Yellowstone bound

Day 15

We were not eaten by bears.

Yet.

We drove into Grand Teton on 89. This is really beautiful. I'm still wishing for that panoramic camera lens. We can't stop for a ranger badge here, but we did pick up some souvenirs for Sean. Unfortunately, were rushing through here to get to Yellowstone before the camping fills up. We'll want to come back and do this are justice. There's supposed to be great wildlife viewing opportunities just off the main roads, but it'll have to wait until next time.


We continued north out of the park on 89 (you don't have to pay if you stay on 89, but we had the pass and took a more scenic route.) There was some slow traffic from road work, but after a bit we reached the Yellowstone gate (here you pay.) We traveled into the park to the first campground and discovered a few surprises.

The first was that this campground was still closed for the winter. We knew that some campgrounds were closed, but the website had not indicated that this was one of them. That's bad news for us.

The second was snow on the ground. We don't have real winter clothes with us, but it's still wintry here. Also bad news for us.

The third is that Yellowstone doesn't have plumbing in most of its restrooms. They're just latrines at the camp sites (and we didn't have a shower in the Tetons campsite.)

We drove north to the first camping area that we could reach. They told us there was still camping to the north. So we drove some more.

We reached Old faithful just in time to see the steam dissipate from the eruption. So we grabbed a snack and prepared to wait 92 minutes for the next eruption. Sean enjoyed the spectacle, but the adults are starting to feel like they are at Six Flags.


Back in the car we drove north to the next possible site. I'm told here that there is now only one site left with camping, and it's near the North gate. So now we bypass more sights as we travel slowly along mountain roads just to insure we have a place to sleep. There's a good bit of Spring construction in progress and any animal sighting brings the road to a halt. We're here for a day and we're missing everything. Stress is building.

The road parallels the Gibbon River as the drop down a long series of hills. The river runs along right next to us. But it's flowing the other way. I stop and confirm this. I swear the river flows up hill. Like the house of magneto at Six Flags. Stupid river.

We reach the campsite in time to get a spot. We set up camp and head out to Mammoth (the northern village within Yellowstone.) There are places to eat and a Ranger lecture here (Sean needs one as a badge requirement.) We sight a crowd watching a grizzly bear on the way. It's a little too close to camp for my taste.


As we look over the ranger schedule, we have a revelation; we've had the date correct but not the day. We've been thinking it was Wednesday all day and couldn't understand how we were short a day. We actually have two days in Yellowstone (as planned) but somehow are brains are so muddled we had lost site of our schedule. The mood lightens instantly.

We enjoy a nice tour of the old cavalry HQ at the park (thanks Ranger Matt!) and then had a sit down dinner. Mammoth is full of female elk. We also spotted a horned owl o the tour. When we return to camp, we are told that a grizzly has been sighted on the campground. At least we're in the middle of the camp tonight.

I sense a theme developing...