Day 7 - Yellowstone Nat'l Park

Day 7

May 28^th, 2012

Yellowstone National Park

Spectacular.  Breathtaking. 

You should stop what you are doing and go to Yellowstone now.

 This looks like one of those iPhoto background. 

But we swear on our moms its real.

Lower falls in the background.

Day started bright and early. The 100 year old room in the cozy Hostel Cabin -  it kept in heat better than expected for a wooden cabin, but it certainly did not contain the noise from our neighbors (please reference the Modest Mouse song Paper Thin Walls). For some reason, the people next door where on their computers instant messaging. You know that annoying deee dooo tone? Yeah we heard that til 1 am. Then they got up at 5:30 to bang around and use outside voices! I guess they never passed Kindergarten.  Whoops.

Anyways, we had seen a good place for breakfast the night before and that coaxed us out of bed.  Lumbering downstairs and next door, Ali proved she was more awake than anyone.  Four German guys were looking at the front door to the breakfast placed perplexed…..there are people inside, but the door won’t open….Ali to the rescue.  Walks right up and pulls the door instead of pushes it.  Bet they felt dumb.  Either way, breakfast turned out to be delicious diner style omelets and not continental.  Very nice change.  Kyle ate the Denver omelet cause it’s the closest either of us has been to Denver. Tastes better the closer you get to Denver. Noted.

Using the wifi from the hotel, Kyle was able to facetime his parents.  Cool to do when he was in 35 degree weather in ‘downtown’ West Yellowstone and mom and dad are by the beach in Ventura.  He was jealous for a minute or two before realizing the tour of Yellowstone was about to begin. You can’t see bison at the beach can ya?

Kick-starting the day with a full tank of diesel (didn’t want any scares or flashbacks to yesterday) we were able to get into the park around 10am.  Even with the holiday, the park wasn’t crowded at all.  Ali was doing the driving, Kyle was on photo patrol. We treated the park as a safari adventure. Kyle was poppin in and out of the sun roof snapping pics.

As we said earlier we expected Yellowstone to be like Yosemite.  Lots to look at, good weather, it’s all about the natural features of the land and hikes. Yellowstone was BAM! Surprisingly different. First off, everyone drives through the 2.2 million acre park and pulls over at the “lookouts.” Some of these lookouts were really worth the look.

Okay, okay – I know all of you that have never been to Yellowstone are dying to hear about OLD FAITHFUL. Omg. Well we hit that up first after a few bison dodging sessions on the way to the Old Faithful part of the park.

First step: figure out Old Faithful’s schedule.  The only scheduled event, and arguably the most important, cannot be missed.  So Kyle stopped in at the Junior Ranger station to ask for information.  He got a quick geology lesson while waiting in line and found out Old Faithful had just erupted.  Good.  Then we had a solid 90 minutes to get there (about 30 miles away). This allowed us ample time to see some of the sights on the way.

Some smurf with a scarf decided to intrude on this nature pic.  

it got really cold out there.

Firehole Falls

 Kyle almost fell in but luckily he grabbed onto that handy branch.

 Ali asked where the bison were. Kyle thought she asked where are the biceps?

After smelling sulfur and enjoying the weird sights of bubbling mud, we headed for Old Faithful.  We got Helga the perfect parking spot.  Shoutout to Poppa Farr – 0% percent chance of door ding.

 

Yeah… we’ll wash the back of the car soon. Don’t you worry Dad :)

We got there early to ensure we didn’t miss anything.  We walked all around the geyser to see a couple different pools/steam vents.  One was this gorgeous crystal clear ‘stingray’ pool.

Note the shape.  We named it.

Getting back to prime seating for Old Faithful’s eruption, we stopped by to hear a park ranger give a talk about the foundation of Yellowstone and the fierce fight (on the park ground and in Congress) to protect not only the park’s vulnerable bison population but all animals on the property.

Here are a few shots from Old Faithful.

 

 

 

Ooop we only took like three cause its really not the best thing since sliced bread. The rest of Yellowstone is.

Ok. We take it back. Old Faithful was cool it just gets too built up.

We took a great video of it erupting! If you haven’t been to Yellowstone don’t watch it so it can be a surprise someday. For those seasoned Yellowstoners – have at it.

http://youtu.be/6eJp3vxJe5I

Tip of the day – if you go to Yellowstone you MUST go to the Upper and Lower falls. Hands down.

Upper Falls Rainbow.  Pretty pretty goooooood!

Ali thinking about just how high up we were.

Looking downstream and downcanyon at the Yellowstone River

Lower Falls absolutely breathtaking at 308ft

We stopped on the side of the road for lunch.  

Here's the view from this sweet lil turnout on the north side of Lake Yellowstone.

An idea of the wildlife we got to see... Imagine all of this being said to you in Morgan Freeman's tone of voice or a lovely British accent. 

1. Bison calves contemplating crossing the river. 

 2. Op! They're in. 

 3. Will they make it? The current is getting strong. 

 4. Rejoice! They made it across. 

5. Isn't this almost as cool as Planet Earth?

 Yet again imagine the appropriately accented narrator. 

 1. There is a large male bison blocking our desired path - let's call him Bruno. 

 2. A curious Ali approaches Bruno to investigate 
the likelihood of him clearing the path. 

 3. Bruno lets out a big GRUNT and 
Ali realizes their differences in size and bolts for safety. 

4. Bruno then basked in his dominance.

After an exhausting day of surreal sights and getting in and out of the car we headed back to our little wooden cabin room. (see MPG stats below)

We couldn’t decide what we wanted to do for dinner so Ali volunteered to go on an evening run and run by all the local establishments and do a little restaurant creeping. After running around all of West Yellowstone in search of something a little healthier than a “Buffalo Burger” Ali ended up at the grocery store and came back with an entire bag of spinach, cottage cheese, and carrots. Kyle got take out Mexican food and let Ali enjoy her rabbit food. Divide and conquer.

We're gonna miss out little log cabin hang out because there was so much wildlife there too... just not as wild anymore.
(The Hotel is called Madison Youth Hostel if anyone wants to Google it!)
http://madisonhotelmotel.com/

PS. Kyle saw the first California license plate!  Free Subway for the rest o the trip!!!!! WOOOT.

Drive Data: All around Yellowstone

Time spent in park = 7 hr. 30 mins

Miles = 106

MPG = 49.1 Wooooo! We're back folks.

TOTAL MILEAGE: 2704