Day 3 Boise to Yellowstone

The day started off better than the night had left us.  We only had 5 hours to get to the Tetons and Yellowstone.  The weather was still working in our favor so it was pretty smooth sailing.

Smiling and on the road

Along the way, heading East on Rt. 22 in Wyoming, we ran across Burbank Creek.  What better place to stop and take a picture!

Burbank Creek

We continued on the road to Jackson and took a left up to Grand Teton National Park.  As you take the left towards the park, the traffic gets congested and you pass by an archway made from elk racks.

Nice Racks!

We stopped at the National Elk Refuge before driving through the Tetons headed toward Yellowstone.  The weather was starting to change, as it often does, high in the mountains.  The Tetons, were just that, The Teton Range.  They were impressive with Grand Teton reaching 13,770 feet.

Grand Teton National Park

We stopped at the Visitor Center to check out their interactive exhibits.  Interactive may not have been the right word as instead of touching and feeling things, there were lots of stuffed animals.  Not the plushy kind, but the taxidermy kind.  There were elk, beer, wolf, rams and even a porcupine.

Watch out for animals!

Our first non-stuffed animal.

Yellowstone National Park was pretty big.  It is also the home "Old Faithful" and the majority of the world's geysers.  We decided to spend our time to the west of the park and head towards Old Faithful.  It was cool enough outside that we could leave the dogs in the car, as dogs are not allowed off of paved roads.   We parked the car and headed towards the crowds of people sitting on benches and standing around a collection of geysers.  I passed this sign along the way and thought it to be very amusing:

No Standing on Geysers!

There were a few geysers steaming in a few locations.  The crowds were patiently sitting with parents talking to their kids about the timing of Old Faithful.  Signs were posted about no dogs and no smoking.  People, of course, paid no heed and were carrying their small dogs and smoking.  Grrrr!

There were also a few buildings surrounding the area, all which sold $10 ice cream and $4 sodas.  Parents were talking about this, too.

The crowd was from all walks of life.  Families, Bikers, Young & Old.  Even a large troop of Boy Scouts, which I looked with disdain as this was a few days after the Boy Scouts reaffirmed their "No Gays Allowed" stance.

And then Old Faithful started to go off.  At first a few spurts.  The gurgling continued and more spewing.  The crowds were taking pictures and videos, pointing and smiling.  Tom had gone off to get his National Parks Passport stamped and practically missed the whole thing.

I caught some of it on video, which I post below:

Old Faithful Video

We got back into the car and headed towards the West Entrance.  We got a few miles and found ourselves in one heck of a traffic jam.  We looked ahead and found the crowd stopped for a herd of bison.  There are a few rules that we are asked to do while visiting within the parks:

1.  Do not stop along the road to view the wildlife, pull off.

2.  Do not get out of our car to see the wildlife.

I guess today's visitors were from a different country and could not read or understand english, between the dogs at old faithful and the young woman on the side of the road going click, click, click!

It took us a good half hour to get by the bison.  I stuck my head out the window and took a few shots while we passed by.  Luther was curious as to what was going on, but appeared unfazed by the huge mammals.

A few more miles down the road, after passing more and more geysers, we ran into another traffic jam. This time, we were a bit more antsy.  Tom was driving and has little patience for this stop and go.

Come to find out, the traffic was for the deer above, as well as a few others munching on grass.  It was pretty lame, we thought, as we see deer often on the sides of the road in the Central Coast of CA.  I guess others are not that fortunate.

We finally got out of Yellowstone and headed down the road towards a few campgrounds.  Yellowstone was booked for the night but there were a few other USDA Forest Service campgrounds just outside the park.  We headed to the first we saw and there was, again, no room.  They did have a sign telling wayward travelers to go a few miles north to Rainbow Point.

We arrived after traveling down a gravel road a few miles and then another for a few miles more.  We ran into the camp hosts, who stated that they, too were very close to selling out.  They directed us to a site, and if that was no good, we could go the HC site a few sites down.  We got to the original site, which was in a dense area of forest.  The time of day was perfect for mosquitoes and they were swarming.  We put up the tent in a heartbeat, put all we needed inside the tent and took a breather.

Tom cooked some dinner as I walked the dogs.  Spam and eggs was on the menu and we all woofed it down.  We slept fairly well, until the rain started in the morning.  Our first rain!