Yellowstone

The drive from Idaho to Wyoming was quite desilt with only a few drivers on the roadway. As we entered the Targhee forest which eventually led into Yellowstone Park, we became excited about the prospect of seeing more buffalo, bears, elk, and wildlife. While many of the national forests we have visited all appear similar (trees, streams, meadows, mountains, and wildlife), they all have unique aspects. We were most excited about the opportunity to see Yellowstone's geysers, volcano muds, trails, and well known grizzly bears.

Our first night brought some unexpected heavy winds and rains, which lulled me to sleep quite early in evening hours; to be exact 7:30 pm. Well, that and the fact we had absolutely no television, internet or wifi to keep me informed and entertained. However, the following day, more rain was forecasted with temperatures in the low 40's. Unbeknownst to us, the heavy rains identified a new problem. A water leak inside the RV became Darryl's problem of the day. Yet, this time he couldn't rely on youtube videos to mitigate the issue (no cell/wifi). Being a tenacious investigator, he was able to identify where the leak was coming from and ….well that's about it. He couldn't fix it and was reserved for scheduling an appointment to have it repaired when we stay in Colorado.

The second day seemed more promising as we planned our visit to see Thumb West and Old Faithful. Thumb West had some spectacular geysers, hot springs, and mud volcanoes. One famous geyser is called the fishing cone which is said to be the mode of cooking fish. The story says that once fisherman caught their fish they would take and dip them right into the cone which immediately cooked them to perfection. While that was certainly interesting, we were most impressed by the blue, green, crystal clear geysers that bordered the Yellowstone Lake. They looked so inviting, we imagined how great it would have felt to jump in and soak for a while. The only thing that deterred us was the water temperature of 199 degrees. And although there were numerous signs indicating the dangers of touching the geyser and hot springs runoffs, Darryl just couldn't resist the urge to touch it. Thankfully, he didn't lose any flesh during the excursion.

As we followed the path towards Old Faithful (OF) we passed the continental divide which separates the water flows eastward to the Atlantic and gulf water and westward to the Pacific oceans. We were fortunate to have arrived three minutes before the next OF eruption which lasted for about two minutes. As with the sight of Niagara Falls, we were a little disappointed and had imagined OF would have been more grandeur in its display of thrust and projection. However, the one benefits of trekking the 36 miles to see OF was it was the one and only area that we were able to gain internet and wifi access. While it may seem like I am gravitating to receiving greater enjoyment of being able to check emails, we both realized regardless of our expectations for the day, it was a memorable experience and one that could not be duplicated anywhere else.

As the day ended, we entered our campsite to find roaming buffalo (scientific name is bison) near our RV. I was able to snap a picture of one who appears to be smiling for the photo, yet in reality, he had just sniffed the ass of another female buffalo.

On our third day out, we explore Canon Village where we hiked the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone Canon. The terrain appeared much like a typical canon yet with a ray of bright yellow hues. We opted to bring our faithful companion Reese along the hike which you can see did not end well for Darryl as he had to carry her for the one-mile uphill walk. There were some amazing waterfall cascades within the canons which according to my IWatch fitness app, offered us a day of 9,024 steps, 27 flights or 3.5 miles of exercise.

The following day we prepared for another day of rain, therefore we elected to stay indoors and complete some minor household repairs, catch up on the travel diaries entries, study and send off some postcards to the family. We did make some time to leave the campsite for a few hours to visit a nearby lodge to relax by the Yellowstone River and enjoy some Huckleberry wine.

The final planned tour for the weekday included driving 50 minutes to get to the Lamar Valley. (Side note, we like to visit attractions and locations Monday through Friday, since the weekends are typically busier). This was one of the many areas we were told had an abundance of bears. Of course, there was one catch. We had to be there by 6 am to see them at their most active time, so the alarm was set to 0 dark thirty.

As we drove along the valley, we caught a glimpse of pronghorn deer, elk, and several bison. We saw this to be a promising sign that bears were to come, yet after driving another 120 miles, we realized the dream was dead. We forged on towards Mammoth Springs where we were previously told of horror stories of people dying by intentionally or unintentionally falling into the springs. We carefully maneuvered along the wooden paths, careful not to bump or be bumped by other visitors. The limestone deposits left behind by the geysers was an incredible sight. As we finished the walking tour, we saved what we thought would be the best experience for last by visiting the Midway Geyser Basin. I had seen pictures of the prismatic springs yet had not considered the mass of its beauty until I saw it firsthand. It was like looking at a rainbow resting inside of a body of water.

As we finalized our 8-hour day of walking and mostly driving, we headed back for the evening. We decided that since we had visited all the main sightseeing points of interest we would leave a day early and start our 650-mile drive to Colorado Springs.