Yellowstone

7-13 and 7-14  2016

DAY 25 - 26

Yellowstone is a magical place where mud boils, geysers erupt, buffaloes walk through your tent sight,  and hot springs come in unbelievable colors. When we woke up in the campground, it was below freezing. Maya and I decided to sleep in the super van for a little extra warmth. It meant we had a little less to pack up from our campsite, so rolled out of Madison Campground by 6:30 am despite having arrived after 10 pm. We drove straight to see Old Faithful in an attempt to beat the crowds (and it worked). Old Faithful was really cool to see - I didn't know what to expect though.

After seeing the main event of Old Faithful, we went to the Midway Geyser Basin to see Grand Prismatic Spring. Even though there were lots of people, the colors were super impressive - bright blue, orange, red, yellow. Pictures do not do it justice.

Next, we went to check out the Biscuit Basin (we loved the name). There were small geysers and springs everywhere! We really liked sapphire pool, rusty geyser, and avoca spring. The smells and noises coming from within the earth were like nothing I have ever seen. We hiked out to Mystic Falls which were beautiful. Being in bear country, we need to be extra alert. Maya certainly was when a person running on a trail that merged with ours scared the pants off of her. Good thing she didn't have any bear spray on her or that person would have been covered.

Next stop was the Paint Pots where we got to see the boiling mud. Crazy! The mud actually bubbles out of the ground and makes these plopping noises. It looks like science fiction. After the boiling mud, we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs. Nature has created beautifully terraced hot springs. Some are dormant and some are full of life. There are these organisms that can live in extreme environments like hot springs. These are what make the springs colorful. We also saw elk and birds walking around the hot springs as if it didn't bother them that they were super hot.

After some of the previous excitement, we decided to put a final touch on the day and soak in the boiling river. Or more, where the boiling river meets a regular river. Since we hiked out to the springs around 5:00, we thought there wouldn't be too many people, since most began to rap up their visits around 4:00. But we were mistaken. The boiling river was overflowing with people! You practically couldn't sit down without sitting on some strangers lap. We eventually found a spot, and settled down for a bit to soak in the warm water. 

It has been great to see so many animals - elk, bison, deer, coyotes, foxes, bear, and lots of cool birds. James loves the fact that we get to drive around looking for animals rather than hike. Since it is still early July, there are lots of baby animals to see. The bison calves are particularly cute. It's had to stop taking picture after picture of the bison. They are so majestic and huge.

We set up camp at Bridge Bay Campground where we would spend two nights. This is where a bison walked right through our camp and rubbed on the trees at our campsite. It was below freezing again at night, so I slept in the car again. Leaving camp in the morning was easy because we didn't have to pack up.

We set off to check out the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. On our way we stopped at the Mud Volcanoes. These were the stinkiest in the park, but totally worth doing a short hike around them. The way the mud shoots out of the ground is so wild. Bison were walking around in the area. In fact, we had to wait a little bit in our car until they wandered away so that we didn't get too close. Afterwards, we had a really nice leisurely picnic on the Yellowstone River. We realized that it was one of the very few picnics that we have had on the whole trip where we just sat at a picnic table and ate. It felt nice.

Once to the canyon, hiked Uncle Tom's Trail. We decided that Gramps and Auntie Angela would not have liked it. It was super steep steps all the way down to a beautiful view of the Lower Falls. After this hike, we drove across the Yellowstone River to hike to a spot where we could check out the falls from above. Mama wasn't crazy about this, but it was awesome.

For a special treat, Gramma and Pop treated us to dinner at the Roosevelt Lodge. It was delicious and kind of ironic that after I took lots of pictures of the bison, I then proceeded to eat a bison burger. The family style apple crisp was gone in a hot minute. After our bellies were full, we drove around looking for more animals and then headed back to camp for bed.