Day Fourteen: Glacier National Park - National Museum of Wildlife Art - Wilson, WY

8 1/2 hours driving (520 miles)

This gives me a chance to write about MT-83, which I mentioned in Sunday's blog.

I think it is my 3rd favorite road (after "any road I'm on with Wendy" and Colorado 82, which goes through Aspen and Independence Pass)

83 is 91 miles long, runs north/south through the Swan River National Wildlife Refuge, and there are many lakes on its west side, the northernmost being Swan Lake

and then there are Summit Lake, Rainy Lake, Lake Alva, Lake Inez, Seeley Lake, and Salmon Lake.

There are pine forests


and clearings and meadows


They have BIG STORMS out here in Big Sky Country


In person, it looks like this one would cover Massachusetts (or at least Rhode Island)


The Tetons on the horizon - another example of mountains just jumping out from the plains


Up over Teton Pass - is it time for skiing already?


As I mention below, it was soooo cool listening to "Big Joe and Phantom 309" as I was coming down Teton Pass (a song about a trucker who jackknifed his big rig coming down a mountain pass in order to save kids in a bus)


Everything turned out fine (for me), and the meadows of Jackson are beautiful (with a couple of swans)!


I got to Jackson about an hour early (well, maybe I planned it that way), so I went to their National Museum of Wildlife Art. A nice museum with a focus (obviously) on Wildlife Art - excellent animal sculptures (reminds me of Katharine Weems whose house was near us in Manchester - link to Museum of Science page), and they also have a lovely collection of paintings (on display: 3 by Albert Bierstadt, 1 by Thomas Hill, 1 by N.C. Weyth, and 1 by Georgia O'Keeffe). A Rodin is also in their collection!

Two Stage Battling, 1883, by Thomas Hill


Le Lion Qui Pleure, Modeled 1881, Cast 1955, by Auguste Rodin


and some news from Wendy:
Walk was good today. We are more than a quarter of the way done, with "only 562 km to go".

Wednesday, Sept. 25
Glacier National Park, Montana
8 hours -- National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming
1/2 hour -- Scott & Petria's, Wilson, Wyoming
(just down the road from the Grand Teton National Park!)

here is today's playlist:

The Band - The Last Waltz (cd 2-of-2)


Mark Booker - his teaching at last week's Thursday Morning Mens Breakfast


KT Tunstall - Tiger Suit


Spirit - Time Circle (1968-1972)


Donald Fagen - The Nightfly


Big Head Todd and the Monsters - Sister Sweetly


The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (6 songs)


Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto


Tom Waits - Nighthawks At The Diner [it was soooo cool listening to "Big Joe and Phantom 309" as I was coming down Teton Pass into Jackson, Woming]


Joe Jackson - Night and Day