I decided to walk around Jackson this morning before heading out. It's a prett
y cool little town, even if it's a bit pricey. The town square has these huge arches made of nothing but elk antlers. Really neat to see honestly, very fitting with the town it seems. I went back to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar (the place I went the night before for music) to get one of their basic t-shirts, fun little souvenir I thought. I forgot though that I was in an overpriced ski town, $35 for a t-shirt. JEEZUS H. There's no way in hell I'd spend that on a t-shirt that wasn't even that complicated. I guess if I had too much money (like most Jackson visitors) maybe that'd be okay, but as it is I'll pass thanks.
y cool little town, even if it's a bit pricey. The town square has these huge arches made of nothing but elk antlers. Really neat to see honestly, very fitting with the town it seems. I went back to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar (the place I went the night before for music) to get one of their basic t-shirts, fun little souvenir I thought. I forgot though that I was in an overpriced ski town, $35 for a t-shirt. JEEZUS H. There's no way in hell I'd spend that on a t-shirt that wasn't even that complicated. I guess if I had too much money (like most Jackson visitors) maybe that'd be okay, but as it is I'll pass thanks. Eventually, I headed out to Grand Tetons National Park. Jackson happens to be about ten miles south of it, s
o it didn't take too long. The Tetons are a younger offshoot of the Rockies, and as such are much more dramatic and rugged than the mountains around them. Seeing them was pretty awe-inspiring, 13000 + for some of the peaks. The day started as really cloudy, so I was worried that I'd see jack. Luckily it cleared up some as I went through and although the clouds never completely went away it was clear enough to see most everything. It's hard to fathom how monumental they are until you stand at the base looking up. There aren't really roads that go up into them but so much, but seeing them makes you understand why. There's really no way to make a road over something that dramatic and extreme. I also got to fulfill a pipe dream for the trip. I'd said before that I wanted to stand on a frozen lake, just because I'd never
even seen one before. Well, today I stood on Jackson Lake with about three feet of snow and ice separating my feet with the water beneath. I thought I was all cool, standing on this lake and not getting wet whatsoever. Of course, God has a sense of humor and as it was, I didn't stay dry for long. On the way back to the car, I stepped off of the tracks by about ten inches with my right foot, and OOPH! my right foot went about three feet into the snow. With one leg submerged and one above, it took me a while to be able to get free. Just long enough for the submerged leg to become waterlogged. I had to laugh at myself as I changed pants in the car, okay God very funny.
o it didn't take too long. The Tetons are a younger offshoot of the Rockies, and as such are much more dramatic and rugged than the mountains around them. Seeing them was pretty awe-inspiring, 13000 + for some of the peaks. The day started as really cloudy, so I was worried that I'd see jack. Luckily it cleared up some as I went through and although the clouds never completely went away it was clear enough to see most everything. It's hard to fathom how monumental they are until you stand at the base looking up. There aren't really roads that go up into them but so much, but seeing them makes you understand why. There's really no way to make a road over something that dramatic and extreme. I also got to fulfill a pipe dream for the trip. I'd said before that I wanted to stand on a frozen lake, just because I'd never
even seen one before. Well, today I stood on Jackson Lake with about three feet of snow and ice separating my feet with the water beneath. I thought I was all cool, standing on this lake and not getting wet whatsoever. Of course, God has a sense of humor and as it was, I didn't stay dry for long. On the way back to the car, I stepped off of the tracks by about ten inches with my right foot, and OOPH! my right foot went about three feet into the snow. With one leg submerged and one above, it took me a while to be able to get free. Just long enough for the submerged leg to become waterlogged. I had to laugh at myself as I changed pants in the car, okay God very funny. Anyway, I headed out from there in the direction of Salt Lake. It only took me maybe 2.5 hours and it was a really beautiful drive. When I got here, I checked into the motel 6 for 40 bucks, right in the middle of downtown. So Salt Lake is a really cool place, VERY different culturally. You can tell that this place is completely isolated from mainstream America just because there are all of these weird differences and everyone here thinks they're normal it seems. I guess if you grow up here, some of these things just seem like second nature, but to an outsider, these people are kinda weird. For one thing, and it caused me a problem, addresses here are insanely complicated. I went online from the room and found the address of the Hard Rock so I could get my pin, and it said '505 S 600 E.' That's it...that's what any SLC address looks like. So after walking around for an hour I finally figured it out. See if this makes sense. So each street is labeled with a hundreds (i.e. 300, 400,500) and a cardinal direction. It doesn't actually say 'st' on these streets, it'll just say '500 E' or '600 N.' The numbers get higher in each direction as you leave downtown. So in the case of the Hard Rock, that address means that it is on 600 E (street) between 500 S and 600 S. Anyway, when I got to the HRC I was talking to the shopgirl and I mentioned that the address system is a little complicated for an outsider and she looked at me like I had two heads. Apparently, if you've always lived in SLC it seems completely obvious.
The city itself is extremely clean, and really pretty. It is weird too though, that the land use seems all wonky. I'm staying at a motel 6 with two floors and full parking. Across the street is a fifty story building, across from that is another skyscraper, and across from that is a DRIVE THRU Wendy's. How does that make sense?? Anyway, this is what happens when a group is isolated culturally, no one seems to notice how weird stuff like that is here. After the HRC and exploring for a while, I made my way back to the motel. So tomorrow the general plan is for skiing in Park City. Hopefully, I won't break anything, we'll see.
1 comment:
seriously how in the world did you not abscond with that antler arch? That's completely amazing and deserves to be pilfered.
meg
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