Waterfalls and Hot Springs and Bears, Oh My!

Hello dearies! We're in scenic Bozeman, Montana, kicking back with some delicious Bacardi Silver Raz procured from the local CVS. That's right, friends, out here in the Wild Wild West, one can buy booze at the CVS.

We started the day in less delicious circumstances. We had stayed in Yellowstone Park at the Pioneer Cabin (hmm) and for some reason the heater wasn't working, and I froze my metaphorical balls off. It was probably 45 degrees out overnight, and the tile floor was so cold I couldn't walk on it in bare feet. Lizzie and I threw our things together as quickly as possible, sadly motivated more by the desire to escape the cold than by our can-do attitude. We had breakfast at the lodge, and then made our way up towards the north end of Yellowstone. Everything was so beautiful it was sort of ridiculous. More stunning canyons, unbelievable vistas, pristine lakes, as if nature was going to the prom all the time or something. We stopped at Tower Falls, which was gorgeous. Unfortunately we couldn't hike to the bottom, because of some flood damage, but what

we were able to see was killer. After Tower falls we hit the Calcite springs, which were super cool as well. Our last stop in Yellowstone was Mammoth Hot springs, which is at the north entrance. It's another geothermic formation, with all sorts of cool looking terraces carved out by the steaming water. Despite my stupid cold, I managed to climb up to the tippity top (mouth-breathing for part of it, but hopefully no one noticed) and sadly for me, the view at the bottom was more interesting than the view at the top, and there was a parking lot at the top terrace, which is cheating if you ask me. After the springs, we were ready to head up to Montana, but I went the wrong way and we drove west for 20 miles instead of North for 5. On the upside, on our little detour we got to see this pretty cool bear. Rarr.

We did eventually make it to Montana, and Bozeman is adorable. It thinks it's quite a bit hipper than it really is, with its coffee shops with free wifi, but hey, any city where you can buy toilet paper and alcohol in the same store is pretty urbane.