Yellowstone is Incredible!

To be completely honest with you, I wasn't that excited to go to Yellowstone National Park. I like some forms of camping, but I'm kind of prissy. I like to have certain things available to me at all times, like a shower, a toilet, water to wash my face; you know the basic essentials. But we stayed in West Yellowstone in some what of a ghetto spot - a motel parking lot's RV hookup area. We had showers, and bathrooms, and running water. As odd as that sounds, that was very pleasing and I didn't complain.

Another reason I wasn't thrilled about going to Yellowstone was because it's Yellowstone, I live close, and I could go anytime. I like to go on vacations some place far and see new things. After getting there though, my mind changed and I kind of felt like an ass for thinking that. Yellowstone is worth a trip, anytime. It is one of those places I could go to more than once. We saw so many things while we were there that (from what I hear) not many people get to see. 

This first picture is Old Faithful. We sat and waited for probably 30 minutes for this big geyser to go off and when it did, we were NOT disappointed. I've heard that the size of the eruption isn't what it used to be but I will tell you this, it is still impressive! I took about 100 pictures of the eruption and I think we deleted half. I went snap crazy! 

While we were there, there was a meteor shower. So Rob and I decided we would go see if we could get some rad pictures. Well, this is quite the story. We loaded up the car with the camera, our guns, and some very warm clothes. We drove down the highway and pulled off on a dirt road. We drove down the dirt road for about 1/2 mile and saw what looked like a power building, electric building. I'm not really sure what to describe it as other than a big building with a chain link fence the size they put around prisons with barbed wire on top around the building. Here we decided to turn left. We drove down this road, Power Line Road, for about a mile and decided to park. 

It was definitely in the middle of the forest! It was pitch black when we got out of the car. We put a blanket on the hood of the car and then Rob pulled the camera out and started changing the settings to take pictures of the shooting stars. 

About 20 minutes later, the camera was all set up, taking pictures for 30 seconds every 30 seconds, and I thought I heard leaves crunching nearby; so I asked "Did you hear that?" He had not heard it but asked if I wanted to get in the car and I said no. We're sitting there, watching the shooting stars, hoping the camera is capturing some of what we could see and then I heard it again. I repeated my question, "Did you hear that this time?" Rob said, "Yeah, should we get in the car?" I said, "Hell yeah." So we threw everything in the car except for the camera and we're sitting there listening to the sounds around us and we heard footsteps louder and closer. 

Rob pulled the camera in the car and he realized we forgot a flashlight, so we couldn't see where the noise was coming from, we could only hear it, and we both knew it was a big, hungry animal (or maybe a serial killer). All we had was our guns to shoot at whatever it was and that was too risky. So I stated the obvious, "We should leave." 

We drove back down Power Line Road and parked in front of the fenced off building trying to decide whether or not we're going to set up shop here. Well, we had not even turned the car off and we heard loud, stomping steps on the dirt somewhere around the car. "We should probably get out of here. That could have been a moose or big foot." So we turned the car around and headed for the highway.

After all of this, we did drive around for a bit trying to find a spot to set the camera up to get the meteor shower, but we weren't successful. We found the airport in West Yellowstone and probably saw Dee Snider's jet there. We saw him the next morning at a restaurant; he was sitting 2 tables away having breakfast with his family. But back to the story I was on. After not finding a good location, we went back to camp. Here is a picture of the Big Dipper that we captured. Or I should said Rob captured. 

Oh buffalo, they roam...and they stampede...and they cause road blocks. And yet, even though they are silly  and stupid, I still find them cute. After our trip, Rob said he hates buffalo and hopes to never see another one again. We were stuck in two traffic jams that were directed by the buffalo. They acted as if they were in charge, and they were. 

We went to Earthquake Lake which is west of Yellowstone. The next few pictures are from this place. I believe it was in the 1960s, people were camping down in this valley, which is a gorgeous area. At 11 PM, there was an earthquake, and shortly after, all the water from the lake above the valley came rushing through the area and drowned the people camping below. It's a tragic story and one that would make a person sad to visit this place. But it was beautiful and was really interesting to see what Mother Earth does. 

One day we were gone for a very long time. We drove to Cody, Wyoming then up to Cooke City, Montana, and back down to West Yellowstone. Getting up ridiculously early on my vacation made me very grumpy, but we did get some cool pictures. Can you see the wolf in this picture? 

Everyone needs a pictures with the Yellowstone sign. This was my attempt at planking but as you can tell, I was not successful. 

On our way back into the park, I spotted these bears and told Rob to pull over. He thought I was nuts because you couldn't really tell from a distance what the animals were, but there are definitely black bears. 

Here is a pretty coyote. 

We drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs. The town was really cute. Whether it was the heat or being tired, we weren't that impressed with the area. It was very crowded and very hot, so that could have played a factor in our feelings for this place. 

After Mammoth, we went to Norris. Norris was awesome. I think we were there for several hours and we still didn't see everything there. This place was like visiting another planet, it was unreal and incredible. 

We did go to Upper Falls but didn't realize we were there. When we went to the Lower Falls on the last day of our trip, we realized we had went to Upper Falls on our first full day in Yellowstone. But to be honest Lower Falls is WAY more impressive. This was such a beautiful area. We did a strenuous hike down 300 or something stairs to get close to the Falls and one of the pictures below is us on the stairs near the Falls. A true beauty of nature. 

We went to Biscuit Basin twice. This was a neat area and the walk around the geysers and pools is very short. The reason why we went back is there is a hike to Mystic Falls behind the Biscuit Basin area and the first time we went here I had sandals on which are not hiking shoes, so I made it a point to stress I wanted to go back to do the hike. We completed this short hike to see the waterfall and I think we felt like this was a great way to end the trip. It was a nice hike and if we go back, I would love to do more hiking to places like Mystic Falls. 

This about sums up our trip. We saw so much and we did a lot. I think we probably have 500+ pictures and there are more stories I could have shared but didn't for the sake of space. I highly recommend taking a trip to Yellowstone at least once in your life. It is one of those places that reminds you of the beauty of nature and why it's important to take care of our planet. I love it here and hope we do return in the future.