The first area of interest we saw was
the Volcanic Springs. Here were a few hot springs that had a funny
caution sign at the beginning of the boardwalk. It said that 12
people had been scalded to death at the springs in Yellowstone and
had a picture from the 80's of a little boy jumping into a hot
spring, his sister looking shocked on the boardwalk, and their father
with his back to them walking away . The Dragon's mouth was
my favorite. It was a little cave that had steam roaring out of it
and waves lapping onto the edge of the small pool of water. Some poor
little child lost their pacifier on a rocks below the boardwalk.
There were a few springs that smelled absolutely awful. People were
walking around with their shirts over their mouths because the smell
of sulfur was so strong! The bison didn't seem to mind though. There
was a male lazing around one of the springs that attracted a lot of
tourist's attention. He didn't seem to mind that the whole world was
watching when he rolled around in the dirt. And literally the whole
world was watching. It amazed me how many different languages we
heard. Nate and I were able to identify, French, German, Chinese,
Spanish, and possibly Turkish. There were just as many internationals
as there were natives. It was also a really fun place to look at
license plates and many families were taking advantage of the variety
and turning it into a game.
We continued our drive with frequent
stops at the scenic views. We met all kinds of people, one of the
most memorable was a biker named Dave who introduced himself to us in
the Hayden Valley. He had just found someone's journal that had a
three month log of what they had seen in Yellowstone and was
heartbroken that this person would not have their journal. The
last entry had today's date on it so we assumed that they left it on
top of their car and drove off. He held Nate hostage with
conversation for a while and told him all about his life, love life,
and even how cute he thought the Chinese girls were “with their
little umbrellas” while I ate my breakfast of apple cinnamon rice
cakes and chocolate pudding.
The “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone”
was Nate's favorite spot in the park. We took two different trails
down into the canyon. The first one was a 600 ft. change in elevation
about .38 miles long. It was a steep trail but the effort rewarded
with a gorgeous view of the canyon. It actually looked more like a
painting than real life. People were walking in all kinds
of footwear from flip flops to heels huffing and puffing up the
mountainside. When we were on our way back up there was a park ranger
coming down with some kind of medical kit. At the top we saw an
ambulance, an all-terrain stretcher, and more park rangers so we
knew that someone wasn't able to make the hike up. The second trail
was even steeper but an overall shorter trek. It was a 500 ft. change
in elevation but only .18 miles.
It took so long to get from one point
to another and even thought the speed limit could be up to 45 mph you
only went about 20 miles in one hour. Not to mention all the traffic.
All of the parking lots were jam packed. The different scenic pull
offs were extremely busy when there was wildlife on the side of the
road. Nate and I drove into a situation where traffic literally
stopped for a bison walking across the road, we got some good video
of that. But bison traffic was nothing compared to bear traffic!
People were crazy trying to pull over to see a bear more than a
quarter mile away. They even had someone directing traffic because
there was no where to park and people weren't pulling off the road
all the way. Not too much farther down the road we saw a park ranger
with it's lights on and a bear running in front of him on the
pavement and then scamper up onto the hill. People were slowing way
down and then we heard the ranger say on his mega phone, “DO NOT
STOP, KEEP DRIVING.”
We had a dinner cooked especially for
us by Chef Boyardee, served cold out of a can. If anyone is in a
dilemma of whether they should have beef ravioli or mac and cheese
straight from the can... choose mac and cheese every time. We were
hungry enough that the fact that it wasn't heated didn't matter.
Tower Fall's general store's cafe provided our forks that proudly
stated on the back that they were made from plants. I thought that
they had a funky texture but Nate didn't seem to mind. We drove by a
petrified tree before making it to Mammoth Hot Springs. There were
elk outside the hotel so we joined everyone else by snapping some
pictures before heading into the visitors center to get a
cancellation for our passport. It was getting close to evening and we
heard the park ranger tell someone else that all of the campsites
were full. We had planned on heading down to Lewis Lake because that
was a campsite that was first come first serve and we figured that
being a little farther out of the way with fewer facilities it
wouldn't be a problem getting a site. But, out of the 2,165 campsites
that they had not one was open. That tells you how many people were
visiting the park. We talked to the park ranger to see what the best
thing to do was. We didn't mind sleeping in our cars but we could get
a ticket if we did it inside the park so he gave us a few suggestions
for outside the park. The hotel next door to the visitors center had
showers open to the public even if they weren't staying in the hotel
so we grabbed our stuff from the car and payed at the front desk and
had our fist shower since Cleveland. Almost 4 full days. Taking
advantage of the cell service we made a reservation for the following
night before heading out of the park to a boat launch site to spend
the night. Grabbed our pillows, put our seats back, and slept in the
car.
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