Paradise Valley is fifty miles of broad flat ranchland rising into the Absaroka Beartooth Range on one side and the Gallatin Range on the other. Billowing clouds clustered around the impassive peaks on either side like white-haired ladies playing bridge. Farms and ranches were planted sporadically down the heart of the valley.
Route 89 follows the Yellowstone River south through the Valley. Well, it doesn’t follow it, it parallels it. The Yellowstone River flows backward, running north through the valley when any sensible river would be flowing south. In fact, the Yellowstone almost escapes to Canada, flowing northeast for hundreds of miles until it joins the Missouri in North Dakota. Watching the wrong-way course, I couldn’t shake the odd feeling that the river was flowing up.
Siddhartha discovered a retrograde river on his way to Nirvana. I had found one on the road to Paradise.
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