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....



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