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.

Katherine Catmull