July 1st-3rd
Yellowstone National Park
We finally made it to Yellowstone! We were so excited to see such an iconic National Park even if our timing is during the busiest week of the year. After spending so much time in the charred forests of the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness it was refreshing to drive through the pine forests just inside the Northeast entrance. The forests eventually give way to beautiful meadows and rolling hills. Our biggest worry driving in was dealing with the crowds and we shortly learned all about them when we turned down a small side road to get to the petrified tree. We were immediately caught in a traffic jam because the road past the parking lot was closed due to a bear sighting. A lot of people didn’t know which way they wanted to drive, some were blocking traffic. It was chaotic and messy. We parked and made the half mile walk up to the tree itself, but because the petrified tree used to be three petrified trees until park-goers chiseled the other two away for keepsakes, there is a rather large fence around it and you can’t get very close. If you want to see a petrified tree, there is a chunk sitting along a walkway outside of the Albrecht Visitor’s center without much fanfare and you don’t have to walk very far to get to it. This one was a little underwhelming.
We made our way over to the Mammoth Springs to stop in the Albright visitor center. There we registered for our backcountry permits and watched the backcountry safety video which didn’t teach us anything new but was a great reminder of what to keep in mind while out in bear territory.
Afterward, we saw a few elk lounging in the shade of the new Mammoth hotel. We toured the Mammoth springs which are huge terraced pools of Travertine, a soft chalky rock made of dissolved calcium carbonate. The pools lay out in beautiful lacework patterns along the thermal area. It was hot and the stairs were steep so I recommend bringing some water along. It’s also very crowded so patience is important going along any of the boardwalks surrounding the thermal features.
The one thing that really struck both of us while we shuffled through our first area of human congestion was the diversity of people who were there to experience the oddities of the earth with us. People from all over the world and all over the United States. It was amazing to listen to all of the different accents and languages that you could hear as you walked through the crowd. So many humans of all different backgrounds here to see, smell, and take photos of the same things we were here to see, smell, and take photos of.
After the springs we were a little frazzled from driving around and dealing with so many tourists. Our trip had been fairly chill up until Yellowstone and we knew there were going to be crowds and that driving was going to be challenging but we weren’t prepared for the sheer ridiculousness of people’s behavior, mostly while driving. A number of times drivers would pull off to the right shoulder only to promptly pull a U-turn in front of us causing us to slam on our brakes to avoid T-boning them. We determined that surviving the day meant we needed burgers. On our way out of the North exit to Yellowstone sits the small town of Gardiner, Montana where we went to the Yellowstone Pizza Company for burgers and they were delicious! We hadn’t had burgers since Billings and Camrin craves them from time to time, especially when she’s had a long day and is a little hangry.
After dinner, we drove out to an area outside of Gardiner known as Paradise Valley to our campsite at the Carbella Recreation area. The area was busy but we found a campsite next to a couple who had a cat living in their camper with them. North of us we watched a thunderstorm roll through. Of course, Laura went out and got a photo of it.
The next day we drove back into Yellowstone to continue exploring but we hit traffic.
Yellowstone is huge!! It took us hours to get to the Old Faithful parking lot where our trailhead was. Once there we found a place to park near our trailhead so that we could go out for our night of back country camping. We were excited to get away from the crowds for a day of peace and quiet.
We started out on the trail just fine and got most of the way up towards the campsite without any issues until we hit the woods at about two miles. Then we were assaulted by mosquitoes! This continued all the way to our campsite so we quickly changed into pants and raincoats to keep them from attacking. We couldn’t eat with out being swarmed. If our hands were out of their packets our hands were covered. It was the worst mosquitos we had ever seen. We almost wished we were back in the crowds of people. So, sorry we don’t have many pictures. We were miserable.
Funny Story! The next morning the mosquitos were back. We thought we could jump out of our tent, pack our stuff, and run out of there. No breakfast. No Coffee. So, on the count of three, we unzip the tent and proceed to throw stuff out of the tent. Only we forgot we were on a bit of a hill and our rolled up sleeping bags started to roll down the hill and bounced into the lake. Laura came running after them, shouted a profanity, and jumped in with all of her clothes and boots on. She tossed the sleeping bags out before they could go out too far or sink. She saved the day! She could have changed her clothes and put on sandals, but the mosquitos were so awful we finished packing and Laura walked all the way back to the Jeep with soaking wet boots on.
It must be said, Yellowstone is an amazing park. It is full of beautiful wildlife, pristine rivers, and geothermal features found nowhere else on earth. However, going to Yellowstone in the middle of summer is a total buzz kill. We narrowly managed to escape a few car crashes yesterday. Today after hiking all morning and being chased out the woods by mosquitos, we just wanted to enjoy some of the geysers and rare hot springs. The crowds made sure we saw as little as possible. We know, we know, it’s our fault for going at this time, but the traffic jams were unreal. After seeing Old Faithful it took almost three hours to exit the parking lot and drive 16 miles to the Prismatic Hot Spring. 16 MILES!! Someday we will go back, but it will be in early spring or late fall.
Here are some photos from the rest of our day in Yellowstone!
Shakey Video, but it’s still neat to see.
This geothermal feature was amazing. Too bad the crowds made it hard to enjoy. Never the less. Beautiful. Wish we could see it from above.
Thanks for reading our blog!! Up next… GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK!!!!
