Moominmama's Adventures

In which the adventure draws to a close, but with a promise of more to come... Moominmama writes this final missive of 2021 from Rochester, NY. The Moominhouse is safely in storage just south of Durango, Colorado. Most of this past week has involved packing and cleaning, and preparing for the drive east. But on the day the Moominhouse was in the shop for service, Moominmama took off for one last adventure in nearby Mesa Verde National Park, where the National Park Service is preserving the remarkable Pueblo architecture tucked into the rocky overhangs on the high mesas. And high mesas they are. It is a long uphill drive from the park's visitor center up to the Chapin and Wetherill mesas where the evidence of the ancestral Pueblo homes remain.  But arriving in the latter half of October turned out to be disappointing. Much was closed. The Spruce Tree House picture above was closed to visitors, as was the Cliff Palace Loop. Other areas could be seen only by signing up for one of a fe...

In which Moominmama flees snow in Yellowstone only to suffer a terrifying night under breaking branches in Utah... Moominmama left Yellowstone two days early to avoid getting caught in a blast of cold wintry weather and potentially heavy snow.  I was patting myself on the back for my foresight when I hit the Utah border and went for a hike in my shirt sleeves in Logan Valley. Finally, leaves on trees! Beautiful leaves turning beautiful colors! I hadn't missed fall entirely after all! The hike to Wind Cave was near my camping destination and well worth the time. It was a steady uphill trail but provided spectacular views of the mountains.  And the Wind Cave turned out to be a glorious end point for the trail. Utah has an amazing array of mountains, from sandstone cliffs to these forested hills, which surprised me after thinking it was a desert state. I arrived happily at my campground near Logan and set up, still in my shirt sleeves, admiring the deciduous trees that provided s...

Wherein Moominmama learns about Black rodeos and gets back on her feet for a little hiking... Moominmama returned to Cody this week to restock her larder on her day off. With my ankle on the mend, I ventured into the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. The museum prominently advertises itself as an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, perhaps for those of us worried about a Buffalo Bill-style show. What caught my attention was a photography exhibit on Black rodeos and Black cowboys. I've been reading a book called "The Black West" by William Loren Katz, which looks at the history of Black people in the western U.S. starting with the Black men who traveled to the Americas with the Spanish explorers. An estimated one in four cowboys in the American West were Black -- yet they're all but written out of the iconography. Black families were very much part of the westward expansion, especially after the Civil War, with many newly freed men who'd cared for horses and o...

In which Moominmama visits more geothermal features and learns how Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph led his people through Yellowstone as they fled the U.S. Army... With morning temperatures below freezing, the steam rising from Yellowstone's volcanic features makes for an otherworldly experience. At the Artists Paint Pots, the steam not only obscured parts of the boardwalk, it froze on the bushes nearby, creating brief winter wonderlands. Nature puts on a heck of an artistic display in and around the paint pots, which reveal a diversity of colors attributed to cyanobacteria, heat and volcanic chemistry. These phenomena are still being studied throughout the park. One of the most famous of these is the Grand Prismatic Spring, but the steam when I visited obscured the large multi-colored pool that Yellowstone is known for. The best I could do was this snapshot of the Opal Pool nearby, smaller but just as beautiful! Everywhere you turn are bright colors and boiling waters. Even the blan...

  In which Moominmama experiences a bit of the Wyoming Wild West and survives a snowstorm... The drive east from Yellowstone Lake takes one out of the caldera and into the Absaroka mountain range, and it is stunning, especially with the mountain tops still dusted with snow. Sunday night into Monday morning, the first snowstorm hit Yellowstone, and I awoke to a winter wonderland in my RV park. It was beautiful but the snow didn't last -- at least not in the lowlands. But there's still some snow gracing the mountain tops around Yellowstone, including Avalanche Peak in the Absarokas.  Avalanche Peak is one of the highest points in the park and a hike I was considering until I turned my ankle again this past week. It was a stupid mistake. The land around Lake Lodge, where I work, is hilly and uneven, and I took my eye off the ground to greet a colleague, promptly putting my weak ankle in an untenable position and tumbling to the ground with an embarrassing squawk. It was both the ...

Wherein Moominmama explores what it means to live on a volcano and worries about snow... Yellowstone National Park has its own Grand Canyon, but one that was formed differently than the famous Arizona canyon. The Yellowstone canyon walls are surreal: sulphur yellows, pinks, whites and reds created by geothermal fluids. Harder to see in the two dimensions of a photo are the many pinnacles that jut up on the sides, called hoodoos. Created by volcanic action, the canyon provides a path for the Yellowstone River below, adding erosion to the mix. This is reportedly what created the famous Upper and Lower Falls.  The rhyolitic lava and tuff on the canyon walls erode at different rates, with the Upper Falls featuring harder rock. The water carved its path, creating the large Lower Falls from the softer rock. While the park contains many grassy fields, winding creeks and forested vistas, its geothermal origins are hard to escape. The volcanic caldera on which Moominmama lives for the next ...

In which Moominmama arrives at Yellowstone National Park after a last hurrah at Grand Teton National Park... Moominmama applied in July for a part-time job at Yellowstone for September and October -- and got hired! My arrival here on Sept. 9 starts a five-week stint that will be one of my last big adventures out west. The Helping Hands program at Yellowstone places part-time workers in food service and housekeeping, or some mix of the two. For now I am assigned to Lake Lodge, with its tree beams and glorious front porch facing out over Yellowstone Lake. In terms of work, I'm stripping linens and making beds in the cabins near the lodge. I'll do that five mornings a week and have afternoons off plus a two-day "weekend" during the week. There are many regulars here,  mostly retirees, who work here for the privilege of living in the park for part of the summer or fall. There are dormitories, but there is also an employee RV park, where I am staying. This afternoon when I...