7AM pronto, FiFi wakes me up and we prep to visit Yellowstone NP. We roll into the town of West Yellowstone before entering the park and driving towards our ultimate destination, Old Faithful. As we’re entering the park boundary, there are sooooo many people. Every time an animal is spotted on the road traffic screeches to a halt. I love animals, but they are really starting to annoy me when I see them just lazing around on the roadway posing for pics. Get your media attention elsewhere you assholes! FiFi does not approve of me yelling at the animals.
Our first stop is at a place called mudpots. Sulfuric air is escaping the earth through brown sludge, boiling up and looking as creepy as possible. Also, along this route are some hot springs with alluring blue shades, simmering along to the delight of onlookers. Including us. A buffalo decided to plop down next to the trail so I get my obligatory picture in. After that, we were back in the car and headed to Old Faithful.
This parking lot is massive. I mean, Disney plus Epcot plus Downtown Disney status. We eventually find a spot and head over to the viewing area. This is a large concrete circle around the geyser with multiple rows of benches arching with the sidewalk to allow as many people as possible to watch the geyser from a sitting position. At first I think this is silly, but them I’m very thankful for the seats as we have to wait about 20 minutes for the Geyser to blow. Someone knew what they were doing when they designed this… Old Faithful started out slow, then rose in strength for a minute or so, then fizzled out. Not the biggest or grandest geyser, but she was faithful. And I appreciate that.
After the show, FiFi and I wander among the crowds to check out the visitor center and gift shop. She of course finds a t-shirt and patch, while I stick to getting my National Park passport stamped. We finally decide to leave the crowds and head down to the West Thumb area, which looks to be a tiny volcano caldera inside the larger Yellowstone caldera. There are tons of flashy blue pools here and fun mini mud volcanoes spewing hot air. We enjoy a relaxed amble along the boardwalk, and decide to continue on through the park.
We finally come to some waterfalls and the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone,” so of course we stop. Some pretty steep hikes lead us to a waterfall viewing platform along with what feels like a million other people. We jockey for position to take photos. This feels stupid… We decide to hike around a bit on the canyon rim to soak in the views. They are magnificent even if they are full of people. It’s windy as all get out up here, so FiFi and I decide to head back to the truck.
Another point of interest for us was seeing the Grand Prismatic Spring. This is what you see in all of the park literature when you google Yellowstone. It’s supposed to be this awesome huge pool with amazingly colorful bacteria bordering its perimeter. So of course we set our sights on it. First, we decide to do the overlook which consists of climbing a small hit a good distance away and looking down on the spring. Parking is a bitch, but I suppose it was worth it.
After the overlook and lots of shitty people, we decide to walk the perimeter of the Grand Prismatic. But first, we have to locate a parking spot in one of the busiest areas of the park. We end up parking on the side of a busy road and hiking through the woods along a pig trail for far too long. That’s fine though, better than sitting in traffic for 40 minutes to find a spot. We finally pop out among a crap load of people and start our walk around the spring. Tons of cool colors, tons of people, and so many hats! There are about 20 hats blown into the spring…
After the Grand Prismatic shit show, we head back to the truck. One more stop leads us to an interesting attraction. This boardwalk leads around more geologic features, but buffalo have moved in. A park ranger has closed a section of the walk which ended up stranding many people. They are stuck until this animal moves… With recent news story telling of random buffalo attacks at Yellowstone, I’m glad this dude is here. I’m confident some idiot from Michigan would try to pat this animal on the rump while taking a video and die instantly from a goring incident. Alas, no such goring took place. But I did see my favorite feature of the entire park! Dragon’s mouth spring. The hot water pushing up through water and rock sounds like a legit monster is living underground. Add in steam and rocking water and you have yourself a dragon’s den. Children around here really believe a dragon is lurking below the water. I could be talked into it…
We finally leave Yellowstone through the North, and drive to a sweet BLM camping area in the town of Gardiner. Normally BLM sites are shitty gravel parking lots, but this one was along a large river and had shade and grassy parking. It was perfect! This also allowed me to finally attach my solar panel to the roof using the tools I had with me. Tubing for padding, zip ties, and lots and lots of Gorilla tape. I love both zip ties and Gorilla tape so much…
After a relaxing night, we head into town and grab coffee. This area is so cute, we couldn’t not stop for a bit. Coming into the park again, we were greeted with smaller crowds due to the early start time. We stroll along Mammoth Springs and chase down a Violet-green swallow. Elk are lounging around in the grassy medians, warming up in the early sunlight. Finishing up at Mammoth, we start a drive East when my truck suddenly dies at a stop sign. Like, engine off, all dash lights on, screech to a halt kind of die. WTF? She starts back up fine, and we creep to a parking spot to analyze what just happened. We check the oil, air filter, and tug on all the wires we can find to see what’s going on. Nothing. Everything seems to be in working order. Our next stop is into the heart of Yellowstone, so I’m a bit worried. Worse case scenario I call for help on my GPS, but I’d much rather just not get stranded anywhere. I’m nervous.
But we continue on fearlessly. JK I’m freaking out.
We decide to drive a scenic dirt route and are rewarded with a momma black bear and two cubs. After we decide to take a short hike down to a lake to see if we can spot any cool birds. No crazy cool anything but the views were pretty fantastic. Car is acting totally normal now, so maybe it was just a fluke? We stop at a multitude of other attraction along the main road of the park, including a 3ish mile hike to another cool lake. The wind is kicking, and we’re pretty fearful of a snag falling on us. So many dead trees here, it’s a legit concern. The sound of creaking and logs rubbing together consumes the forest. We gingerly hike through, looking for bears and the hint of tree fall.
After our hike, we head south out of Yellowstone and look for a campground near the Grassy Flats Reservoir within USFS land. We drive for what feels like forever on gravel roads to find almost every available camping spot taken. It’s getting dark, and we’re feeling a bit hopeless. Eventually, a family allows us to share a very large camping spot with them. They do not seem entirely happy to have us there, but they obviously feel bad. We take up as little room as possible and go to bed early. The mosquitoes here are relentless, and we’re doing everything we can to avoid them. Alas, it is impossible to keep them out of the truck. FiFi also found multiple holes in my tent and attempted to patch them with tissue paper. It was pretty awful. No pictures of the shit show.
After shitty sleep, we head out early to the Grand Tetons. We stopped and grabbed coffee at a convenience store, then headed into the park to get some hiking in. We started on a hike to Swan Lake, but the mosquitoes were again awful and the views weren’t worth the time or effort. After about 3 miles we called it quits and headed to another section of the park. We decided to get a longer hike in, so we parked at Jenny Lake, walked around half of it, and up a trail named cascade canyon. This trail passes a sweet waterfall and inspiration point as it winds up a canyon. The uphill was perfectly challenging and offered amazing views of moose along the way. I think we hiked close to 18 miles this day, although I can’t remember the exact number. It was a good day. No complaints. Now off to find a campsite!
