We were up early to explore Yellowstone. We left the cabin to arrive at Slough Creek campground first thing in the morning. Along the way, we saw two bison right in the middle of the road, a baby fox playing in the meadow, and a grizzly wandering through the trees. Luckily, we found a campsite. Deven was being cautious driving up the 2 mile dirt road to the campground and I’d been urging her to speed up so the few cars behind us wouldn’t pass us and beat us to a spot. Thankfully, she refused because a nice woman pulled us aside as we were making multiple laps through the 27-site campground and said, “We’re leaving do you want our spot?...we picked you because you were driving slowly and courteously.” It was hilarious and Deven’s been reminding me of it ever since! Shortly after we arrived there was a lot of activity in the camp – a Grizzly just on the other side of the dirt road. A few ranger trucks pulled in and they were doing everything to get the bear to leave camp: yelling, clapping, even shooting to scare it away. The bear finally climbed up the hill behind our campground and went away (shown in the picture, taken from our campsite). When the excitement calmed down, we headed out for the day. A little information about our nation’s first national park: it was established in 1872 by President Grant; it has the world’s greatest concentration of geysers, mud pots, fumaroles, and hot springs; the largest number of free-roaming wildlife in the lower 48 live here, including bison, grizzlies, and gray wolves; at 2.2 million acres, it has more land than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The main road in the park is the 142-mile Grand Loop Road (in the shape of a figure eight), along which you can see most of the major scenic attractions. During our drive we saw beautiful wildflowers, rolling hills, vast meadows, picturesque mountains, and a lot of wildlife. Elk, black bears, deer, and bison. The bison were all over the place (usually males traveling solo right up the middle of the road!). While making our way to Old Faithful, we stopped at many places along the way. At the Canyon Village Visitor’s Center, we learned about the volcanic activity that made Yellowstone what it is today. We learned about the volcanic eruptions 2 million years ago, 1.3 million years ago, and 640, 000 years ago. The last eruption spewed out nearly 240 cubic miles of debris, causing the central portion of the park to collapse and form the basin it is today. The magmatic heat that caused those eruptions is the reason for the park’s geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, and mudpots. The different cooling patterns of the lava are the reason behind the geological diversity you see here today. We’ve learned so much – can you tell? Although I’d love to go back and teach my 1st graders all about geysers and hot springs, I’m settling for simplistic children’s books all about animals! After brain overload about what created this beautiful park, we stopped for ice cream and headed towards Old Faithful. En route to the famous geyser, we saw a large crowd of cars pulled over and several people along a riverbank near a grazing bison. We pulled to the side of the road and walked to the riverbank to get a close-up look. He was just across the narrow river and soon there was a ranger behind us [far behind us – like 100 yards] warning the crowd, “You are dangerously close right now and if he decides to charge, you’re in trouble.” She reminded us that we shouldn’t be any closer than she was and we all immediately back away. Thankfully, he didn’t charge – but we did get some good pictures! Upon arriving at Old Faithful, we missed the eruption by minutes and had 70 – 110 minutes (faithfully…making it the park’s most predictable geyser; however, it is not the largest nor the most regular) to wait for the next one. We explored the Old Faithful Inn (a Historical Landmark, built in 1903) and waited patiently. Within it’s predictable window, the geyser gushed water about 180 feet into the air. It’s an amazing sight, especially now that I’ve learned what’s happening underground; however, the experience detracted from the natural spectacle. There were rows and rows of benches and hundreds of tourists - the kind of people I’ve waited in line behind so many times at Disneyland…you know, the ones who make the long line not worth the wait! After the eruption, a dad turned to his little girl and said, “So, was it everything you expected?” Her reply, “Not really.” I laughed out loud and Deven turned to me and said, “I agree!” Along the 77-mile drive back to Slough Creek, we saw more interesting geology of the park, elk, and more bison in the middle of the road. We began to re-evaluate our plans for tomorrow because at this point, we were so worn out that we were bored and a little irritated with national icons (Old Faithful) and wildlife sightings. We thought maybe we should take a day out of the car to enjoy nature and avoid rushing around to see all the sights. I said, “At this point, I’m only going to be surprised and excited if we see a T-Rex walking down the road!” Isn’t that disgusting? Only one full day in the park and seeing bison stop traffic has become boring to us. Tomorrow, we’ll be slowing down the pace to recuperate so that we can fully enjoy our surroundings!
