Day 21: Jellystone!

Our trip thus far has been a whirlwind, zipping from state to state and coast to coast in our trusty Silver Swede, giving us a diverse and condensed view of the country that I doubt any of us would have been able to have with any other mode of transportation. If we'd had to travel 100 years ago, I don't know if we could've made it, we four Amigos. 8,000 miles on horsey would've really tired us out, you know. I just don't know if The Captain and the Fourth Amigo could've carried us all this way.


They would've had no respite on a day like today, as we zoomed all over Yellowstone National Park. As much as love driving for 12 house stretches, we decided that today we would take in the sights.  We left Bozeman early to give ourselves a full day in the park.  Unsure if we would have a place to camp at night, we stopped by an info center near the Northwest entrance.  Luck was on our side as we found out that the Bridge Bay campground had not been filling up.  The info center was also able to tell us about all the wildlife sightings that had occurred in the last 24 hrs.  To our delight, a mama grizzly and two cubs had been spotted!  We covered ourselves in honey and went on our merry way.

The first stop was Lamar valley where a lot of wildlife had been spotted.  It did not disappoint as we saw a ton of bison, beautiful rolling rivers, and a Black Bear with two cubs!  After driving about halfway through the valley, we turned around to drive south towards our campsite and most of Yellowstone’s attractions.  But before we could experience any more of the natural wonder we had to pick up junior ranger booklets, of course!  Ranger Sprinkle was very excited that we wanted to become junior rangers and also gave us helpful tips on what to do if we encountered a grizzly.

Since we were so impressed with the Grand Canyon, we thought we’d hit up the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to hike any of the trails around the canyon, but we did see some spectacular vies of the lower and upper falls.

Next stop was the Norris basin.  The Norris basin is home to Steamboat Geyser, which is the world’s tallest currently-active geyser.  We saw numerous hot springs and smelled lots of sulfur.  It was cool and all, but we were really itching to see Old Faithful.

It was about 5:25 when rolled up to old faithful.  10 minutes later, dar she blows!  Man do we have good timing!  We snapped our pics and browsed through the gift shop.  We were surprised such a large crowd of tourists there and feeling a bit overwhelmed decided we should get to our campsite. 

En route, we spotted an elk grazing not 5 feet from the side of the road.  What a beautiful animal!  Our campsite was right near the lake, so we had some nice, brisk winds blowing.  All of the computers were down, so it took them awhile to find our reservation and assign us a plot of land.  Yes, it’s good to have land!  We were pleasantly surprised to find a bison chillin’ about 50 meters from our campsite.  The Ocho and LT2 battled the strong winds to set up the tents while the boys went off to gather firewood.  Having found a large bounty, they returned as men.  It was not difficult to notice that LT2’s tent (brown and mustard yellow in color) was significantly more janky than all the other tents at the campsite.  This is a point of pride, not shame!

Since the night was so chilly, we spent most of our time hanging by the fire.  Whiskers went to a ranger program on grizzly bears while LT2, Ocho, and The Captain filled out their Junior Ranger booklets.  When Whiskers returned, we commenced drinkin’ and chattin’ until it was time to call it a night.  It was a good, long day in Yellowstone and we were anxious to get up in the morning for round 2. The Captain and the Fourth Amigo are damn lucky that we live in 2012. The Silver Swede is a much better horsey than they are, and I hope they know that. They'll never get jobs as pack horseys. Typical boys.


Adios,
Ze Four Amigozzzz