Days 15 & 16- Yellowstone

---

Today, we start our Yellowstone adventure. We allowed ourselves to sleep in a little because we were not able to get to bed until late. We got ourselves around and headed into the park. It was about 10AM and the line to get into the park from the west entrance was ridiculous.

Once we entered, we saw that there were a 2-3 campsites that were still open. We had reservations at an Idaho state park for the night, but if we could stay in the park and unhitch, that would be ideal. So we made a beeline to the northwest corner of the park to try for a site at either Indian Creek or Mammoth campgrounds. The route that took us up there was under construction, which made the road rough and slowed us down. When we finally reached Indian Creek, the sign said the campsite was full. Luckily, we decided to go in anyways and we got the LAST SPOT. I cannot tell you how excited we were! Unfortunately it was the handicap spot so we would have to move to another spot in the morning, but we were good to leave the trailer for 2 days!

We got settled and grilled some lunch, then got back out to do a hike. My original plan was to do the lower loop of Yellowstone the first day and the upper loop the second day, but with our camp location we decided to start with the upper loop.

I found a hike by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone that started out in a meadow, then wrapped around Clear Lake and through some hot springs, then ended up at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Once we got to the canyon, we hiked along the canyon to Pristine Point and then headed back to Artist's Point where the waterfall was located. It was beautiful, but more crowded here. We tried to continue on the south rim trail but it was closed so we had to follow the road until we met the trailhead to get us back to our car. As we went back through the meadow, we ran into a large bison lounging! It was the first one we saw here! (But definitely not the last- they were EVERYWHERE!) the entire loop took us about 7 miles, maybe a bit more.

After the hike we headed back out to finish the upper loop. The drive was amazing, winding up and down mountains and across fields. We saw a lot more bison, elf, and antelope. It also thunder-stormed while we were driving and the temperature dropped from the 80s to the 50s. We swung around and stopped at Mammoth Springs which was really cool, then headed back to our site for the night.

There are constant warnings about bears, both black and grizzlies. Per our camp hosts, there were two mother black bears and their cubs and large male grizzly who were seen walking through the camp within the last week. They recommend that if you hike you have bear spray in case of an encounter. The can of bear spray costs over $50! You can rent it for $10. We pushed our luck and didn't do either. But we never saw any bears!

On day 2 of Yellowstone we decided to see Old Faithful and drive around the lower loop. We made a few stops on the way to Old Faithful, seeing more of the hot springs and geysers. They are all different colors depending on the temperature of the pool and what organisms can live in them. The hottest are bright blue from the cyanobacteria living there.
Finally, we headed up to see Old Faithful! It was SO CROWDED here. Luckily, we got a place up close to the edge of the viewing area to see Old Faithful and only had to wait about 20 minutes for it to blow. It was a pretty neat experience.

After Old Faithful, we headed out to hike a trail that went around a bunch of hot springs and smaller geysers, then went up the side of the hill to see Old Faithful from there. We reached the viewpoint just in time to see it again. We headed back down to our car, and continued across the street to hike to Mystic Falls. It was a nice little hike to a pretty falls.

After the hike, we completed the lower loop. We saw Yellowstone Lake and numerous more elk and bison along the road. There is a lot of driving in Yellowstone. The lower loop and upper loop is and there is no way to cut through the middle. The speed limit is anywhere between 25 to 45 mph and you have frequent stops for the traffic and animals so it takes a while to get anywhere. We were very thankful that we had a campsite where we could unhitch the trailer and navigate the roads in the park without it-so much easier!

We then got back to camp, ate, relaxed by the fire and headed to bed.

Miles traveled: 338 miles? (not sure I counted his correctly)-upper loop is 70 miles, lower loop is 96 miles.

States visited: MT, WY

XO, B&E

---