Apparently, although the state of Delaware could fit inside of Yellowstone National Park, and many times over inside of the state of Wyoming, and although the entire population of Delaware surpasses that of ALL of Wyoming--y'all don't get out West much, eh? Throughout South Dakota and Wyoming, everytime we showed our ID's for credit card purchases, we were presented with wide eyes and a shocked: "Wow. I don't think I've ever met/waited on/talked to anyone from Delaware before." Our first few minutes in Yellowstone, we ended up as part of someone's roadtrip game. We heard a girl yell, "Oh my god!" at sight of our license plate while her brother explained to us that they had a $10 bet going that they wouldn't see a Delaware license plate. C'mon Delaware! Three million people visit Yellowstone each SUMMER and you're not part of that?!?
____________________________________________________________________
Yellowstone sits atop an underground volcano. The entire park is the result of a constantly moving, spewing, and shifting Earth structure beneath the surface. Geologically speaking, it's pretty amazing. The amount, and type of tourists, not so amazing. But we'll save that for later.
The camping portion of Yellowstone got off to a rough start. With temperatures dipping to near freezing, we were counting on our air mattress to serve as a nice buffer between us and the cold ground. However, we sprung a leak and spent the greater part of the first night shivering, wide awake, on the near frozen tundra of Bridge Bay Campground.
Our visit to the Old Faithful area the next morning set the tone for Yellowstone; beautiful scenery, not so beautiful people. To give you an idea of the typical Yellowstone visitor, I will share this quote from the visitor center at Old Faithful and let you draw your own conclusion. "The next predicted eruption will be within 10 minutes before, or 10 minutes after 11:44 a.m. Remember, we only predict, we don't schedule."
Pics from the geyser field surrounding Old Faithful
Old Faithful from a non-tourist-obscured vantagepointNeither of us really understood in advance just how large Yellowstone is. In the span of four days, we put nearly 600 miles on the Jeep seeing the Tetons and Jackson Hole, searching for the elusive Druid Peak pack of wolves, and driving to the corral to go on a horseback trip through a portion of the Lamar Valley. If you're planning a trip to Yellowstone we highly recommend deciding what your priorities are( geology, water activities, animal viewing) and plan your lodging accordingly. It really is too big to try and do it all from one location.
We left Yellowstone a day early, partially because of sleeping-in-a-tent issues, partially because of the tourists, and partially because we woke up at 2 a.m. to people screaming in the campground. We learned later that a bear had been in the campground and the screams were screams of terror.
We're blogging from a Comfort Inn in Bozeman, MT where the only thing growling is the ice machine.
A cute coyote trotting across the plains; a double rainbow after a rainstorm
2 comments:
3rd geyser pic down is uber cool. I like the peculating feel. Makes me want more coffee!
WOW Wish I was with you. Pop-Pop Lieb always said we live in the land of no. No Parking, No Fishing, No Dog Walking ect and out there was and still is the land of nothing for as far as you can see except beatiful scenery.
Speaking of yelling and screaming and dog walking, Buster and I got into a yelling match with a nieghbor up the road out in the middle of the big field but all is well we now have new friends name Howard and Peggy.
Post a Comment