Day 8 ~ Yellowston National Park Day 3 ~ Anniversary ~ Scary Bison!

Day 8 ~Yellowstone National Park~ Day 3 ~ 23^rd Wedding Anniversary ~Scary Bison Day

Note:  I know I am late with this entry, but we have had bad wifi or no wifi.  I have abbreviated this post with only a few pictures in order to get it up.

OK.  We only have one more day in this park and there is still so much to see.  Would you believe lots of people told us we could see Yellowstone in one day!  However, that is never how this family rolls.  We like to read everything and systematically see everything on the map.  With all the road closures, we have had to do quite a bit of backtracking, so we knew in order to finish this park up, we would really have to make good time on Day 8.

This is our 23^rd Wedding Anniversary.  We have done a lot of fun things on our anniversaries over the years.  Some super romantic, others with the kids because just because we haven’t really ever had anyone who was dying to babysit much.  Just being in Yellowstone is going to be a super memory. 

Our plan was to not mess around with cooking or food prep today.  It is our anniversary, so to celebrate , we would give ourselves the day off.  We have had late starts every morning, but this morning we set our alarm and decided we would strictly adhere to Eastern Standard Time that way we would beat everyone else to the park and not get caught in crowds and slow lines of cars. 

We were ready to go by 7:00AM, which was 5:00AM Mountain Time.  Whoo Hoo!  We were going to have breakfast at McDonalds in West Yellowstone.  I saw a little Lincoln Log type McDonalds in that town on our way to the entrance to the park, so that seemed like a good idea.  Except they weren’t open yet.  Now this was a dilemma because to go to the park, or actually see anything in the park, you have to drive 14 miles into the park, before you can see anything of interest.  This 14 miles takes about 30-60 minutes!  So we just went a little ways and goofed around taking pictures of the sunrise. Early birds:  Here is a tip:  You can get in free  to Yellowstone if you go really, really early.  We didn’t really care because we have the America the Beautiful Pass.  Then we went back to McD’s where they took their time opening late even though a bunch of people were waiting by the door at opening time.  They also required cash, despite having a credit card reader in front of the register..???  Plus it was twice as much money as a usual McD’s.  Ah well, we expected things like this to happen.  I felt blah after eating a bunch of “bad for me food.”

 

Back in the park, we were going to drive hard and not be distracted by stopping for anything.  We were going to head to the farthest park we hadn’t hit yet because of road closures, Mammoth Springs.  On our way back we would hit Tower Roosevelt a breathtaking waterfall.  After driving more than an hour, we decided to hit Tower Roosevelt first.  Driving this park is very time consuming.  Along the way, we also took a group photo at the top of the mountain!  I mean really!  Who could resist?

 

Lots of snow around Canyon Village yet at the end of May.

 

We decided to stop at Tower Roosevelt first because it was taking soooo long to drive to Mammoth.  Plus, it was still early in Mountain Time, so the falls were empty.  We pulled in and used the restroom, first.  I came out first and set my gear down on a bench.  Then Harrison came out and said, “What is the plan, chief?”  Suddenly when I looked up there was a bison standing on the sidewalk just about 10 feet from us.  Now if you have never seen a bison in person, you won’t understand why this was so scary.  These animals are heavy and huge.  Very, very huge.  Plus I forgot to write that yesterday, we saw a group of bison that had been spooked running through the traffic on a roadway.  You would NOT want these guys to ram your vehicle.  You would NOT want these guys to step on your toe!  I was frozen and speechless and scared.  I couldn’t talk, but I knew we needed to walk back into the safe restrooms.  However, Harrison’s back was to the bison and didn’t understand my fear.  I couldn't speak.  I made a garbled noise and pointed.   He got the point.   We rushed back to the restrooms to hide.  By the time Natalie and Mike were done in the restroom, the bison had ambled off up the steep hill over the walkway.  We excitedly told them about our close call.  Then we enjoyed the biggest falls we had ever seen. 

Tower Roosevelt

He is Back!
 

 

Then the bison was back! He came back down the hill.  He was lost.  We were on a lookout terrace, so we were kind of penned in.  The bison turned around to head back to the restrooms, but now there were some other people on the path behind him.  These people were trying to get close to him….Fools that they were…..And what was happening was the bison was getting upset because now he was penned in.  Luckily, the bison veered off and took a walk down the other side of the cliff.  I thought we were done with bison encounters that day, but there would be another scary one later that evening.

He found a trail to escape on down the mountain.

A rock wall.

I had to lay down on the ground to take this picture, and you still can't see it all.

 

We got a glimpse of a bear, but there were so many people and no pull offs to stop along.  The ranger was trying to make everyone leave the roadway, so there wasn’t much in which to take a picture. This was our second glimpse of a bear.  Mike had seen one behind us as we were going out of the park the first day, fishing in the river, but we never really saw it well.

We reached Mammoth Springs around lunch time.  We climbed up the stairs and ramps and looked at yet more biodiversity in this park full of surprising views. 

 

 

Anniversary Romance

We had lunch at this cute little place.  Way over priced for a McDonalds type meal.  Only medium good, but it was great not to have to do meal prep and dishes.

 

We took pictures of the elk that live in the town center here at Mammoth Springs.  Fascinating. 

 

We drove out to the old Roosevelt North Entrance.  We were mildly disappointed that this classic brick entrance from long ago was under construction and not really accessible.  However, the amazing scenery never left us disappointed for long.

 

Pictures at the 45^th Parallel. 

 

Another little disappointment was a special trail to Boiling River that we had planned to take.  Our nephew, who spends lots of time in this area, told us that this was a super fun trail.  We even had brought our swimsuits in order to experience the “hot on one side” and “cold on another” experience.  However, the trail was closed at this time of the year.

 

We stopped at Undine Falls:

 

 

We stopped at Wraith Falls:

A couple from Kentucky took our picture, and we took theirs.

 

I am really loving all these falls.  Even though we aren’t on a romantic trip for two, I consider waterfalls VERY romantic. 

Here we saw deer in the road.  We are leaning out of the car snapping shots……At home we would be like:  Hey, get off the road you dirty pests!

 

We visited the petrified redwood from 10,000 years ago.

When you see this at Yellowstone: 

 

 

It means someone has spotted a bear.  We got a glimpse of three little (at least they looked little from a million yards away!) bears napping on a log.

Then we got another bear glimpse as we headed closer to Canyon Village. 

We ate at a diner in Canyon Village.  I picked this because Mike loves diners, but the food here was less than remarkable.  For our 3 fast food meals today, we paid, 120.00.  I just wish the food would have been worth it.  BUT….it was great to skip meal prep for one whole day!

 

Harrison drove back to West Yellowstone.  Predictably, the place where the bison hang out was full of stopped cars and bison on the road.  They are always there.  Old hat now.  Except as we pulled forward, about 7 of these colossal beasts surrounded our car.  Remember the herd running yesterday?  I felt extremely nervous for not only the safety of the tin can we were riding in, but our health and well being too.  Harrison stayed very calm and kept the car still.  Until they got done nosing around and moved on up the road.  I was too terrified to take pictures, besides, they were too close for my camera lens.  It was literally looking in the window at me.  Mike took video footage out the sunroof….Of course he did….Mr. Type Two Fun. 



Leaving Yellowstone

Back at the KOA.  We took some time to re-evaluate our situation.  Made sure we had enough food to last until our Walmart stop, sorted laundry…..and boy is there a lot of it after 9 days in the rain…and made sure we had enough underwear for tomorrow.  We must do laundry and clean things up when we reach the Jackson Hole Snake River KOA at Grand Teton National Park.   

Up tomorrow:  Pulling down camp, driving to Grand Teton, and LAUNDRY!