First few days in Yellowstone

Cell coverage is very limited here, so just uploading some text for now.  Will upload photos and videos when we get into a better connected area..

Sunday, June 16th
Packed up the trailer and truck and departed Colter bay campground around 11am.  A very scenic drive along the northern end of Teton park.  Not a very long drive til we arrived at the south entrance to Yellowstone.  This park is enormous!  We decided to try finding a first come first serve site at the Norris campground, figuring that early afternoon would be a good time to find an opening.  A couple weeks ago, I had made a reservation for a few nights, but cancelled it since we ended up staying additional nights around the Tetons.  Plus, making advance reservations hasn’t been a part of this trip anyways.

Pulled into Norris around 1pm, finding that most sites were already taken.  But we were successful in finding a site in loop C.  Not the greatest site, nor a nice creek view like loop A.  But a site nonetheless.  Peak season starts here on July 4th, but place is already quite jammed.

Spent the afternoon with a drive up to the canyon lodge area.  We didn’t bring enough groceries into the park, as there aren’t many services available between Jackson and yellowstone, other than tiny, overpriced grocery stores in both parks.  Stocked up on a few important items at the canyon store, hopefully enough to get us thru the week.  Plus, cell coverage is virtually nonexistent in the park, other than a couple lodge locations like canyon and old faithful.  Tried getting some calls through to our dad’s..

When we returned, tried my luck at some fishing in the creek surrounding the campground.  They were quite small cutthroat trout, but finally some success using a fly on a spin rod!

Monday, June 17th
Woke up early to check out a possible campsite move down towards the creek, but to no avail.  Read the night before about a ranger guided tour at Norris geyser basin, so we dressed and drove down to meet the group at 930am.  Enjoyed an entertaining 90 minute walking tour of the area, seeing all types of thermal features, including geysers, fumarols, hot springs and mud pots.  Quite amazing to consider the size and explosiveness of this volcano when it last erupted, and now we are walking around on the edge of the caldera which is mostly forested.

In reading about the park, it’s recommended to hit the highlights early in the morning (before 10am) to avoid the big crowds.  They were right, cause when we walked back to the parking lot, it was all jammed up like a mall parking lot during the holidays.  Between the folks stopping in the highway to take photos, jammed parking lots and the packaged wilderness feel,  I am starting to think that Yellowstone is the Disney World of national parks.
Hoping to get out in the back country a bit after seeing the major highlights.

Stopped for lunch at a roadside picnic table near gibbon falls.  Continued further south to check out a gravel road designated as a bike trail.  Parked in a pullout and setup the bikes, then ventured out carrying our backpack and fishing rod.  Made a couple stops along the way to continue my streak of fishing luck, but it appears my luck had run out.

Continued down the path before parking the bikes at the fairy falls trailhead.  Hiked about 3.5 miles roundtrip to check out the impressive falls.  Afterwards we hiked a bit further to see the prismatic hot spring.  Noticed some unofficial trails up a hillside, figured that would be a better viewpoint.  It was spectacular!

Rode our bikes back up to the truck, packing them up and driving further south to old faithful.  Pulled into the lot, which was surprisingly not full.  But it was getting to be about 5pm by this point.  Enjoyed some delicious ice cream for a snack, then back to the truck to try getting online.  The front truck tires have been making an increasing amount of road noise.  Noticed they had been getting quite worn down, but my procrastination delayed the purchase and install of new tires as of yet.  Ended up ordering some tires online, which we will have installed later this week when heading towards Driggs, Idaho.

Got our chance to experience old faithful around 645pm!  Amazing how they can predict each one within about 10 minutes accuracy.  Conspiracy theorists may propose that it’s somehow rigged to go off on a schedule, seeing how much infrastructure they have built around a single geyser..  a couple of the geysers at Norris basin no longer function, due to the constantly changing underground conditions.  Took a walk thru the old faithful lodge, before driving back up to our campsite.

Quite an eventful day and we are totally wiped out!

Tuesday, June 18th
Started the morning with plans for an simple mid-day hike with some fishing near our campground.  Once again, Chris’ unplanned short day hiking turned into a full length trek.  A few mile upstream hike turned into a 15 miler, packed with mostly unscenic views, 8 miles of roadside shoulder walking dodging vehicles, grizzly bear tracks, a buffalo traffic jam, and a finale of sore feet and blisters.  Wearing water shoes with no socks is a bad idea for that mileage amount.  I have a dislike for round trips on the same trail, so always seem to find an alternate return path, regardless of the appropriateness of that option.  Cindy will take over the hike planning the rest of this week, once our bodies recover…

Returned to the camper around 7pm, enjoying a celebratory shot and beer.  Walked over to listen to the nightly ranger campfire talk.  Interesting stuff about tracking elusive park animals such as bear, wolves and mountain lion.  Zonked out early again after our meal of home-made tuna helper.