“That petrified tree is not nearly as epic as I anticipated.”

Tuesday June 7th, 2011

When we last posted, those of you who are keeping up with us, we had used a laundromat's surprisingly fast free internet. We are now on our way to Jackson Hole Wyoming by way of Grand Teton National Park. But a lot happened in between.

We left the laundromat and did some exploring in West Yellowstone, there are quite a few gift shops and cool little stores. We also stopped by Bob Jacklin's fly shop, a very neat place in its own right. If you know anything about fly fishing in the US, you probably have heard of Bob Jacklin, he’s a pretty big deal around here. The cool part is that several years back, my grandparents took me fishing with him. So we popped in to see if we was there, sadly he was not in at the moment. So, to my disappointment, we didn’t get to see him. After the fly shop, we decided to go ahead and eat in West Yellowstone. We found a good little restaurant who’s name escapes all of us, but we all left satisfied and full.

After our West Yellowstone excursion, we ventured back into the park and stopped to check out Gibbon Falls, which was beautiful. We also visited Artists Point, which affords a gorgeous view of the Lower Falls and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was truly awe-inspiring. 

Gibbon Falls

Artist's Point

After scrapping our jaws of the ground, we made for Canyon Village to scope out showers. On the way we spotted a grizzly bear chilling out, and probably basking in the glow of the dozens of camera flashes that were going off. At Canyon we did find showers, and nice ones at that. Being clean feels so good. We all relished it. After our agreeable hot showers, Winston and I wolfed down a little ice cream at the Canyon Village Deli. We then retired to our campsite, and slept well. Oh, and some where in there we stopped by a petrified tree that wasn’t nearly was exciting as I made it up to be.

Wednesday June 8th, 2011

We slept in Wednesday morning, and that felt good. Today was the day we would venture into the northern part of Yellowstone, the part that holds Mammoth Hot Springs. The drive up to Mammoth was pretty long, and filled with many bison and elk.

Some of the Hot Springs

Unfortunately, the clouds decided to opened up when we arrived at the Hot Springs, so we didn’t attempt the walk that lets you get close to the Springs.We did however glimpse them from afar. A bit down the road, when it had stopped raining, we found a little trail that looked promising. So, we took off down the trail. We hadn’t gone far when we stumbled upon four sizable elk(s?) They obviously weren't afraid of us, and we actually had to go off the trail around them. After hiking a little bit, we back tracked to the car and set off for Gardiner, Montana in search of lunch. 

Hiking!

The trail blocking elk.

We left Yellowstone through the North Gate, and found a nice restaurant serving fried chicken, all three of us capitalized on that. Tasty. We also found a grocery store in Gardiner, we commandeered a bag of marshmallows for roasting later (okay, we paid for them, but commandeered is such a fun word, I just couldn’t resist).

Reentering Yellowstone

After the grocery store trip, we reentered Yellowstone, and took an amazing happy birthday picture for a certain Richard Fish.

We decided to drive back to Bridge Bay by way of Tower-Roosevelt, so as to see as much of the park as we could. Sure enough, on our way through Dunraven Pass we saw the most snow I think we have ever seen. It was at least twelve feet at the side of the road. For a North Carolina boy, thats North Poleish. The thing that is so incredible out here is the elevation. It plays a huge part in temperature and snow accumulation. Down in West Yellowstone ( a much lower elevation) there was hardly any snow, but up at Dunraven Pass, they have twelve feet of the stuff. We just don’t have the assortment of elevations back home.

We made one last stop at the Fishing Bridge General Store for some cool stickers. Then we moseyed on back to camp and coxed a modest fire out of the soaping wet ground. We hurried up and roasted marshmallows before our fire went out. Then, for the last time, we laid out heads on Yellowstone National Park (only figuratively, we actually laid our heads on pillows).

I have no patience for this sort of thing.

-The Trio