Yellowstone!

This will be a relatively short post, and will mostly include pics of us in Yellowstone National Park.

These pools were beautiful. Vibrant blue, and horribly smelly. :)

Kathy and Jeff in front of the same stinky pool.

Yellowstone was rather crowded, though not as crowded as I expected. I liked how easily we could navigate to different sights we wanted to explore, but parking was pretty much a nightmare everywhere. Once we were parked though, we could easily walk on boardwalks and paths to see what we wanted, and for the two of us in the group that are less sporty, it was appreciated!

Random geyser spewing makes for a good selfie!

Our next stop was none other than Old Faithful who proved to be somewhat less than faithful... It did finally erupt in a glorious hot water fountain, but it took a good 50 minutes longer than predicted. Many people who had gathered to wait had gotten up and left, but we stuck it out. We'd come this far, right?

We knew we were in the right place at least.

THAR SHE B-- WAIT! Is that a bear?! :)

Geyser selfie!

After witnessing history, we took a break for a picnic lunch we'd brought along. (Personally, I was hoping to have lunch with Yogi Bear and BooBoo, but they didn't seem to be anywhere near by...) We found a spot near the visitor center with some rocks and trees, so we ate in nature. We enjoyed the sunshine, warmth, good food, and company. After about an hour, we were cleaning up, and lo and behold...we watched Old Faithful erupt a second time! Heh. Back on schedule!

Next, we drove toward the north entrance to see Mammoth Hot Springs. Oh wow! Was that worth the trip!

Lots of massive sulfur fields, and hot springs all throughout. This was a little more difficult to navigate. The boardwalk was fairly steep, and included many, many stairs. Andy and Kathy decided they wanted to go all the way to to the top. Jeff decided he was fine at the bottom, and I ended up on my own somewhere in between. I enjoyed the time to myself as I took in the scenery, and of course, chatted with my fellow tourists. I took pics for people, and even managed to find some fellow Iowans, from Okoboji area! That was a hoot! When I told them I was from Emmetsburg they said, "Oh! I think we met your husband and friend up there somewhere." We are a social bunch, aren't we?

We were pretty tuckered by this time, so we left and decided to go back to camp.

The next day, Andy and Kathy went hiking in the Tetons, while Jeff and I went to West Yellowstone, MT to take in the touristy side. We met back up in the evening back at camp, and watched a movie as it was too cold and windy to enjoy outside time. (FYI, you CAN get 4 people on the T@B bed!)

Our final day in camp, we all went back into West Yellowstone to shop for souvenirs. My favorite part of the day was finding a million yellow things we could put in the camper:

Seriously. A whole section of yellow Yellowstone stuff! 

My other favorite part happened to be a bench we found to wait for members of the group:

Retro campers RULE!

Finally, after all the hype about bears, I did have a close call with one. I even managed a pic:

Dudes. I'm lucky to have gotten out alive. Look how he almost grabbed me!

That's all for Yellowstone! What a fabulous experience, and so glad we were able to go with friends. In my next post, I'll take you to Jordanelle State Park in Utah, where we will definitely, DEFINITELY get back to some day...

Happy Camping!

Peggy