of business on cell phones. Rather than slinging bullets, they were slinging text messages. There were no gartered ladies of the night, only waddling tourists with ice cream cones. The wagons had all been replaced by SUVs with yellow decals on the back.
One thing, however had not changed in over 200 hundred years….
Penang, Malaysia
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