Day 7: Bison, and Geysers, and Bears, Oh My!

Today we spent the whole day at Yellowstone. It was amazing, astonishing, breathtaking, thrilling, terrifying, miserable, and a host of other adjectives. And we loved every minute of it! 

Words can't begin to describe just how awesome and awe-inspiring this park is. Or just how ginormous. Neither can photos begin to do it justice, because photos just can't even attempt to capture the sheer vastness of it all. You drive around one mountain, and there's another behind it, and another one after that, too.

I sort of got an idea yesterday as we were driving here, and I saw an exit for the Northeast Gate, and then some two hours later we turned to head towards our entrance, the West gate. It takes a good hour to move between each location in the park. 

We definitely got our fill of wildlife today. As with Custer, every time we saw cars stopped we looked for animals, and were not disappointed. We saw a bald eagle (perfect for 4th of July holiday), though only Madison could photograph it with her non-iPhone camera. Then we got out of the car and crossed a field to a riverbank where we saw two Bull Elks grazing.

Later we took a six-mike trek down an unpaved road up and down the mountainside where we managed to spot a young bear, but he was too elusive to photograph. I think Madison just managed to catch his backside.

Later in the evening, we saw several bison in one area. We noticed, though, that they were never in herds, always by themselves. Even the ones that we saw together were apart from each other.

Finally, we saw a bunch of Elk as we were leaving the park. First, a couple of mothers with their young ones, and then an entire herd out in a field.

The equally thrilling and terrifying parts were driving around the park, up and down the mountains. Most of the roads have no guard rails and no embankment either, so there's just a foot or so between you and eternity. Same with riding by several of the rivers. While it was nearly warm this morning (we should have skipped the shorts, but luckily we brought hoodies), we had bouts of rain and cooler weather this afternoon. And then, on our way to dinner at the Old Faithful Inn, we had heavy rain and flooding, all while driving just a few feet from the river. And then a hail storm!

We almost didn't make it to dinner on time, thanks to the weather an an earlier traffic jam due to a bunch of people who had stopped to look at some Bull Elks (maybe the same two we saw this morning). I had bison and Pheasant sausage. Got Marsha and Madison both to try the bison sausage, which tasted like kielbasa (not chicken). Marsha was reluctant, and definitely didn't like it. Madison agreed with me. The Inn itself was fantastic. I really wish we'd had time to explore. Very much like Disney's Wilderness Lodge, except that this is the real deal.

With more impending rain, we finally got to see Old Faithful. We didn't get to see it erupt, unfortunately. Have to go back in the morning for that. We did see quite a few hot springs with bubbling water and steam blowing in all directions. Everywhere you look in Yellowstone, there's something unique and incredible to see. One day wasn't enough to see it all, but we sure did our best!

Day 5.1: Getting Loopy on Wildlife

Woke up this morning at the lodge in Custer State Park, then had an excellent breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Thanks to the crossing another time zone yesterday (without realizing it), we got up a little earlier than usual.

The lodge itself is great. Built in 1919 (with additional wings added later), it rightfully boasts that both Coolidge and Eisenhower have stayed there. Coolidge apparently for the whole summer.

First thing we did was drive the Wildlife Loop Road, a long, winding trek through the park, looking forward to seeing more buffalo and other critters. Since we saw a buffalo right near our hotel last night, we had high hopes on that front.

It was easy to tell where the animals were, because that's where all the cars were stopped. Our first sighting was several small antelope, followed by the Custer State Park Welcoming Committee -- a pack of burros that stood in the middle of the road, and even stuck their noses in car windows looking for a snack.

Further  down the loop, we finally saw a buffalo grazing, plus a whole colony of prairie dogs that were full of activity (which went a long way to make up for not stopping at a roadside prairie dog place -- complete with a six foot plastic one outside -- as we entered the Badlands yesterday).

We enjoyed the Wildlife Loop so much, we came back and did it again at the end of the day, as the sun was going down. We saw dozens and dozens of antelope this time, sometimes standing right by the car and in the middle of the road. The burros were off in the distance, and the prairie dogs out of sight. Just when we thought we wouldn't see any buffalo at all, we encountered one grazing right beside the road. He (and yes, we could tell it was a he) was so close, we could hear him chewing. That was incredible!

And after we left the park, we found yet another buffalo grazing near the road. We realized that for the wildlife, the park doesn't really have any boundaries. There's plenty of untamed land for them to roam for miles around.

The only (slight) downside to the whole experience was the mountain roads we took back to our next hotel in nearby Keystone (since we were unable to book the lodge for two nights). It was getting rather dark, and we slowly made our way around mountain hairpin turns. Much scarier than anything we've experienced in NC. But even worse were the many bridges down to one lane due to construction. We had to stop at each one, look to see if anyone else was coming, and then cross while hoping that no one else would do the same. Of course, after traveling down Iron Mountain Road earlier today (see upcoming post), that was just par for the course.