Yellowstone was one of my favorite places on this trip so far. Yellowstone is just so rugged and beautiful. Even though we only had one full day in the first ever national park, we made our time count. When I was first researching where to go and what to do in Yellowstone, I had to stop. There was WAY too much to do in too little time. Ian and I already agreed that we would have to come back at some point in time. We didn't even cover a third of the park!
We stayed at Madison campground on the western side of Yellowstone, which was a convenient location for the two places we DEFINITELY wanted to go, Ole Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs. We started off our day with a brief stroll by the Madison River near camp. The pictures don't do this place justice!
After returning to camp, we loaded up to head south to Ole Faithful with hopes that since we were getting such an early start we would beat the crowds. However, we got a bit sidetracked by some of the attractions along the road, like the lower geyser basin and the midway geyser basin. Each of these places was incredible. Watching boiling water bubble to the surface and walking across a sulphuric earth crust was mesmerizing.
We finally reached our destination of Ole Faithful, which had shortly erupted before we got there, meaning we had an hour and half(ish) to mess around before it went off again. We walked around the gift shop, and Ian found the most interesting book (called 1,000 Ways to Die in Yellowstone). As he flipped through the book, he read a few crazy ways people have drown, been mauled, fallen, or otherwise died in Yellowstone.
I'll be really honest now. Ole Faithful was just okay. It only lasted for a minute or so, and it was just me and about a thousand of my closest friends watching it.
If you go to Yellowstone and want to see a really impressive geyser, I recommend Lone Star Geyser. The park ranger who checked us into our campground told us about it. It's about two miles down the road from Ole Faithful, a two mile hike from that, and goes off every three hours. We knew that we wanted to see it, so we hiked in (in perfect time as well!). We got there about 2:20, and the geyser shot skyward about ten minutes after that. It was higher and lasted almost twenty minutes. MUCH more impressive than Ole Faithful, so we therefore called it New Faithful.
Once we hiked back to the car, we could hear the distant rumbles of thunder, and shortly into our car ride to Mammoth the skies opened. It rained on us for the whole hour ride, and even when we arrived the rain didn't stop. This didn't slow us down. We began our walk up to see the hot springs with zest and full of spirit despite the pouring rain. About halfway through the walk as the water began to soak through our clothes and we realized how miserable that night of camping in the cold was going to be, our moods began to dampen. By the time we walked all the way up the pathway soaking wet, we were miserable but excited to see the brilliant blues, greens, reds, and oranges that the deep springs provide. ......I'm not really sure what happened. Please Google "Mammoth Hot Springs" and be amazed at the beauty of the colors. The picture below is what we found. To say that we were disappointed was an understatement.
Wet and defeated, we decided to drive to the town of West Yellowstone for a good hot dinner to warm up. I'm not sure if it was the hunger, temperature, or conditions, but all of us agreed that that was the BEST Chinese food we had had in a while!
On our way back to the campground, something happened to me that has NEVER happened. I got pulled over!! As I saw the flashing light behind me, I originally thought it was because I had cruised through the park entrance with really stopping. You're supposed to stop and present your receipt to show that you've already paid to get in the park, but no one was in the ticket booth, so we cruised on. However, Mr. Park Ranger man pulled me over for two reasons: I was going 51 in a 45 (really?!?) and one of my headlights was out. I turned my headlights off and on, and somehow magically it fixed the issue. He told me to keep and eye on it and then started cutting jokes with us and recommending good restaurants in the local area. He was really nice, and the best thing is that he didn't give me a ticket. Woo hoo!
That's all for now. More later!
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