Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Well, we are here – at the crown jewel of our nation’s park system – Yellowstone.  We came in through the south entrance (along the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Parkway) and spent the entire day exploring the Lower and Upper Geyser Basins.  In the photo of Old Faithful above, take note of the hordes of people to the left.  This is nothing; by July it will be a total madhouse here.  We are glad to be here on a slow weekend.

In fact, it just snowed here last weekend, so I think that may have kept some of the visitors away.  On the road in, especially in the higher elevations, there were enormous snowdrifts (plough remnants) bordering both sides of the road.  Yellowstone gets something like 400 inches of snow per year (might be more, I wasn’t paying full attention during the visitor center film) but that’s a LOT of snow.  Also interesting to note, just today we crossed the Continental Divide three times (the park road criss-crosses it).  The Continental Divide is the high point of North America – all rivers to the east flow towards the Atlantic Ocean; all rivers to the west flow towards the Pacific.

Yellowstone National Park is so enormous, it takes several days just to drive through and see everything; let alone do any hiking or other activities.  We’ve decided to take it by sections.  Most of the big-name attractions of Yellowstone were on the route we took today – from the South Entrance to the Madison Campground.  We took so many photos, I am just going to list them with captions.

The boardwalk along the Lower Basin – we saw one kid walking along the side rail like a balance beam (no parents in sight).  Yikes!  The water below can scald you.

The Old Faithful Inn is a National Historic Landmark.  The interior is all rustic wood décor – the enormous fireplace was unfortunately under repair while we were there.

At the Black Sand Basin, the runoff from the hydrothermal features runs right into the nearby creek.

Here’s Kevin at one of the springs at the Black Sand Basin.  Various minerals, algae, and microbacteria cause the rainbow of bright colors.

The Sapphire Pool, in Biscuit Basin, is one of the park’s deepest-hued pools.  Note the storm clouds on the horizon.  We had a few great hours of sunshine, then the weather deteriorated.

Clouds reflected in the Midway Geyser Basin

One of the last geysers we saw before heading to the campground

Just across the main highway from the Madison Campground was this enormous herd of bison – this was our first introduction to the herd.  We would later get to know them better when they trampled through our campground en masse.

But I get ahead of myself.  We checked in to our reserved site at Madison.  We were glad to have a reservation because the campground was surprisingly pretty full.  Since I did all the driving today, Kevin made us a delicious dinner of smoked four-cheese mac & cheese and chili.  Just as he was boiling the water (using the stove’s grate, of course), it started to rain.  Within minutes we were hearing some very loud “ping!”s on the roof and hood.  That’s right – hail.  Coming down in cringe-inducing, golfball-sized chunks.  Luckily the van didn’t sustain any damage.  If we’d still been out on the road, it probably would have.

We thought that was the worst that could happen.  But as we were finishing our meal, Kevin looked up and spotted the herd – and I mean the entire herd – of buffalo we saw earlier migrating through the campground.  Half a dozen of them moseyed right through the campsite next door.

The guy next to us was so oblivious he stood stock still taking photos from a distance of about 10 feet.  Until one of the more ornery members of the herd decided to charge him.  It wasn’t a halfhearted attempt, either – this bison meant to kill, or at least maim.  Luckily the guy ran behind the bathroom building and kept it between them.  I guess this is why they include this handout when they give you the maps to the park.