Yellowstone!

 

While in Wyoming, I spent five nights camping in yellowstone My day one Yellowstone picks up at day four on the overall road trip log. This is a very long log. It is six days.

So my full entry for today was lost but here is the summary. 

1. Use the bathroom when you see one you don’t know where the next one will be
2. Pack the warmer blanket / sleeping bag
3. Altitude sickness sucks and I was really glad my camp site was right across from the bathroom. 
4. I saw a bald eagle and 2 bison day 1 
5. It snowed 

Day 2 - the tour

Woke up a little bit before 6 o’clock this morning not cold thankfully got myself ready for the day  and drove over to Mammoth hotel for my tour. I decided to get here early that way if I had any altitude issues, I would be near a bathroom made myself some snacks for the tour and was all set to leave at 8. The tour was about 10 hours and consisted of the outer loop of the park. Started to get some of the effects of altitude sickness around 10am so I stuck to water and electrolytes and took some anti nausea meds— of course the next stop was fountain paint pots that reeks of rotten eggs. I should have brought my camera- I usually believe my phone is empty but would have appreciated the zoom on my camera. 

Stomach flare when trying to eat lunch this is the 3rd meal in 2 days I’ve struggled to eat which doesn’t bode well for the trips success. 

Intermittent issues with altitude sickness, but was still able to enjoy the tour. And was able to hold down an entire snack bag of freeze dried apples.

Note to self bring multiple ways to charge something because sometimes your battery pack will lie about how much juice it has left. my phone ended up dying just after the lower falls of the Yellowstone Canyon, which means I don’t have pictures of the beautiful baby bear that we saw. 

It took me about an hour to get back to camp arriving a little bit before eight because of how poorly food has gone for the last few meals I decided to just make a sun butter and jelly sandwich one because there’s no cleanup and two because it sounded the best. Brushed my teeth and made an early night of it.

Stops:

 cauldera and gibbon falls 

Fountain paint pots 

Old faithful 

Crossed the continental divide twice 8391 ft

Yellowstone lake and lake hotel

Upper and lower Falls of Yellowstone Canyon.

Tower Falls

Animals seen:

Swans 4x

Cayote 2x

Black bears- mom and baby

Bison too many to count

sunrise

Mammoth Terraces

Hot Springs

Old Faithful 

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River

Day 3 

No issues with last nights dinner so worst case scenario I can have sunflower butter, and raspberry jelly to at least eat something.  Was able to get toasty super easily last night which I am forever grateful for actually got a little too warm and woke up around 3 AM overheated not a bad problem to have plenty of layers to take off. Was awake for about 30 minutes and then fell back asleep, not waking up again until after 830, which was delightful after yesterday very early morning. 

I made breakfast of 2 servings of oatmeal and coffee. Packed the car back up and headed out for the day.   

Todays plan is the south west quadrant of the park. No need to rush just enjoy everything as it comes stay as long as I want and leave when I’m ready. 

I started by going to Norris Geyser basin and completing the loop there for porcelain basin this trail is not wheelchair or walker or stroller accessible. While the parking lot was full, I did get a spot pretty close outside of it and didn’t have to walk too much further than I would have where I already in the parking lot.

Next, To was midway geyser basin home to the grand prismatic spring, which is the most colorful dancing pot of hot water you’ve ever seen; it sparkles. Once you make it to the trailhead, this trail has an accessible boardwalk, but I had to park about a half a mile away and walk on the side of the road, which is fine for me, but maybe a turn off for other people.  

In Front of the Prismatic Hot Spring

I ended my main stops for the day at old faithful Inn. I saw the geyser irrupt twice once from the viewing platform around the geyser itself and once from the observation deck at old faithful inn, and if you can get a front row or second row seat on the observation deck I think the view is way better, having seen it erupt three times from three different points.

2nd Floor View inside Old Faithful Lodge

Old Faithful room Example

Old Faithful Eruption

Old Faithful Inn Dinning Hall

I’m met some really interesting people and enjoyed lovely conversation from the observation deck at the inn. The chicken wings from the deli are really good. I had a root beer and then went on one of the four daily tours of the old faithful Inn and got a lot of information about the history of the building and the architect who designed it. The tour was a free and a quick 45 minutes. 

Little bit before 5 o’clock I got back in my car and headed east through Lake Village to go home not actually stopping in any places because that quadrant of the park is an activity for another day. 

When I got back to camp I enjoyed a hot shower and made dinner - 2 bratwursts and sweet corn before cleaning up for the evening and heading into the tent. Intermittent rain made it difficult to enjoy being outside but when I was finished eating sat in my car for a bit to do crosswords. A large multigenerational group with 3 tents has moved in next to me- multiple young children- hoping that means they go to bed early because after walking over five miles today I certainly would like to. 

Day 4 

Happy 4th of July!! Today I am doing the northern loop. 

Unfortunately, my prayers for quiet neighbors were not answered screaming children much later than I was hoping for finally got to sleep around 11 woke up around 1 a.m. because I swear I felt the earth move. This could’ve been my dream. It could’ve been in reality but either way I woke up was able to get back to sleep and woke up a little after 7 am cold.

Not long after waking I started to here gun fire followed by sirens while I spent much of the day trying to convince myself it was some idiot with fireworks it was instead a person with a fire arm making threats not ½  of a mile from where I was standing. The suspect is dead and the injured national park ranger is in the hospital but stable.   

I come to national parks to get away from the chaos of the world it’s sobering when the chaos follows. 

Now back to the blog:

Keys, wallet, water, BEAR SPRAY nothing like getting to a hike and realizing you don’t have your hairspray on you I thought I left it in my car last night but apparently I left it in my tent because it is not in my car this morning. That’s OK. I have another day in which I can do this tomorrow, so I will tomorrow when I have my hairspray again until then I’ll stick to the established boardwalks with lots of people. 

I stopped at Tower Falls again today as the last time I was there on the tour I did not have a camera that worked. It’s a quick accessible 500 feet from the parking lot to the viewpoint.

A little over halfway between Tower Falls and the Roosevelt Lodge you’ll see a pull off with some parking spaces that says overlook. It is less than 2/10 of a mile to do the entire loop and offers some fantastic views of Yellowstone River.

The downside in terms of accessibility that particular is the two handicap accessible overlooks aren’t connected to each other so you have to go in direction. Come back to the main parking lot and go about 300 feet in another direction and come back to the parking lot.

A small sign that says petrified tree takes you down a short road to a 250 foot very on maintained walkway to the most shocking site in all of Yellowstone in my opinion and that is a metal fence around a single petrified tree.

Having previously visited the petrified forest it’s mind blowing to me that they had to put a fence around it, but humans are stupid and like to take souvenirs for themselves and where they used to be three trees. There is now only one due to people chipping away at it over the years. It’s jarring to see a metal fence around a tree.

Between the petrified tree and blacktail deer Creek, there were two black bears, hanging out by the side of the road, one chestnut in color, one black. I was definitely far closer to bears that I am typically comfortable, but given the traffic literally was at a standstill. I didn’t have much of a choice so I enjoyed it and took some video and photographs. 

I spent midday at Mammoth Hot Springs, specifically the terraces and walked the lower terraces before Driving Upper Terrace road. The lowest of the terrace walkways is accessible to wheelchairs and scooters. However, the rest of it is not there are a lot of stairs. I did 12 flights of stairs today at Mammoth. The Upper Terrace, Drive along with parking spots are much more accessible.

I didn’t do every pathway, but the ones I took did not have stairs, though some of the slopes were a little iffy. 

I ate lunch at the Terrace Grill. You should never be afraid as an adult to order the kiddie meal. It’s usually all I’m hungry for at lunch and I got a souvenir car that I will probably give one of the kids at the campground tonight. For me, I ate my whole meal and didn’t feel like I was wasting money lunch under $10 for the cheeseburger fries and a soft drink. 

I picked up some postcards and headed south towards Norris to make the loop back to my campground.

I stopped at roaring Mountain, which is a side of the road pull off unless you’re very excited by heat vents it is a bit of a disappointment. 

The museum of the national Park Ranger is tucked behind some trees so I actually drove past it on my way up the hill (flushing toilets up there) but it’s a great am very informative museum that I recommend stopping at.  Especially to learn about the history of female park rangers. The museum is run during the day by retired Park rangers who are a wealth of knowledge. 

Well, it turns out I probably didn’t even make it back to camp last night with my bear spray the last place I actively remember having it was when I got to old faithful, but I don’t remember whether or not it it was on my pack when I left and I’m 90% sure it wasn’t on my pack when I went into the shower building so that leaves me feeling pretty not good about people so I will have to buy another can tomorrow before going on the hike that I really want to go on tomorrow. And I’m going to need it for most of the rest of my trip, but I’m kicking myself for not bringing the second can that I have sitting at home. 

As the evening progressed today, I realized more and more how much I was struggling with what happened this morning. It had really shaken me.

So I drove out to some thing that is always relaxing, which is big open water this case in the form of Yellowstone Lake and called both of my parents because I needed to tell them that I love them and have them tell me that they love me. Because for me, it won’t matter how old I am, that will always make me feel better.

I got back to camp a little after nine got myself ready for bed, tried to tuck in for the night.

 Day 5 

Yellowstone day five I woke up with a headache this morning; likely a result of not getting enough water yesterday. I did not hit my goal. And old Claire would probably just push through it. Go get my new bear spray and go do the hike. I don’t have to be anything to anybody on this trip. I need to be there for myself and learn how to even say no to myself sometimes how to say rest is more important right now.

So I took my meds went back to bed and I woke up at 10:30 and not cold. Today is hands down the best weather we’ve had. 

And I had an at camp morning. I changed into whether appropriate clothing. I made myself a tuna sandwich and iced coffee and I sat and enjoyed my food. I then went and got a new can of bear spray so that I can enjoy the rest of my trip leaving the campground around noon.

I drove from my campsite to the start of the hike for Mount Washburn through the Chittenden Road access point. It took me a little less than two hours to hike 1400 feet of elevation gain in about 2 1/2 miles. I spent some time being really proud of myself at the top, got stopped by mountain goats on the way back down had the wind my face the whole time on the way back.

Old Male Mountain goat

Juvenile Male Mountain Goat

Heard of mountain goats

Mountain Goats playing in the snow

Ranger Station/Fire Look out at Mt. Washburn

I got back to my car about an hour and a half after getting to the top of the mountain and took some time to just enjoy the views and the cell service because the cell service is up here is the best anywhere in the park (probably on account of the Ranger station at the top of the mountain being a giant cell tower).  my right big toe hurts a little bit, and my hips are sore, but good sore. And I am very proud of myself. 

But I didn’t want to put in a ton of work for dinner tonight as I really just staying awake long enough that I don’t wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning so I made another chicken salad sandwich with the last of my bread and had a bag of chips and a Dr Pepper for dinner. 

I felt like watching the sunset and camping in a forest of Lodgepole pine means it’s really hard to see the sunset so I drove back in the direction of Mount Washburn pulled into a lookout and watch the sunset before coming back to camp getting ready for tucking into bed. I am very glad that I always keep two forms of light in my tent, one headlamp and one flashlight because about 10 minutes into doing my wine down sudoku my headlamp went out, so I am glad that I am going to sleep with a flash by my side. 

Day 6- the day I head out

 It’s 530. I’m cold and everything hurts. Got out of bed around 6:30 and started to pack up camp. It took me about 30 minutes to pack everything and then I went and took a wonderful hot shower. Also about 30 minutes before getting on the road to the southern exit and then onto the next park. 

If you got to here you are truly a rockstar thank you - look out for the next blog set to post tomorrow on my Teton experience