National Park Road Trip - Day 4

Tuesday, August 5 2008:

We left Gros Ventre campground for the last time, as it was time to move on to Yellowstone National Park. The campground was quite nice, even though it was sort of far removed from the main part of the park. If we hadn't stayed there, we wouldn't have seen the moose in the morning and the buffalo crossing the road. No complaints here.

After packing up camp, we went to see the Gros Ventre slide, which is the site of a major rock slide that happened maybe 100 years ago or so. So much rock and earth fell that it actually dammed the river below. Eventually, part of the dam broke, and the ensuing flood destroyed much of the land downstream, including the whole town of Kelly, WY. Driving back from the slide, we had some great views of the Tetons - majestic and beautiful.

We then drove through GTNP once more on the way to Yellowstone, and stopped for a few more pictures along the way. We stopped at the Oxbow again, and we got some great shots of the mountains being reflected in the water. Then it was off to Yellowstone!

Overall thoughts on GTNP: I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Several people had told me that it was better than YNP, prettier, less crowded, etc. I thought it was beautiful and stark, but not particularly user/guest friendly. The signage was great (way better than YNP), but other than that, we were never quite sure what we should be doing/seeing. We followed the main loop in the park and did many of the pullouts, but I'm still left feeling like I might have missed something. Additionally, the distant location of our campground made it difficult to go and do things at times. Not a huge deal, but something to think about if I ever go back.

Back to our journey to YNP:

We entered YNP via the South Entrance Road, which is closed during the winter. There were tons of downed trees, and we wondered if it was due to fires or something else. It turns out it was probably wind and bark beetles combined; at least that's what the park ranger said. We also saw a river and if I remember correctly, some waterfalls in the distance, but that's a bit blurry right now. Oh, I just checked my pictures and the waterfall came after Old Faithful - it was the Kepler Cascades. :) We also crossed our first of I think 3 continental divide signs - pretty neat!

We continued on and found our reserved campground, Grant Village, with little trouble, and it was a great pick by Amanda. Within the village, we had showers, laundry, ice machines, a gas/service station, and obviously the campground. We found our site, and set everything up with little trouble. We could even see Yellowstone Lake from it - excellent choice. Go Amanda! After setting up camp, we went to use the pay showers. Being clean is such a fantastic feeling - one of the top five showers in my life. Rock on!

After getting all cleaned up, we decided to do a little touring, as it was only late afternoon. We decided to go check out Old Faithful first, as it wasn't that far from our camp site. We arrived at almost a perfect time, as it was set to go off in about an hour. We checked out the ranger shop, grabbed some snacks, and found some good seats to watch the 6:10 viewing (their prediction was for ten minutes within 6:10. I really didn't know what to expect, as I've never seen a geyser erupt, but I can honestly say it was pretty amazing. I captured it on film using my digital camera - check it out!

The down side to Old Faithful was the crowds - the place was completely packed and there were tons of screaming kids. It was definitely worth it though - just odd to be around that many people. GTNP was much more isolated.

After Old Faithul, we decided to head back toward camp. We then made an impromptu stop at the West Thumb Geyser basin, which is located right on Yellowstone Lake. It was nearing dusk, so we had some neat light to take pictures, and I can honestly say I think it was my favorite geyser basin overall. Fewer crowds, picturesque site. Because I didn't do much research before the trip, I didn't really know what to expect from YNP. I didn't know there were so many hot springs, steam vents, geysers, and mudpots. It's truly amazing what the earth can do. Also a bit scary, as there was a sign that said: "stay on the path - danger of death by scalding/acid burning" or something very similar. Basically, the earth's crust is very thin throughout a lot of YNP, and people have literally stepped through it into scalding water/mud/etc. Craziness for sure!

Many of the springs had very unique colors, which is due to the sunlight refracting and the minerals in the ground. They also had a very unique smell - sulfur. Sort of reminded me of the Dead Sea at times, with its odd salt formations and the sulfur smells. I don't think my camera can do any of them justice, but I did try.

After seeing all that, we headed back to the camp site and made sandwiches for dinner, as we didn't feel up to cooking. After that and a little reading, it was time for bed. Camping makes me tired, as I don't sleep well at night. Also, for some reason, I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night every night, even if I stop drinking way earlier in the day. I need to google why that might be (I have theories about it being due to the cold), but I do know this: it's annoying to have to crawl out of the sleeping bag, find my glasses and headlamp, get off the air mattress, unzip the tent, find my shoes, and trek off to the bathroom every night in the pitch black. Not the funnest thing ever to say the least, but I guess it's part of camping!

Oh, we saw an elk today as we were driving back to our campsite. Pretty cool.

Speaking of camping, we decided today to skip out on Glacier National Park. I'm just too exhausted from the bar exam, and I didn't know I would be this tired. I feel bad because Manda did all the planning for it, but she seems okay with the decision. Also, heading to GNP was always somewhat tentative, and it is quite far from YNP. Our plan became to head home on Friday or Saturday.