Day 11

Day 11: 5/28/15 (Cody, WY to Yellowstone National Park)

200 miles

We woke up in the Walmart parking lot around 6am and headed into the store.  We picked up some fruits and vegetables as well as bacon and eggs because Rico couldn’t resist.  We also grabbed some binoculars which came in handy right away because half the time the animals are up on a mountain or down in a valley.  The drive to Yellowstone was only an hour so we arrived around 8am.  No sooner than 10 minutes into the park, the temperatures dropped and it started snowing – yes, snowing!  We were confused as to whether it was actually almost the month of June.  The highest altitude we reached was around 8,500 feet and we were in full on winter.  Jillian tried seeing the glass half full figuring it was an early test for how her car would do in the snow.  Upon entering the park we were also greeted by many buffalo.  Our first stop was to visit a few geothermal features and we froze!  We piled on layers and our wools socks before we got out at the next site.  We stopped at the first campsite thinking we’d be able to grab a spot, but turns out that it was for RVs only and we were informed that the next two sites were pretty full as of the previous day.  So we hauled up to a more northern campsite, Norris, while stopping at most of the attractions along the way. 

After freezing our butts off, our second stop was to see Yellowstone’s Grand Canyon which features a couple of waterfalls as well.  The canyon shows off the beautiful colors of the rock, varying from yellow to orange to red.  We took our time to enjoy the scenic routes on the way to our campsite.  Thankfully the sun was out when we arrived – we really weren’t looking forward to setting up in the rain.  Once the tent was pitched, we were back on the road towards Old Faithful.  We stopped at many many sites along the way.  One we were both excited about was the Great Fountain Geyser which erupts about every 11 hours, opposed to Old Faithful which is about every 90 minutes.  So we stopped by to check if we were close to an eruption, but all that was posted was the prior day’s timeframe.  We did some quick math and figured that there was a good chance it would be going off within the next hour.  There was probably only 2 other cars there when we first arrived, but as the geyser came closer and closer to erupting, people and cars lined the road.  Since we were so early for the action, we had front row seats – though we realized after getting heavily misted (rained) on that those who were standing across the way had a better view, and were less wet.  Overall, we were excited to have timed our visits nearly perfectly to see the eruption.  The next few stops were to many of the springs and basins which are known for their incredibly saturated colors.  Unfortunately most of the walkways are level with the ground so you can’t really get a good bird’s eye view and due to the cold weather there was a lot of steam which masked the colors, but the few glimpses we caught were truly amazing.

Our last stop was to see Old Faithful.  We arrived with about 30 minutes to spare before she would erupt so we toured around the visitor center which had a lot of fun facts about the geysers.  We headed out a few minutes early to get a good viewing spot, and then there she blew!  We agreed that the other eruption was more impressive, but hey, everyone’s gotta see Old Faithful when they visit Yellowstone.  On the drive back to camp, Jillian was peeling and cutting carrots, potatoes, and onions to get a jump start on dinner.  We ended up throwing all the veggies and some chicken into a foil pouch and cooked it on our grill.  We also had some corn on the cob on the side and some leftover apple crisp from Aunt Janet’s for dessert (thanks again!).  We tried to make enough to last us for 2 nights, but we will see.  After writing about our day, we jumped into our sleeping bags hoping we wouldn’t freeze overnight.

Day 11 Video

Fact:

Yellowstone is set on top of a volcano so molten lava is as close as 3 miles below the surface

Lesson:

Weather during the month of May at Yellowstone is equivalent to weather during the month of March in New Hampshire – pack accordingly!

Eat Well; Travel Often

Rico & Jillian