Day 54 - Gardiner - Yellowstone National Park

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Having survived the wind through the night and getting some sleep, we loaded up and headed towards the North Entrance and into Yellowstone National Park.
Almost straight away we on a road that runs alongside a stream, but not any old stream. At one point the stream flows into and passed a natural hot spring, turning the water from refreshing coolness to extreme hotness.
After being dropped off at the top of a hill covered in sulphur pits to make our way (carefully) down to the bottom, we headed on to the natural spring, and took a dip. I was the first to walk the long path to it, and waited for the others to turn up before taking the first steps into it. It was pretty cool how the water changed between hot and cold with every step. At one point the water was so cold that you longed for warmth but after a while in the hot water, you wanted to change back. Quite simply, you can’t stay still, you have to keep moving.
Todd and some of the others ventured further along the stream to join other tourists at a naturally made Jacuzzi, where all the hot water gathers. Sadly, I struggled to make my way through the water and along the very loose rocks to join in.

After drying off, and slowly waiting for each person to get changed in the only toilet at the car park, we drove further into Yellowstone and started to see why the Park was just so amazing. Pretty soon we were brought to a halt when the road ahead was completely blocked by vehicles abandoned on the sides of the road and a huge crowd gathered further afield. We were all sitting there thinking that it’s one of the many road works going on in the National Parks this summer.
Then someone got out of the van to try and find out what was going on, only to return to excitedly tell us that a bear had been spotted just up ahead.
In all the sudden excitement, everyone abandoned their stuff and piled out of the van and headed up the road to the crowd.
After a few minutes of squinting and walking back and forth, the bear was finally spotted, and we tried to get good positions to watch and take photos. Sadly my camera decided to focus on the many dry trees around the big black object I was actually trying to take a picture of!
Very quickly the road got more blocked and the crowd swelled up so much with more and more visitors pushing and shoving to get a glimpse of the bear. I couldn’t actually tell if it was a grizzly or not, but didn’t really care as I had just seen my second bear ever! Another tick for that list I was on about!

After finally tearing ourselves from the crowd and the bear, we carried on the winding roads of Yellowstone, and I found myself reminiscing about moments on the Trip so far. It was a real woah moment.
I guess looking out over this vast paradise gets the mind really thinking.

Once we had lunch in the car park at the start of one of the many trails and hikes of this place, we all set off on the hike up to a nearby point which overlooks part of the beauty of the place and the Park’s version of the Grand Canyon. All apart from Zach that is. In the past few days his feet had really swollen up.
After starting off as one of the first people, I was soon passed by most of the others, apart from Kylie and Scott and ended up walking the first part of the climb and bend along with Sarah, as we had a little catch up and took our time on the walk.
As we turned the bend, we discovered that the track kept going up, and when we looked to our right, we could see the peak we were all heading for, discovering how much higher we had to climb. After resting up on a log to the side of the wide path, and after Kylie and Scott caught up to us, the 4 of us decided we're weren't feeling it on the walk, and turned back to the start and the van.
When we got back there, Todd and Zach were asleep in the van, so decided not to wake them, and took our places stretched out on one of the long trunk of a felled tree purposefully placed by the picnic area, got our music out and had a little sleep in the open.

When the rest of the group finally returned, we all loaded ourselves up again and headed on to the campsite.
Our site was right by a small village in the Park, deep in some woodland. As we turned left into the reception area, a right turn takes you to the General Store of the village for all your needs whilst camping here.
When we reached the reception area of the site, we were greeted by many of visitors already parked up and checking in at the nearby kiosk. Todd soon joined the queue and we were left sitting and waiting in between the RVs and trailers parked us.
When Todd returned, he was quoted as saying “Jeez, the last thing you need is a big bloke saying that 2 people were killed by a bear in Yellowstone last night as you wait to queue up to check in!” He went on to elaborate that 2 fishermen were attacked and killed by a grizzly somewhere in Yellowstone the previous night. Not the type of thing you want to hear when you are about to set up camp in flimsy tents.
Once checked in, we followed the trail one way around the sites, passing many other groups, mainly Boy Scouts. Turned out this was the site for Groups like them and us, and we soon pulled up at 2 empty sites next to each other, and opposite a small wash block. Next to the wash block was a large adventure group who had brought along bikes. They could be Network Scouts, or the American equivalent. Their site was in a big group of trees, and though they couldn’t be seen, they could be heard!
Our site on the other hand was more open, with the trees right back behind us. The first site was big enough for us all, and our tents were soon put up. After the adventure of 2 nights ago, Mr Blue Sky was erected, and a shelter was constructed over the 2 picnic tables so Group A’s dinner could be cooked without being interrupted or ruined by the drizzle that couldn’t make its mind up whether to rain or not!
Dinner was eventually cooked, and eaten, and I recovered to the shelter of my tent as the rain got worse. In the end I decided to get an early night, as the rain had beaten me.

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