boiling hot at the edge of icy cold

My wee Hyundai and I drove 3300 miles earlier this month, up to Yellowstone and all around Yellowstone and back. While I was there I also did a lot of hiking, looking around, and bothering rangers with questions, because I am playing around with a book set in a big, strange wilderness like that one.

Not that there's any place like Yellowstone, really--except, I've heard, parts of Iceland.

I believe this is Big Cone, unless it is Fishing Cone. It's a geyser right at the edge of a vast, icy lake. I'm mad for this picture for some reason.

It's hard to take a bad photo there, even if you are a pure amateur armed with a mighty iPhone and ancient Powershot point-and-shoot.

Upper Falls and its rainbow. I was hiking right along the edge of the canyon.

ANYWAY. Worth the drive. And it was so gloriously cool, and I'm so tired of the heat.

In other news, I wrote a Cabinet of Curiosities story about keys, and what they might unlock. It's called "Little Doors of Blood and Bone," and it begins "The first thing Ida unlocked was the cat." If that sounds appealing (or: TERRIFYING), please check it out!

magical howls & mountain driving

Hellooo. I am just back from a week and a half in 1) Yellowstone, 2) Red Lodge Montana, and 3) Big Cottonwood Canyon, just outside Salt Lake City. It was cooler there than it is in Austin, but it is actually and marvelously raining outside right now as I type so I am not for one second going to complain. Anyway, pretty or what?:

Beartooth Pass between Yellowstone and Red Lodge Who needs guard rails ya whiny flatlander?

So two things: one, I posted a new story on the Cabinet of Curiosities this morning. Our theme this week is song, and I wrote about how some songs are howls, and some howls can take you far away.

The other thing is: pretty travel photos hurrah! I have some great hiking photos but some of the most extraordinary sights came while I was driving the Beartooth Pass, see above, which is world-class astonishingly beautiful (also a leeetle spooky for a first-time driver, hello more guard rails please?) -- or while I was winding up the canyon -- and neither of them easy times to get a photo. Still here are two more--culled from like a thousand so count your blessings:  

Hiking up around the Brighton ski area toward Lake Mary.

Long way doooooown from the Biscuit Basin/Mystic Falls overlook in Yellowstone. Am I not mighty? Look, if you'd met me, you'd be impressed.