Yellowstone: The Worlds Most Exhausting National Park

Our first day in Yellowstone got off to a slow start. We slept in, had a nice breakfast of oatmeal, and spent a good part of the morning hanging out at our picnic table reading and otherwise doing nothing. After awhile we realized that we should probably head into the park. Which we did right after checking our e-mail and lying around for a little while more. 

The very perky desk worker eagerly directed us to the park and outlined exactly what we needed to see, adding "of course there's Old Faithful...which...you have to see...I guess". Armed with a list of necessary stopping points we high tailed it to the park. 

We entered and immediately saw a large group of cars pulled over. The general rule of thumb with Yellowstone is if you see a group of cars pulled over, you pull over. Don't ask questions, just pull over. There is probably something cool there. We pulled over and saw a bunch of people with supersized cameras pointing and gasping with excitement. We ran over and scanned the land for the grizzly bear or moose that they must have seen. After inching over to a group we managed to hear that we were actually looking at a bald eagle. Still cool, but not a grizzly bear. 

We hopped back in the car and drove some more, stopping every few hundred yards or so to take pictures. While Yellowstone was beautiful, we were realizing that this was going to be our entire time in the park. Drive, drive, drive, pull over suddenly when we see something awesome thus putting our lives in jeopardy, drive, drive, drive, take picture, drive, stop. Turn around. Drive, drive, drive back home down the same road we came in on. I have a feeling this wouldn't be a problem if we hadn't spent our entire trip driving. 

We made it to Old Faithful and pulled in roughly 10 minutes before it was due to go off. Excellent timing. We walked up and waited...and waited...and waited. The family in front of us was a comedy dream team and kept us laughing the entire time with jokes about it's delay. Just when I was about to blame global warming and give up on Old Faithful it went off. It was cool. You don't see that everyday. 

Even cooler was when we went into the Old Faithful Inn to use their restrooms. Hands down one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. It looks fairly normal from the outside, rustic, comfortable, but walk inside and it's a five story maze of balconies made out of logs. I could have stood in that lobby for hours just gazing up at the different stories. 

But we had to continue! Onward we drove, through lakes and geysers and into thick forests of trees. And in these trees we stayed. We drove on and on through the non changing forest before deciding that we had gone as far as we could go for the day and turning back. We still had a two hour drive ahead of us to get out, so we really couldn't go much further without being stuck in the park after dark. 

We were almost out of the park when we hit a traffic jam. A heard of bison was trying to cross the road and everyone had stopped their cars to take pictures. We started moving again when two more tried to cross in front of our car. We stopped and watched until we heard a woman behind us frantically shouting "Sir! You might want to get back in your car. Sir!" We looked back to see another bison walking alongside our car. It stopped at the drivers side window and looked in. It thankfully decided to not gore our car and turned in front of us to cross over to the other side. Unnerving....but awesome. 

We made it out of the park and returned home to rest up in order to try again the next day. 

The next day we woke up earlier, determined to get on the road. We got off to a rough start when we discovered we were out of kerosene and thus unable to make our oatmeal. Not ok. So we settled for dry Cheerios for breakfast. We got on the road and went back into the park. Determined to drive further than we had before we agreed that we would only stop for animals. A minute into the park we discovered a huge group of people pulled over. We pulled over and found...another bald eagle. Don't get me wrong, bald eagles are awesome, I love America, but I want a grizzly bear. 

Let's go further! We drove and drove and drove and made it to the upper and lower falls. We began to walk along the lower falls path before realizing that in order to walk down to the lower falls we would then have to walk back up...and we weren't willing to make that commitment. So we walked along the upper falls path to go and see the upper falls. Unfortunately halfway there the trail just...ended. So we had to walk back. No worries, it was still a very pretty walk. 

We got back on the road and made it to the KOA Desk Attendant recommended Canyon Village...which turned out to be a gift shop. This is ok, however, because we love gift shops. We bought a couple gifts and more importantly some ice cream. I really love ice cream and it always tastes twice as good on vacation. 

It was still early so we kept on trucking. Onward we went until we reached Mammoth/Hot Springs at the northern edge of the park. By this point I was experiencing a certain stabbing pain in my body that a majority of my blog readers can probably identify with. The urge to pass out and vomit was taking me over and all I could think about was getting back to the cabin....which was at least 3 hours away. Luckily Mammoth also had a gift shop and this gift shop sold drugs. I confirmed with Ch'nel that she was able to drive for the rest of the day and bought myself some super strong Advil...the kind that knocks you out (why they were selling this is Yellowstone I have no idea, but I am infinitely thankful)

The next hour can be best described as blissful. Ch'nel's iPod music played softly in the background and the gorgeous scenery of Yellowstone passed me by. A warm breeze wafted through the car and I didn't have a care in the world. While I don't encourage recreational drug use, I assure you that being in pain is not necessarily a trip killer when in Yellowstone. 

We stopped at the petrified tree and I managed to pull myself out of my stupor to go walk up to it to take a better look. Petrified wood is caused by volcanic flows where the silica blocks the pores of the tree and prevents it from rotting and giving it the appearance of stone (OMP, am I right here?). It was cool. 

This woke me up and I was rather coherent for the next part of the trip which took us to various other gorgeous locations of the park. By the time we reached Tower Falls I was wide awake. I was feeling good and nothing was going to get me down. After snapping some pictures of the falls we got back in the car and continued driving. Next thing I know we were at a supermarket back in West Yellowstone. Apparently the advil was time released and sent me into a royal coma after about an hour and a half. Good to know for the future. 

Today we again slept in before packing up the car and heading out for our next destination. Our next main destination is Bend, OR, but that was much too far of a drive for us to do in one day. As a result we are currently in Boise, ID. On our way to Boise we stopped at Shoshone Falls, as we heard it was the "Niagara of the West". The road there was a bit sketchy and when we arrived at the entrance shack we told the attendant that thanks, but we're going to just go back to the interstate instead. The attendant was having none of that and told us that he was going to wave the fee and that we would be his "guests". Under no circumstances were we to turn around, we had to see the falls. Well who can argue with that? 

The falls were at their driest and thus not as impressive as they usually are, but they were still pretty cool. The canyon that they drained into was also impressive and Ch'nel said it best when she felt like she wasn't in America anymore but rather Europe. It was really something different. 

We went back up to the shack and told the man thank you. We asked him to sign our road trip t-shirts and got into a discussion with him and his friend on a bicycle about our trip. They were full of ideas and tips for everywhere else we're going and we left feeling like maybe we should have just pitched a tent at Shoshone Falls and stayed there for awhile. It was fantastic. 

But instead we soldiered on and made it to Boise. To our surprise Boise is...not ugly. It's without a doubt the most civilization we've seen since Minneapolis. They even have a PF Changs! Our hotel is great! They have free cookies, coffee and fruit but every water bottle is $1.50 as the desk clerk made a point to mention. 

My friend had given me an Applebees gift card before I left and we decided to use it to have our first full dinner of the trip. Rather than the hot dogs or soup that we had become used to while camping we enjoyed meat, potatoes and vegetables. It was fantastic. Everyone at Applebees was just a little off. The hostess was wandering out the door when she saw us and sat us at the bar...when all of the dining tables were open. Our waitress spoke so softly and seemed terrified by our drink orders of a diet coke and ginger ale. Even the manager who came over to give us our check seemed uneasy about whether or not he was doing the right thing. It was like this Applebees was a training Applebees for new workers where everyone was super formal but hesitant. It was very funny. 

Now we're relaxing back at the hotel, watching tv and enjoying real beds. Tomorrow it's on to Bend, OR for a few days. I guess that technically counts as reaching the West Coast as it's a West Coast state but we hopefully will officially hit the West Coast when we go to Crescent City, CA on Sunday. What a fun and exciting time. 

Tower Falls
Shoshone Falls, ID
Shoshone Falls, ID
From April-June this looks like Niagara Falls