Since this pandemic started, I’ve been struggling with not having a reason to get up in the morning. Not like, an existential crisis, but literally. I could lay in bed all morning reading Reddit; I had nowhere to go. The two things that are most life-giving to me are teaching and being outside, and I lost both of those things for several months. But today, that all changed. I was out the door by 6 AM; I had waterfalls and dinosaur bones to see!
They had a room where you could watch the scientists working.
These dinosaurs looked mildly inappropriate. But the whole point was to show that this one species might have had feathers and they might have actually been wild colors.
Dinosaur eggs!
Triceratops skull
They had an entire T Rex skeleton and a display case with five T Rex skulls.
It was only about 2:30. I’d already done so much, but I couldn’t just go sit in my hotel room. So I found this place that I wanted to visit but thought it was too far of a drive. It ended up being totally worth it!
Here’s a video of all my Instagram stories from the past two days.
I was on the trail to Palisade falls before 7. The reason for my early start was that the waterfall trails are supposedly crowded, and I don’t like seeing people when I hike. That’s going to be a challenge on this trip since I can’t hike very far with my recovering hip. All the short easy trails will be crowded, so the solution is to go early.
I saw a family with young kids on the trail picking huckleberries, and the dad taught me how! I feel so silly; I never knew what huckleberries actually looked like. I love how they taste, but had never seen them in berry form. So I didn’t mind not having the trail all to myself this morning!
Next up- Grotto Falls. Appropriately named because of the grotto at the bottom of the falls. This would be a great place to swim on a hot day!
As I was hiking and admiring the wildflowers, I was listening to a podcast with an interview with a flower essence practitioner.I found this topic fascinating. She talked about having relationships with plants, which sounded a little out there, but then I thought about how I worry about Succulent Sue and realized I
am indeed in a relationship with a plant.The process she uses for making the tinctures sounds very simple except for one step- you have to ask the plant’s permission to take its flower, and she said that occasionally the plant will say no to her. I’m not sure how to tell if a plant is saying no to me. She said you have to spend some time with it and get to know it first. I never pick flowers while I’m hiking because it always seems non-consensual. So apparently I have some work to do in this area. Maybe they can tell if you want to use them for good versus just picking them because they’re pretty? I am actually considering buying this woman’s book because it’s just so interesting to me, even if it is not my personal belief system.
By 9 AM I had my 10,000 steps for the day and was starving. I stopped at a bakery and ordered a cinnamon roll the size of my face and an enormous shortbread cookie for later.
Then it was time for some thing I have been looking forward to for a month- the Museum of the Rockies. I saw this great PBS show called Road Trip Through Time and they had so many scientists on from this museum!
I love how the ancient squids look like carrots! I wish they had more diagrams!
The most interesting thing I learned today was about sauropods. Imagine you have the same size body, but your neck is the size of a 30 foot straw and your head is the size of a peanut. That’s what the brontosaurus would have looked like! 
When I saw this python, I stood in front of it and pretended I was Harry Potter and hoped that it would speak Parseltongue to me. Alas, the snake just slept. And then some guy came right up close to me and started taking pics, and that was my cue to GTFO. That was my only complaint about this otherwise awesome museum- people there did not seem aware of the pandemic. Masks are required, and you have to get tickets in advance to get in, and the staff seem to be doing the best they can, but I saw people wearing their masks incorrectly, kids running around without their masks on at all, and people had no regard for other people’s personal space. It would have been uncomfortable even without the fear of someone breathing on you! I only lasted about an hour, and that included the 20 minute planetarium show.
I headed to downtown Bozeman to a bookstore I heard is the best in Montana and picked up a Walt Whitman book and another book that was on my list. Then I stopped at a restaurant across the street, planning to order takeout. But, they had lots of tables available, and they gave me a choice of where I’d feel most comfortable sitting... I gave in to temptation way too quickly and ate my lunch there. I am still feeling guilty about this, but it was sooooo good.
It was only about 2:30. I’d already done so much, but I couldn’t just go sit in my hotel room. So I found this place that I wanted to visit but thought it was too far of a drive. It ended up being totally worth it!
At first I was all disappointed that the natural bridge collapsed, then I was confused about where the water went (the sign said it went underground but I thought it had to come up again pretty quickly), then I found another trail that gave me this view and it all made sense. A new natural bridge is forming!
Here’s a video of all my Instagram stories from the past two days.
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