Although the prior day was long (7am to 11pm) and we’d achieved a lot of hard earned miles (about 400), we had seen some great things, and everyone was in good spirits and ready to see some more cool things. We were now quite close to Yellowstone, and even though nobody else really knew anything about the park, they all knew it was billed as the more significant destinations of the trip. To warm up the day, we made a brief stop at the Cody Dam less than 10 miles out of town, before achieving Yellowstone’s East Entrance. Mom was wondering if she’d see any buffalo. Sean and I were keeping a little secret; I’d shared with him that they are plentiful in the park. I was hoping to find a decent sized herd for her, and maybe come close enough to some elk to get some good photos. While we never found a buffalo herd, we did find 3 different solitary males.
We visited the park for 2 days, staying in Montana about 30 miles from the North Entrance in between. Great campgound on the edge of the Yellowstone River. The boys had locally made ice cream that night, and and found themselves in a bit of silly mood after dinner. Mom & JT walked the riverbank the next morning while I showered and got ready to head back into the park. We weren’t in a hurry to depart that morning. We’d had such great wildlife views the first day and experienced so many of the different geysers, vents, and other hot spots, that I knew it was more important to just have a leisurely visit than it was to cram in as many more geological phenomena as possible. Besides, the boys were really not enjoying the heavy sulpher smells. But at least they learned why the rocks are yellow and where the park got it’s name. We did stop at a few odor-free hot spots, but our main destination was the one obligation of the day: Old Faithful. It doesn’t show off as regularly as it used to, but they’re still pretty good at predicting it. We joined the thousands who enjoyed the 4:09pm eruption. Before and after, I had a nice conversation with an alumnus of my alma mater (identifiable by his t-shirt) which I considered quite a coincidence, as I went to a small college in central Maine – a long way from Northwestern Wyoming!
On our way out of the park, we stopped at a pull-out and set out our lawn chairs and had a beverage in front of a wonderful view. We made it out the West Entrance and over to West Yellowstone, MT early enough for Mom to do a couple of loads of laundry and for me to figure out how to get the oven working and then cook us up a Stouffer’s chicken parmesan dish. It sure didn’t compare to Mom’s home made version, but it hit the spot for all of us. We also went to bed heartily satisfied with our sightseeing accomplishments, too. In fact, Mom said she was happier to have seen the bull buffalo up close than she would have been if she’d seen a whole herd in the distance.
