Our Glorious National Parks

In the morning, things were changing fast at Buffalo Bill SP. We remembered driving through Wyoming 15 years ago and watching the darkness chase us with inky fingers across the plains. This time, we saw the darkness come in spectre-like towering wraiths whose feet touched the earth and heads touched the sky--rain and storms coming our way. It all looked more dramatic in the approach than in the actuality, though. Some rain and scurrying on our part to get the trailer all shaped up and everything closed. And we were on our way...to Yellowstone!

Fifteen years ago, we had "seen" Yellowstone as we hustled through, hardly stopping on our way to one of Scott's innumerable cousin's wedding. (At this wedding Scott couldn't get into the reception until the country club supplied him with a tie. You can still get him going on this one.) That said, Scott's cousins are a lot of fun.

This time at Yellowstone, we decided to take time. We were going to be tourists.

Winter
As we ascended up to the 8000-foot level, the grey skies and occasional snow patches made us feel right at home. A little way into the park we stopped behind some folks who were photographing a bear munching along the side of the road. This is how you see wildlife here, by inching around a zillion people photographing it. While we fell into some of this photography idiocy, all I could think of was Google-->Flickr-->Yellowstone.

Summer
The clouds started to part, the sun emerged, and now it was summer in the high country. Huge vistas, snow capped mountains, mobs of tourists like us that were all remarkably amiable. We did the south loop, which really is the one to do if you want to check out the amazing volcanic stuff. Everyone knows about Yellowstone and/or can find out, so I'm not going to bother with all that. Suffice it to say that we schlepped ourselves from one mud volcano to fumarole to geyser. Old Faithful was completely gross--we got there just after it had held forth, and New York City was pouring out the gates. We got some really overpriced ice cream and booked out.

We did see a bunch of bison (and got tired of people photgraphing them in unruly crowds as if these were creatures from outer space) and the really cool white pelicans. We saw elk once and there were tons of ravens up close scavenging like crazy. The bison kept crossing the road and sending everyone into ecstasies, but at least no one was posing an infant near a bear for a Kute Photo Shot like the last time we had been in YS.

Where Do We Stay?
We had gotten pretty loose about schedules, so we tried a few Yellowstone campgrounds and they were closed. We resigned ourselves to driving through the park for a long day and into the night and then finding something to the north. At the last moment, we found a campground, which was wonderful since we could then take more time the next day.

It was COLD! I did not sleep well, but I got a lot of a great New Yorker issue read--all about a brilliant economist at MIT who does trials to see what really works to help alleviate poverty.

Sunday
I woke up cranky and pretty quickly had to apologize to Scott. Great way to start a Sunday, but we thought of everyone at St. Elizabeth's and missed them. (Well, at least most of them.) ;) It was even hotter than yesterday, but before we knew it, we were hiking around and going down this insane "trail"--Uncle Tom's (what a name!) which was over 300 steps that went straight down to the bottom of a waterfall. It was actually a lot of masochistic fun.

On the upper loop (east side), after that there weren't as many thermal wonders, so we drove, oooed, ahhhhed, went through the pass at 9K+ feet and passed Mt. Washburn (10K+ feet) finally came to the northernmost part--Mammoth Springs. Cool old stone buidlings and things, but the heat and hike were a bad combo for me. Also, the springs actually were best seen from the road!

I was overwhelmed by YS, and not in an entirely good way. It was almost like too many rides at Disneyland or too much chocolate cake (I believe this IS possible). This is pathetic on my part, but there it was. As we emerged into the tourist craziness (but in miniature!) of Gardiner, on the north side, it was nice to come down to about 3K' and the empty sweeping green of so much of Montana. All the way, we could see the mountains of Yellowstone, and now that I was out of it, I loved it again. (Does anyone else almost enjoy trips more when it's all over?)