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| Yellowstone Park sign outside Cooke City, MT |
That morning my travel buddy and I woke up bright and early so we would be able to see all that we wanted to see without getting back to Billings too late.
Somehow, even though there was only one road on the map, we ended up getting lost up in the mountains. Getting to the top of the mountains was quite the adventure to begin with since I am terrified of heights and had to drive next to cliffs. EEP! Once we got up there, the view was amazing and it was definitely worth the multiple eep moments.
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| Can you imagine a house up there? |
Now keep in mind this is all before getting to the park. It took us about two hours from Red Lodge to get to the park sign and actually enter the park. I was afraid the trip down the mountains would be just as eep-able, thankfully it was gently slopping down and we pretty much stayed at the same elevation all the way through.
Somewhere while we were up in the mountains we thought to look at the gas gauge... oops. Here's a piece of advice for you, check your gas before heading off into the mountains. Thankfully we came across this little store called the Top of the World and they sold gas!! Oh boy was that expensive too! Almost $5 a gallon, but we needed it so I couldn't say no. The brief rain reprieve didn't last long and it started pouring again. So we didn't stay too long to explore.
Finally we made it to Cooke City and then it wasn't far to the park entrance. We both did a happy dance!
Once in the park we were a little disappointed that the clouds were blocking the sun, but we were determined to not let that deter us from seeing things and taking some stunning photos.
Our first stop was this cute little hill clearing with a view of three mini water falls. I thought that was as good as it was going to get, not that that wasn't absolutely stunning I was disappointed that was it about five miles in.
After too long of taking the same pictures over and over again I was able to convince my travel buddy to get back into the car so we could continue on the adventure. A few more miles down the road I caught a glimpse of some large brown creatures out in the field far away. Turns out it was a heard of bison. Little did we know we would be seeing hundreds of bison that day including a State Farm moment on the way back.
The bison didn't seem to care that we were about five feet from them. no worries we stayed in the car. The must get sick of all the photos taken of them and the people ooing and ahhing and gawking at them. They just sat there and continued to look like chill beasts.
Further down the road we saw more and more bison. Look to the left, bison, to the right, bison! They were everywhere!! We were treated to beautiful views of valleys and streams the further into the park we went.
After this part it started raining... scratch that, pouring again so we didn't get out of the car much to get more photos. It also didn't help that we were on a schedule trying to get to Old Faithful.
I was starting to get bored of driving, since I had drove nine hours the day before, and about three hours that day already, All the tress and everything were starting to blur together and I was getting bored. Then I saw it off in the distance. Steam billowing up through the trees. We had made it to the caldera!!
We stopped at a few bubbling and steaming places along the way, and even though it said do not touch the water or the mud, I was super tempted to touch it when I was reminded that it was boiling and it probably wasn't a brilliant idea to do that.
This was one of the stops right before Old Faithful. The photo doesn't do the blue justice at all, but it is still beautiful! We did the entire boardwalk at this place, got our noses and throats burned with the sulfur in the air and saw a couple mini geysers that blew while we were standing right next to them.
Off again on our mission to get to Old Faithful before it blew again we were out on the openish road headed south deeper into Wyoming.
When we finally got to the mini city surrounding the famous geyser we discovered that we had just missed it, but it would go off in another 90 minutes. Worth the wait to say we saw it. We got some food, bison sticks, boysenberry licorice, other junk food. We also were sucked into the gift shop getting tourist stuff that said Yellowstone on it.
When e headed out to the benches surrounding the boiling water hole we were treated to pouring rain and a mini lightning storm. Can you say, yay? Most of the people bailed, but I really wanted to see it and we had excellent seats in the front and the best part was they were dry seats!
The rain lifted and the water started to bubble up over the edge of the rock. It was time! Soon after that water erupted into the sky sending steam flying off to the right as the wind blew it that direction.
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| Old Faithful |
We took a different way back so we could see more stuff. A lake followed the road for a ways. I can only imagine how stunning it would have looking if the sun were out and no clouds blocked our view. There were some birds and a female elk, but no bison and that was a welcome change from seeing them all over the place.
When w got back to "bison country" as I have come to call it we found this guy on the road facing down a car. I feel like a journey to Yellowstone is not complete until you see that bison on the road State Farm moment. People in this area were kinda stupid. As Mr. Bison made his way off the road and eight-year-old and his father followed him and were less than ten feet away when the kid decided to scream. Natural selection at work right there.
From there on out it was pretty much driving and not many animals to see. Oh wait, there were hundreds more (probably the exact same ones as earlier) bison to see.
A few things I learned along the way were:
1. Don't touch the swirling mud no matter how soft and silky it looks
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| The black swirls form when iron mixes with sulfur creating iron sulfide. |
3. Bring a warmer jacket, even in late June
4. Take photos, but don't forget to enjoy and embrace the experience
Have you ever been to Yellowstone? If so, what was your favorite part?
