Wyoming and Nevada Trip by Ruth Paget
After my daughter Florence and her friend went on a spring camping trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and got snowed on, my husband Laurent and I set out on a trek to these two parks with a reservation for a park hotel.
It takes two days to get to Yellowstone from Monterey (California). We stopped overnight at my request in Elko, Nevada. I learned that Elko hosts the West’s largest Cowboy Poetry Gathering when I worked as the Youth Services Librarian in Monterey County California. This event includes many Western singers, food, and merchandise and book sales events. It fills hotels up in town and in surrounding towns. The Cowboy Poetry Gathering is a big event.
A Basque Festival was being advertised when we were there. Many people of Basque origin settled in the American Southwest as shepherds. The Basques come from the Northwest corner of Spain and the Southwest corner of France originally. They are famous as intrepid cod fisherman, but also graze sheep. There is probably a debate going on somewhere as to whether or not they are Latino or white people.
Laurent and I went to Dos Amigos Mexican Restaurant for dinner. I ate shredded chicken enchiladas with tomatillo sauce with rice and beans for dinner. I love Mexican comfort food. I also loved the restaurant’s air conditioning in the desert. Using solar panels to run air conditioning is okay in my book.
Back at the hotel, we slept soundly in our cool room. We woke up while the desert was still cold. The hotel served biscuits and gravy, bacon, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. I love those items and ate heartily. The trip was already a success for me.
Laurent listened to Western music as he drove, but then put on Sirius FM, so we could listen to Jay Z and Kanye West as we drove to Yellowstone.
We arrived at Yellowstone and did our first foray in the park to find out where things were, notably the Old Faithful viewing building. The roads in Yellowstone are tricky. You can start out on a flat road and turn a corner and than find yourself on a rising cliff for several miles. We are used to driving Big Sur, but this road situation can be surprising for campers, so expect some slow traffic.
We ate at a diner in the park. I had a cheeseburger with fries and a vanilla shake.
“The pure air here is making me hungry,” I told Laurent. (Oink! Oink!)
We checked in the hotel. Laurent went hiking. I opened the windows to smell the honey-scented wildflowers outside. I took a nap that lasted till the next day.
Next day, we went to see the Old Faithful geyser erupt for about an hour in the morning. As a native of flatland Detroit, I do find geysers and sulfur springs extraordinary and smelly.
From Old Faithful, we drove along Rockefeller Parkway to Grand Teton National Park. There is a huge lake in front of these snow-capped mountains that makes this area more tranquil than Yellowstone. I thought it was perfect for writing.
We ate lunch at a bar outside the park. I had what I called a fajita burger. I ate sautéed peppers and onions on my hamburger instead of cheese and thought it was great. I liked the Idaho home fries I ate as well and drank a bitter, hoppy beer.
We toured Yellowstone some more and got ready to go back to Elko and then Monterey.
The trip was perfect the next day when we saw some buffalo as we exited the park.
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
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| Ruth Paget Photo |
