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FALL 2019 ISSUE 02 / VOL . 04
Left : Wisdom is a place , and attitude , a distination . Below : A wall of black-and-white photographs at Fetty ’ s restaurant reveal that not much has changed .
We ride through a valley cut by the Bitterroot River , in a haze of smoke that makes the world as claustrophobic as the inside of a light bulb . Every store and gas station has a sign : Thank you firefighters .
We reach Wisdom a little after noon . Our waitress at Fetty ’ s is a delight — young , blonde , talkative . She moved to the area from Seattle / Tacoma after her apartment was broken into on her 21st birthday . She loves the town . She never locks her door . She knows everyone in the valley . There is no television or cell phone service , but she doesn ’ t mind . She ’ s found a place where her four-year-old son can excel .
That is the lesson of Wisdom . On the ride out of town a bald eagle swoops out of the sky and escorts us , no more than 100 feet away . We ride west , then south , following the winding Gallatin River into West Yellowstone . A day of highways designed and guided by rivers .
Lesson : Wisdom exists .
DAY EIGHT : We enter Yellowstone . At Fountain Paint Pot we listen to the earth turn water to steam , a sound of jet engines . We watch geysers pulse and burble . We sit with others and wait for Old Faithful to do its thing , with far less vigor than anticipated .
We pull off the highway and sit by a river watching fly fishermen work their way upstream . Close your eyes and you can re-create the river by sound . To the left , the slap of water over a submerged rock . In the background the sizzle of water cutting into the far bank . In the foreground , the collapse of a standing wave . The gurgle of smaller waves over a gravel bar . The sounds are spatial , like a musical score or memories of a great ride . This one .
We turn at Mammoth Hot Springs and follow the Lamar River out of Yellowstone , past herds of bison , the occasional elk and deer . This has to be the most tranquil valley on Earth .