July 26 – 31, 2015.  This was mine and David’s second trip to Yellowstone. The first time we drove in the East entrance. This time we drove in through the South entrance via Wyoming Highway 26 and Grand Teton National Park. David and I have traveled MANY scenic highways. Highway 26 was our most breathtaking drive to date. Some of our elevations reached 10,000 ft. From just north of Lander, Wyoming, where we picked up highway 26 to Yellowstone was about 100 miles of absolutely amazing views. The most spectacular moment was when the Grand Tetons came into view and we were almost nose to nose with them. I almost jumped out of my seat. We were all giddy with excitement.
The Grands have been GREAT! That’s both the children and the mountains 🙂 Rowan  and Ricky did start to get a bit perturbed with my picture taking of them. At the beginning of our trip when I asked them to pose the response was “sure”.   Now it’s “Thanks Gram, I’m Good.”   When the photo op came along at the Grand Tetons they stepped up to the base.
We had reservations inside Yellowstone, at Madison Campground (Senior pass price $7.50 a night), for 6 nights. Our site, Loop C #773 is shady, level and very spacious. We had enough room to play frisbee with E T in “our yard”. This is middle of nowhere camping. Flush toilets and a cold water, dish washing sink are the only “modern” amenities. Ricky had no shot at WiFi. We had no cell service. The Ranger at check in showed us where the phone booth was if we needed to call 911. Remember phone booths???
The main road through Yellowstone is a 142 mile figure eight. Madison Campground is on the west side of the park. From Madison heading south to Old Faithful is 16 miles. Madison heading north to Norris Geyser Basin it’s 14 miles. Madison heading north to Norris than east to Canyon, 34 miles. Getting around the park takes time. Speed limits vary in the park from 15 to 45 mph. Maximum speed limit of 45 mph is strictly enforced. Many areas of the roadway are what I call “thrilling”, no guard rails with cliff and canyon drop offs. Most of the time traffic is going slower than the posted speed limits. The scenery and wildlife on the roadways seem to have that effect.
Our goal was to cover the seven main areas; Old Faithful, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Norris Geyser Basin, West Thumb, Mammoth Hot Springs, Fountain Paint Pots, Mud Volcano and as many side areas as possibly. With 6 days to do it, our goal was easily accomplished. We spent an early evening and an early morning in Hayden Valley hoping to see a bear or wolf. No luck with them, but Bison herds were very entertaining at both Hayden and Mud Volcano. At Hayden they were walking down the road, crossing the road, rolling in dirt along the side of the road and best of all, they gave a “grunt” concert worthy of a standing ovation. Mud Volcano is a 1/2 mile, hillside, loop trail. It’s part boardwalk, stairs and hard packed dirt through a forest of geothermal features (Mud Volcanos, Hot Springs, Caldrons, Fumarole’s). I huffed and puffed my way to the top, really looking forward to the downhill. We no sooner get 3/4 of the way downhill and turn the curve and here’s a herd of Bison. They were on the path, hillside and even on part of the boardwalk! They were blocking the exit. There was no way to get around them safely. So back UP and around and down we go. Finally, we get to the bottom and I needed to use the rest room. There were no Bison near the restrooms. I come out and look to my left and here are 3 BIG BISON BUTTS. I back myself away to safety and this lady tells me that if I had tried to open the door a minute sooner I would have hit one. Oh my God! I would have totally freaked out! Being in a “Earth Friendly” aka “Stink to High Heaven” rest room was bad enough. Being trapped in one by a bison would have been a nightmare. When I get back to the car, David says he was serenaded with grunts when he was in the men’s room. Only in Yellowstone can something like this happen!
Yellowstone is a true phenomena. It has 50% of all the geothermal features on this planet. Rowan and Ricky were not fond of the “rotten egg smells” aka sulfur odor. As soon as you start getting close to one of these areas the stink prevails. They also weren’t as in awe of the visual beauty, as I thought they would be. Knowing about all the bacteria, poison gasses, eruptions, earthquakes, aka, scientific “stuff” made them much more serious. I’m sticking with beautiful. All the scientific stuff scares me.
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (including Upper and Lower Falls) is one of my favorite areas. The hiking is fabulous and the scenery awesome. The best way I can describe the views are picture postcard perfect. All four of us hiked the South Rim Trail. Rowan and I hiked the North Rim Trail as well. The South Rim is longer, rugged terrain, very steep at times, but more picturesque. The North Rim Trail is a little rocky, but has less steep inclines. It also takes you away from the canyon edge into more secluded forest for a mile or so and then back to the spectacular canyon. I have no photos from this visit. I left my camera back in the RV 🙁
The wildlife is absolutely amazing. Our list of sightings include; River Otter, Bison, Fox, Elk, Yellow Bellied Marmut, Pronghorn, Martin, an Osprey in her nest with three babies, a very cute rabbit and many very creepy squirrels. The squirrels make this startling screech, it’s worse than fingernails on a chalk board.
When David and I were here the first time we had “Old Bessie” our 20 year old RV. It was Sept and some of the roads in the park were only accessible by car. We could not get to Mammoth Hot Springs or the Tower – Roosevelt areas. Mammoth Hot Springs is a phenomena in it’s self. The features here are like no other in the park. The cascading terraces are absolutely beautiful. It is a must see area of the park. The Tower – Roosevelt area is mostly a scenic ride with access points to many hiking trails. Megan missed not having her Dad there to hike Mount Washburn. It’s a three mile hike, UP to the top of the mountain.
Two side trips that turned out to be very nice were the Fire Hole River and Fire Hole River Canyon Drives. They were only a few miles from Madison. The Canyon has a swimming hole. Try as he did, David could not get the kids to go swimming with him. After learning about all the “scientific stuff” flowing in the area, I wasn’t going in that water either. Fire Hole River Drive has White Dome Geyser that goes off every 5 to 45 minutes. I thought it was more spectacular than Old Faithful. Funny thing about Geysers is you really never know when, where, how high or for how long one will go off. They are totally amazing to watch.
As fate would have it, the first Geyser the kids saw go off, just happened to be “My First Geyser”, Spasm!
With some of our evening downtime we went to Ranger talks on topics about Bear and other wildlife in the park. We played Scrabble and Racko, two of my favorite games. One night Ricky and Rowan  sat around listening to a Podcast that Rowan had downloaded on his  I-Pod, Welcome to Night Vale. David got a big kick out of remembering how he used to sit around at night listening to radio shows. Things haven’t really changed that much.
At one of the gift shops I bought a CD/DVD package about Yellowstone ($18.95). We were doing so much driving around that I thought it would be interesting to listen to the CD as we drove. That is how we learned about Fire Hole River and Canyon Drives. It is also how Ricky became obsessed with seeing Obsidian. This is a black volcanic glass that is a Doctor preferred material for scalpels. We found it at Black Sand Basin 🙂
Last but not least, our weather. This is unbelievable, it’s July … We had snow three nights ago. No accumulation, but it was snowing. Three out of the six nights we had to use heat at night. We had gorgeous 70 degree weather in the afternoons. We are having an amazing adventure.
Current location, The Jelly Stone RV Park in Missoula, Montana. Full Hook Up, Looooong Hot Showers and Crappy Internet! We are all using David’s hot spot. He has taken pity on us 🙂
No Photos this post, but when we get to civilization, I have some awesome shots. One in particular of a bison rolling in dust and another of E T standing next to a geyser. There might be a couple of candid photos of the Grands 🙂
Next Stop Glacier National Park, Montana. Our camp site is in West Glacier at Fish Creek Campground.