Westward 2011, Day 8

So, it looks like the westward travels are officially subsiding. Things are no less awesome than they were yesterday, however. We took an aerial tram ride up a mountain today. I stood on the summit at 10,450 feet above sea level. Awesome. We had breakfast on top of the mountain, too. My mom had a waffle with brown sugar and butter...mine was with Nutella. Delicious. We walked down the summit a little way on a short trail, which was actually fairly tiring. I could really tell the air was thin; just walking the half-mile loop was pretty difficult. There were several groups of people with huge packs headed out on some of the trails which went through the mountains. I pitied and envied them at the same time. A bunch of people were also going on tandem paraglides down the mountain, which was freaking sweet. I would love to do that someday.

Standing on the summit, looking out over the valley, wind in my face and storms rolling through the mountains around us. Best experience on this trip yet.

After we came back down the tram, we headed to the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve. The preserve had some nice trails which we checked out, and it was very beautiful and peaceful.

Now we're back in our Motel 6 in Jackson. At 6am tomorrow, we're getting picked up for a guided wildlife tour around Jackson Hole. Apparently, we're the only two people who signed up for it, which should make it more interesting and personal. The tour is run by the Teton Science School, an institution here in Jackson Hole. It looks like a pretty awesome school from what I saw on their website.

After the tour, we're heading out and back toward home. Now we're thinking just getting back in a reasonable amount of time before Labor Day, so we're just going south to I-80 and heading across Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois to Michigan. Yes, corn. Oh well. Everything we've done so far has made a trip through the universe's cornfield worth it.

Peace.