Well That’s Just Great. You Hear That, Ed? Bears!

Even with my new enormous lens, you can barely* tell what these creatures are roaming about at Glacier NP.  So through the miracle of Adobe Lightroom, I’ve zoomed in and enhanced the picture.

That one dude was looking right at me.

 

* See what I did there?

Updated Food/Booze Map

View Eating & Drinking in a larger map

I have updated my food/booze map to reflect the better places to eat during Walkabout 2012. 

Key:

2012 yellow

2011 green

2010-09 blue

2008-2007 red.

Walkabout 2012 Day 19: Rapid City to Home

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Notes

• These are the last of the pictures take for Walkabout 2012.
• Once I get in “Going Home” mode, all I want to do is drive home.  So my being underwhelmed by Badlands NP and Wall Drug is probably a result of that.
• Come to Wall Drug and buy some crap!
• The original plan was to spend the night in Sioux City Iowa.  But the cheap hotel I booked was so disgusting, shady and disgusting I decided just to drive through the night and hit Dallas around 10 am – just in time for Norm’s Analysis of the Epic Ranger Collapse.

Part I

 

Part II

Adorable Marmot Picture of the Day

I’m still recovering from another successful Walkabout.  I have a few more pictures and commentary to post.  Hopefully I can get to that this weekend.  But until then, please to enjoy these adorable marmots.

Two Bad Octobers in a Row

This used to be my favorite month of the year.

*audio stolen from BADD Radio

Walkabout 2012 Day 18: Casper to Rapid City

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Notes

• Obviously I did make it to South Dakota.
• It’s kind of a national travesty that the Crazy Horse Monument has made so little progress.
• Like the Mona Lisa, Mount Rushmore is much smaller than I ever imagined.
• The roads leading up to Mount Rushmore are lined with silly roadside attractions like The Flintstone amusement park.  Old novelty attractions from a bygone era of family road trips.
• Deadwood was a huge disappointment.  Nearly everything on the main drag is a stupid slot-machine “casino” or had some part of Wild Bill Hickok in its name.
• The Dakotah Steak House was a bit of disappointment.  Shouldn’t  a restaurant know not to serve the main course before the appetizer is finished? And what’s with overpowering your buffalo rib eye with some strange orange zest sauce? Only slightly made up for by having Macallen 18.

 

 

 

Walkabout 2012 Day 17: Jackson Hole to Casper

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Walkabout 2012 Day 16: Yellowstone to Jackson Hole

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Walkabout 2012 Day 16: More Yellowstone

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Notes

• I’m officially tired.  I had no energy for a long hike today.  I’m hoping the next couple of days driving through Wyoming will invigorate me.  If they don’t, I’m not sure if I’ll go to South Dakota.  I may just head home.
• I now believe that people fly-fish because it’s fun to just stand in a river.  I mean I would love to just stand in the Yellowstone River, but I would look foolish doing so without a fishing pole in my hand.
• Let me preface the next statement with “Yellowstone is awesome”, BUT, I would still put Yosemite way ahead of it – as well as Glacier.
• I would admit, though, that Yellowstone has much greater landscape diversity and there are a shit-tonne more wild life viewing opportunities.
• I’m also officially tired of buffalo.  I mean seriously people,  you’re pulling over to take a picture of a lone buffalo??  They’re all over the place.  Wait for a herd. 

Walkabout 2012 Day 15: Bozeman to Yellowstone

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Notes

• I made a tactical error by scheduling being in the most popular National Park on a weekend.  This is easily the most people I’ve seen in a park this year.  I could not even imagine how nuts this place is during the summer.
• There’s a huge amount of Japanese here.  This must be their favorite park.
• This place is lousy with buffalos.  It’s almost too boring to photograph them.
• Geysers are a great place to take a date.  You can fart up a storm and the horrible smell of the geysers will give you cover.
• Easily my worst meal of the trip at Three Bear Restaurant.  Extremely old school.  The place had a soup and salad bar for Christ sake. I had the bone-in bison steak.  It was ok.  But everything else seemed to pre-made / purchased.

Walkabout 2012 Day 14: Glacier to Bozeman

Notes

• No pictures today.  You got more than your allotment yesterday. 
• Besides.  I got only one comment from those fabulous pictures from yesterday.
• Who knew you could get a great crab cake in Montana – big chunks of crab and light dusting of cumin.
• There are more “casinos” in Montana than the rest of the world combined.  Any shithole with a slot machine calls itself a casino.