Yellowstone: not bad, Mother Earth, not bad

Wanting to take advantage of the 7 day pass that we already had, we decided to go to Yellowstone and see what it had to offer us this past Friday. On the way out, we got the view we all missed on our ride in to Jackson a week ago (2 weeks for our roommates) as it was too dark to see The Grand and its sidekicks. Being so close to mountains like this is still taking some getting used to.

Once in Yellowstone, it would still be a little while before we got to the impressive sights. It was hard to resist stopping for every little thing that grabbed our attention, but we did our best. This is the Yellowstone River. Being late summer, it was rather tame, but I can only imagine its fury early spring when the up to 50 feet of snow starts to melt and work its way out.

For my amusement, thankfully Ryan got to get his feet wet when he accidentally threw the frisbee into the frigid river. It couldn't have been much over 40 degrees. He got there just in the nick of time.

On our road trip out here through The Badlands, Ryan and I were lucky enough to see several herds of bison and literally cross paths with many of them as well. In Yellowstone, our luck continued.

Our first official pit stop came at The Dragon's Mouth Spring.

Seeing mud pots, geysers, and thermal/hot springs on BBC's 3 part series - Yellowstone is one thing, but seeing all this in person made me feel like a kid on Christmas morning running from one thing to the next. Unlike Christmas morning, the putrid smell of sulfur was blasting away at our senses, making it difficult to get too close to some of the springs.

Regardless, we got as close as we could trying to avoid this kid's mistake (booty shorts and tube socks in a National Park).

It amazed me how comfortable the bison were with their proximity to the thermal springs. But being that this is their way of survival in the frigid winters where it routinely hovers around zero degrees during the day and plummets down to a record low of -66 F (2/9/1933) at night, I would guess they are used to it.

Continuing on our journey through Yellowstone, we finally arrived at Uncle Tom's trail head just before Canyon Country. Our search for his cabin ended in disappointment, but we were able to see the Lower Falls, which at 308 feet, are almost twice as high as Niagara Falls.

On our way to THE geyser, Old Faithful, we hit a traffic jam. Even with a cop flagrantly waving me on and yelling at me to "Keep driving!" past the bison in the middle of the road, I opted to yield to the two beasts in our 2,910 pound Camry. According to the Sooth Sayer of all Truths, Wikipedia states that "Bison can reach up to 6 feet 6 inches (2 m) tall, 10 feet (3 m) long, and weigh 900 to 2,200 pounds (410 to 1,000 kg)"... with the largest recorded at 2,500 pounds! They are the largest land animal in North America.

Old Faithful was impressive although I think it should look into some Viagra, as it only lasted about a minute. Nonetheless, it was amazing to know that Old Faithful is more regular than a house full of guys eating chili (thanks to Ryan's crockpot) and granola (thanks to Ryan's baking skills) several days a week. I took a video of it which I wont post, as it's a little boring, but it was cool to stick our hands in the warm, sulfur smelling water that rushed to us after from the mouth of the geyser.

All in all, not a bad day. On the ride home, for which it was total darkness, we were startled by a massive male elk in the middle of the road. Sitting shotgun, I was glad we didn't test the Camry's durability. Next time I think we should probably get on the road before 12:30 in the afternoon, but being so close to Yellowstone National Park, it wasn't like it was a one and done. I'll be back there for sure in the spring to check on all of our wildlife brethren and hopefully catch more glimpses of a bald eagle, a coyote, elk, bison, and maybe glimpses of wolves and bears.