Cabin Creek Campground - West Yellowstone, MT

This morning we had an extra lazy start. It was Chris' second and last rest day for a little while, so we took advantage by sleeping as late as August would let us. I made eggs and bacon, and we did a good cleaning of the RV before we packed up and headed to Yellowstone National Park. It was raining for much of the morning so we didn't see the need to hurry to the park.

It was a decent little drive getting up there. Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks are essentially adjacent to each other, but Yellowstone is huge and you are in the park for 22 miles before you get to any of the major attractions if you come in the south entrance. I was very unfamiliar with the park before this trip, and still am considering we only had a day to spend there. I did learn a few things though. Yellowstone is known for two primary things, its geothermal activity and its abundant wildlife.

I am not necessarily a wildlife follower, but clearly many of the visitors are. As one of the older national parks, it still has the road infrastructure that it did back in the day, with narrow two lane roads and no shoulder. Also, while many parks have a plenitude of overlooks and pull over areas for spectators, Yellowstone has very few and they are often only wide enough for a small car. We constantly saw drivers paying no attention to the road and making erratic, reckless moves at the hint of an elk in the brush nearby. Again and again we were glad that Chris chose not to ride through here, it is no place for bicyclists to be even remotely safe.

Our first stop was to see Old Faithful, the famous geyser that erupts approximately every 90 minutes. August was none too excited as he was napping at go time. Chris was kind enough to stay back with him so that at least one of us could see it. I scampered through the massive parking lot to the viewing deck. Chris compared the parking situation to Six Flags, which was pretty accurate. I've never seen such a parking area at a natural attraction. There were probably a thousand people at the viewing deck to see the eruption.

The geyser was pretty cool. When it gets close to time for it to go off again, it begins to bubble water a bit and you will hear several tourists exclaiming, "Whoa!" and "Ooh!". I was able to contain myself, though I will say the excitement was palpable. When it did finally start, it was neat to see the water and steam plume go over a hundred feet into the air.

Old Faithful, in its normal state.

Old Faithful, erupting.

I brought Chris some ice cream to thank him for taking one for the team. At this point we were still a little sluggish from the rain and post-4th feeling, but we pushed on knowing that we only had one day to see what we wanted to see. I was very happy that we did, because the geothermal side of Yellowstone is by far my favorite.



Inside Yellowstone there are something like 20,000 geothermal occurrences, more than in the rest of the world combined. Of course, many of these are not visible to the naked eye. But the ones that are - it is unbelievable. For one thing, as you go through the entire park you will see random spouts of steam coming out of the ground. It's fun to imagine what is going on in the earth beneath it.

The thermal pools are incredible. The colors in them are otherworldly. They are apparently caused by the bacteria that grow under these unique conditions. Whatever the cause, they are a sight to see. The bright aquamarine hues made me think of the Caribbean, and the orange/red swirls made me think of Mars, except we were in northern Wyoming.

The parks service did a fantastic job of building boardwalks through many of the major pools. Visitors can walk through the thermal beds this way, and you can get close enough to take some incredible pictures. And take pictures people do. Selfie sticks were everywhere, as were people trying to take pictures of themselves with a geyser or an elk behind them.




Also, the amount of international visitors here is huge. Asia, in particular, was very well represented, but of course there were many Europeans as well. I saw a bald Russian guy driving a Honda Odyssey and yelling at the people he was waiting for their parking spot to take, and instantly thought of my friend Marat. It's like he was there!

We saw a few different thermal pools and then as evening approached headed out of the park towards our camping destination. We stopped in West Yellowstone for dinner at Wild West Pizza. I got the Wild West Supreme, which was delicious. Chris opted for pepperoni and we left full and ready to sleep.

We drove a few miles west of town and parked at the Cabin Creek Campground in Gallatin National Forest to get Chris away from the heavy Yellowstone tourist traffic. This is a primitive place, with no utilities (hence another late posting) but a nice, quiet place in beautiful Montana to park for the night.

On a sad note, we got a call today from Chris' mom to tell us that his Aunt Judy had passed away. She had been sick for a while, but a sad loss for all of us. Judy and her husband Bob never had kids of their own and were close to Chris and his brothers. She performed many kindnesses over the years and will be missed. We wish we could be home to attend her funeral, but at this point it would mean not being able to complete the quest. She was so proud of Chris' journey and would not have wanted him to stop, but we sure wish we could be there to celebrate her life at the services.