By Shelby
My cold was still pretty bad this week. I mostly rested in the car Monday while Spencer worked from Planet Fitness and then the library. Luckily, I was able to find some shade to park the car in. Unfortunately, the tree providing the shade dripped sap all over the car. After Spencer finished work, we drove to Old Butte Park to eat the last of our bean burrito bowls and relax. This park is nice because it has plenty of shade and a bathroom with running water.
Tuesday was mostly the same as Monday. I rested in the car in the morning and went in the library for a bit in the afternoon. The library was very nice. There was a large area in the middle with a fountain with koi fish. After work, we went to Olive Garden for dinner since I was feeling a little better. Instead of working Wednesday morning, I worked on analyzing how much money we’re spending using our credit card and debit card history. It looks like we are a little over budget. We should probably eat out less to save money. We’re also spending a lot of money on gas, but we can’t really do much to help that. The project I was working on at work finished and my boss doesn’t have any more work for me currently, so I’m looking for another remote part time job while we continue traveling. Wednesday afternoon, I reviewed my resume and started applying to jobs, along with planning out the next few days.
After our walk, we tried to go to Smitty’s, a restaurant that claimed to have the best pancakes in Idaho, but unfortunately it was closed so we made our own dinner. We went back to Old Butte Park and made steak, potatoes (using Idaho potatoes of course), and green beans. It was all very good. I did have to make a run to Walmart halfway through to get another propane tank since ours ran out of fuel.
Thursday morning, we got up early. We wanted to get breakfast at Smitty’s, which had been closed the night before. Spencer tried the potato pancakes, while I got French toast. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t able to taste much because of my cold. After breakfast, we got back on the road, toward Yellowstone National Park. Our next 3 days were going to be very busy.
The entrance to the park was massive, with multiple lanes of cars. It was already mid-morning when we arrived, so there were a lot of cars in line. Eventually, we made it into the park. The main road through the park is in the shape of a figure eight, so we were planning on starting with going counter-clockwise around the southern loop and clockwise around the northern loop. The southern loop has the more famous attractions, such as Old Faithful and the Grand Prismatic Spring, so we wanted to get those out of the way first. Traffic to get into those parking lots was crazy and very stressful. We waited for quite a while to get a parking spot at the Fountain Paint Pots and the Grand Prismatic Spring. The bubbling mud pots at the Fountain Paint Pots were very cool and very smelly. The whole area smelled like sulfur.
Old Faithful was easier than the Grand Prismatic Spring. The parking lot was massive. We joined with the large crowd waiting for it to erupt. We got lucky and got a seat on a bench. After the geyser erupted, there was a mass exodus as everyone left. It was pretty funny. Many people didn’t even wait for it to finish erupting before they left. I guess they wanted to beat the rush.
One of my favorite sights in the south loop was the Mud Volcano Area. There was a cave with tons of steam coming out of it and boiling water called Dragon’s Mouth. It was very creepy and seemed almost alive. We continued on to Hayden Valley, a beautiful valley with the Yellowstone River snaking through it. We passed a pullout with some bison nearby, but we decided not to stop since it was so crowded with people.
The sun was starting to get low when we arrived at Artist’s Point, a viewpoint of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was really beautiful. There was a waterfall pouring water into the river at the bottom of the canyon. The canyon walls were made of yellow stone and there were a few small vents letting out steam. This was one of Spencer’s favorite areas in the park.
Once we got all the pictures we wanted, we moved on to Gibbon Falls. It was a nice waterfall. We ate dinner at the picnic area. The steak, potatoes, and green beans tasted just as good as the night before. That night, we slept in the large back parking lot of a hotel casino in West Yellowstone, a small tourist town just outside the west entrance of the park. It was quiet and dark for the most part.
The next morning, we got up early again and stopped at the visitors center outside the park to use the bathroom and get ready for the day. Unfortunately, Spencer had a cold now, but he still felt up to going to the park. Getting into the park this morning was easier since we were pretty early. As we approached the entrance to the park, we made sure to stop at the sign to take a picture. After driving into the park, we stopped at a ranger station to fill up our water bottles and eat a quick breakfast. Today we would be driving around the north loop of the park. I was hoping it would be less busy than the south loop.
Our first big stop would be at Mammoth Hot Springs in the north of the park. Along the way, we stopped at Obsidian Cliff and Sheepeater Cliff. They were cool to see, but they weren’t as impressive as the sites from the south loop. As we continued on down the road, we had to slow down as a bison walked right by us on the road. Spencer said he made eye contact with it.
Mammoth Hot Springs were very cool. They were a large area of springs on a hilltop with many boardwalks over it. The blue water in the New Blue Spring was beautiful. The whole area was very colorful. After exploring the boardwalks, we continued on through the small town of Mammoth and made our way to the Blacktail Plateau Drive. It was highly recommended. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a 6 mile one-way gravel road, so once we got started, we couldn’t turn back. We did get a close view of a bison through, along with views of mountains valleys. We passed an SUV that had a flat tire, so I was a little worried, but we made it back to the main road. After that, we briefly stopped to see the Petrified Tree, which was kind of cool. Our last stop was the north rim road of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This is the opposite side of the canyon from where we were last night at Artist’s Point.
Overall, I think Spencer and I both liked the east side of Yellowstone better than the west, despite the more popular attractions being on the west (Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Springs). The east side was more scenic, with mountains and valleys. There was more wildlife and slightly less people as well.
That night, we slept in a parking lot at the Flagg Ranch, between Yellowstone and the Tetons. They allow RVs and campers to park overnight there. It was very quiet and dark. I slept pretty well, but Spencer had a hard time falling asleep. Our plan for Saturday was originally going to be driving around Grand Tetons National Park, but the weather was pretty miserable. We wouldn’t be able to see anything because of the clouds. We decided to take Saturday to relax and work on the website instead of Sunday, since the weather for Sunday looked a lot better. We paid $5 each to take a shower at the Colter Bay Campground. We were pretty dirty by then, so it was nice to get clean. After that, we did laundry there as well. We drove to the Willow Flats Overlook to work on the website. We had cell service there, which was good. The clouds even cleared a little for a brief period and we got a view of the Tetons. The clouds quickly rolled back in and the view was all white.
The weather cleared up a little while later, so we decided to drive up Signal Mountain. We got a nice view of the mountains facing away from the Tetons, but there were still a lot of clouds.
After descending down the mountain, we decided to drive on to see if we could find an overlook with a good view and cell service. We ended up going to Jenny Lake, where we did get a good, but cloudy view of the Tetons. We’ll be returning there tomorrow to see it when it’s sunny. On the drive back to Flagg Ranch, where we’re sleeping again, we saw a bear on the side of the road, surrounded by cars. That was pretty cool. We’d been wanting to see another bear, but we didn’t see any in Yellowstone. Hopefully, we’ll have better views tomorrow.
Unfortunately, despite the weather forecast predicting it would be sunny by 11 AM Sunday, it definitely was not. Clouds completely covered the Tetons. We decided to reverse our plan for the park. Our original plan was to drive the loop road in a counter-clockwise direction, with us driving closer to the mountains first. We decided to go clockwise instead, hoping that by the time we got closer to the mountains, it would be sunnier.
Along the way to the south entrance of the park, we stopped at multiple overlooks. Eventually, we decided to stay at one for a while to wait for the weather to get better. We didn’t want to wait too long, so we continued on to Mormon Row to see the Moulton Homestead, a historic and scenic building. Because it was still so cloudy, we didn’t get the classic photo of the building with the Tetons in the background but it was still nice.
By the time we reached the Jenny Lake Overlook while driving back to the north entrance of the park, the clouds were starting to clear out. The parking lot was very busy as it was a popular location with a view of the mountains across from Jenny Lake. When we parked, a small bear walked right up to the road. We kept our distance when we got our pictures, but other tourists got way too close.
We stopped at a few more overlooks along the way since we could actually see the mountains now. They looked so much better now. I’m very glad the clouds cleared up enough to see something. Once we got all the pictures we wanted, we made a quick stop at a hotel lodge that was originally built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to fill up our water bottles and get ready for the 4 hour drive to Casper, Wyoming. We plan on staying there only briefly before moving on to South Dakota. Overall, both Spencer and I agree that Wyoming has a very diverse landscape. I definitely enjoyed our brief stay here and hope we enjoy South Dakota just as much!
Fun Facts from Week 15:
- Yellowstone is not only the first US national park, but it is also the first national park in the world. It was established in 1872.
- The earth’s crust is very thin at Yellowstone, about 3-6 miles, compared to the average thickness of about 18 miles thick.
- Yellowstone was created by the super volcano below it. This same super volcano also created Craters of the Moon National Monument, in Idaho. The super volcano remained in place while the crust of the earth moved above it.
