Eye of the World

I had the pleasure of not only visiting the first National Monument, but also the first National Park, Yellowstone! Yellowstone wasn't necessarily set in the 'itinerary' but just in case, I did a little research on it knowing that we would be nearby and oh my was it worth a trip! I have heard many great things about Yellowstone but I had also heard nightmarish stories of bumper to bumper traffic, crowded trails and overbooked campsites etc. so I wasn't 100% committed to the idea (especially since I originally planned on being farther Northwest). But cruising West on Hwy 287 towards Jackson, WY was just so sublime, from the scenery to the overall contentment, and as if a sign that the best was yet to come, as twilight set in I ran right into (nearly!) a baby moose and mamma! 

So the first picture is one of the many above ground geysers at Yellowstone, same as below. The geysers are so bright and interesting with such a wide range of colors, some of which I found out are caused by pollution, like with the Morning Glory pool (second down) fading from bright blue to green. I'm such a little kid when it comes to the geysers, stopping to look at each pool and seriously having to restrain myself from walking up to/touching - I want to examine them up close! But of course all the fun stuff is seriously dangerous, and of course detrimental to the overal purity of the area. But come on, doesn't this look like a seriously banging hot tub?!

I took some small pleasure in the fact that Old Faithful wasn't so faithful this time! The time of the next eruption is estimated every hour and a half, give or take 10 minutes. As the minus 10 minutes nears, everyone casually starts scoping out a good spot to sit and watch. We wait the 10 minutes, eruption time. Nope, and the plus 10 minutes begin. There are a few spurts here and there in which everyone hilariously (myself included) raises their cameras and starts filming only to immediately be disappointed and then laughs trying to figure out whether that was it or not.  We are now sitting about 8 minutes outside the estimated 20 minute window and at this point we are all thinking that this go around may just be a dud, when suddenly, tharrr she blows! The eruption lasted a good 5 minutes, just streaming straight into the sky and turning to steam almost instantly. Everyone cheered and once again a strangely universal experience occurred, something I don't always think about until after it happens. For me, being able to connect on a natural level, being able to share an experience with someone and hear the same experience from a different perspective or hearing of another venture and feeling it's human connection is one of my favorite things about traveling and sharing stories!

The treehouse inside the Yellowstone Lodge

Upper Geyser Basin, where Old Faithful and Morning Glory are, is a great place to start and if you walk around the boardwalk you will see Old Faithful erupt more than once. What I didn't quite realize until actually driving around is that Yellowstone is HUGE area wise, so needing to account for driving time is a must. Because of this we accidentally missed a few other geysers we had wanted to see, like the Grand Prismatic pool but that's ok, it just means something new for next time! We did take a nice hike down to the crest of the lower Yosemite River falls which gushes out and down the yellow walled canyon known as the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Leaving the park was magical and totally unplanned, but the route back took us directly through Lamar Valley at evening time which is also apparently one of the best times/areas to view wildlife. There were herds of bison, pronghorns and elk grazing through the valley towards the steams. The shoulders of the road fill up quickly with wildlife photographers (um, lens envy much?!) so it can be hard to pull over and watch but driving through was not even remotely disappointing and it was the same through Willow Flats, more moose! And to think I was actually worried about not getting to see wildlife in Yellowstone, but once we saw bears near the campground I was actually worried about getting too close!