Jellystone!

Yellowstone has long been the National Park I most wanted to visit — and it did not disappoint! It might be my favorite National Park to date.

(one day late, no real internet while glamping last night)

(also, yes, both Beatrix and I had ghost experiences in our Billings hotel!)

We started at the East entrance, since we were coming from Billings and the North entrance is closed due to flooding. This also meant we only had one day at Yellowstone rather than the 2 planned (alternate license plate entry), so we had to make the most of it.

Which meant starting at the lake (there are some deer in the way way back):


And also seeing bison (photo credit Patrick Rhone, he took this from a still from a bison walking along the road):

We met 2 rangers; the first one basically told us that we were going to die unless we got bear spray, the other gave us helpful tips, we followed the second one. We also picked up souvenirs and provisions at the store.

Then we headed on to the West Thumb Basin of the lake, which we would never have explored without her guidance, and it was awesome.


You can't make a trip to Yellowstone without visiting Old Faithful (Patrick has  full video, I was standing behind some OWG)...


These were the most crowds we experienced and made us really glad we were not staying at The Lodge.

Then on to Black Sand Basin and Biscuit Basin, 2 more places we would likely have skipped without a nudge from the ranger.



I loved all these places with unexpected geysers and encounters.

We did the Grand Prismatic Overlook Hike. Boy, am I out of shape, but we encountered no bears despite the Death Ranger warnings.


We also walked around it on the boardwalks but I have no photos because it was raining and crowded and I was crabby.

We then moved on to the Fountain Paintpots which was charming, and tried to do Artist Paintpots but by then both Beatrix and I were totally Out Of Steam (literally).


It does mean we got to see another large herd of bison though.


We left the park and Freaked Out because it said our clamping spot (Tanneh - Yellowstone) was 1 hour 40 minutes away, but it turned out to be 20 minutes (much better)!

More about Tanneh later, but it was a great night of glamping!


Turns out cow neighbors are both 1) early risers and 2) curious, but that just added to the fun!



And then on with our day, which I guess we will update tomorrow so I will be one full day behind....



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Do We Mean When We Talk About Race?

Image
 (sign from a NOLA bar) Probably the world does not need another middle-aged, white, cisgender woman writing about race. But the world DOES need my daughter's take on it, and she doesn't blog, so here I am. When we first knew we were having a girl, we knew she would have blue eyes, because mine are blue-grey and Patrick's are blue-green. The genetics don't vary much on that one. Other than that, we thought, with dominant genes and some luck, that she might look like her Aunt Patrice. Which she actually does. Except for the tiny little issue that somehow my Nordic genes totally went dominant rogue and she turned out to be blonde and very light skinned. (age 1.5 in the Scow family christening dress) So since she's been old enough to communicate, she's had people confused about her racial identity. She's been told she checked the wrong box on forms, she's had teachers deny her ancestry, she's had government officials question her Global Entry, she's
Read more

New Year's Eve 2023

Image
I did not want to be laying in bed, wearing a fleece onesie and still shivering, while my husband and daughter headed out to the several wonderful NYE parties we have planned. I have a beautiful new dress that I got in Duluth for tonight, and was looking forward to the collection of friends we would be seeing. Our friend Whitney in particular is throwing the last party at her B and B, and it's breaking my heart not to go. But I feel logey and coughy, and more to the point, I have a low fever, and I don't want to mess around with possibly getting anyone sick. I'm still holding out hope that I'll miraculously feel better and the fever was a mistaken reading, but I doubt that. And I feel lucky to have 3 sets of people who want me in their lives tonight and who I don't want to get sick. As our yoga teacher Viv says, it's not like a page turns and everything is magic. You get some things that are good, and some that are not, and life is living in the middle. -- In 20
Read more

Choosing Happy

Image
This post is brought to you by a few thoughts from yesterday: First and foremost, Patrick's new book that he wrote for Beatrix for her sixteenth birthday. Available for a hot second before we leave for spring break tomorrow. The response of someone he knows on the internet, who wrote yesterday that he had decided years ago that he would never be happy (and reading his posts, he seems to be right.). It was one of the saddest things I've encountered in a long time. A friend's social media post, in which she discusses another person's comment of " I really think a sizable proportion of the population has become addicted to being angry" with the sage response of " I think a lot of them are doing it because it's more enjoyable to be angry than to be depressed." A nd we finally finished watching this season's Fargo last night. I won't give any spoilers, but it's extremely on theme with this post. So this is the deal. There's a lot on
Read more