2 Miles and 4 Feet from Home: Yellowstone

Well we just spent three days in Yellowstone! No Internet here and even spotty phone service although you could usually get a call out when you needed to. We left Cody about 10:40. Joanne had heard about a good place to buy boots so we went by there about 10 and after 40 minutes Joanne walked out with a new pair. We headed to Yellowstone and in about 1 hour we were already at the east gate. It took us about another hour and half to reach the campground. We stayed at Bay Bridge campground and with our senior citizen discount we would pay only $12 a night. This campground had water and flush toilets! You could say luxurious. Right when we pulled in a lone Bison walked through the campground and greeted us. After he moved on we set up camp had lunch and set out to West Thumb Geyser. We took turns watching the dogs and viewing the geyser. West Thumb is right on Yellowstone Lake and very large. What a great way to start our visit to the park. By the time we got back it was around 5 and everyone was ready for their daily nap. After a nap Lyn fixed a great dinner that we finished around 9. Perfect timing as there is another amphitheatre at this campground and tonight they were going to talk about wolves. We enjoyed a great presentation in the cool of the night and headed back to our campsite. Tonight it would be in the low 40’s. A little high for Yellowstone this time of year but plenty cold for a good nights sleep. The night went well except for the occasional slip of a blanket that would cause you to wake up freezing and cover your self back up. Jasper worked his way under our blankets in the middle of the night and warmed us up completely. We woke up about 6 am and it was cold outside. I decided to build a fire and then fixed breakfast. It was great to sit around the fire while the temperature had barely hit 50. Not bad for the middle of July! We had to drive 4 miles to take a shower at another campground. It was across the famous “Fishing Bridge” which is beautiful anytime of day but at 7AM ……….well what can I say I do not have the vocabulary to describe it. Lets just say if you have the opportunity to hang out there on any given morning you should take the time to do it. You will be better for it. After we got back we headed out for day two of Yellowstone. We decided to do the bottom loop. This would take about 6 hours counting the many stops and time for lunch. We stopped at the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone and some idiot suggested that we do Uncle Tom’s trail. (Of course that idiot would be me.) We would be able to view the upper falls from the bottom. The trail started off slightly down hill and Joanne, Lyn and myself gladly walked down the winding trail and finally the trail turned to the occasional case of stairs and further on it turned into just stairs. Not wimpy stairs mind you stairs that were just one step away from being considered a ladder. Every time we stopped and considered turning around the view got better. We kept pushing ahead. The funny thing is that all of the people going down were laughing and joking around. All of the people coming up looked stressed and those that could utter a word cannot be quoted here. J Anyway we finally made it to the bottom and were rewarded with a fantastic view of the upper falls. After starting to go back up I figured out that we were in trouble in about 5 minutes. It took us about 35 minutes to climb back to the top. My Dad greeted us wondering what took us so long and none of us could utter a word. Next stop Midway Geyser Basin. We had recovered by the time we stopped here. Lyn, Joanne and myself went and toured the Geyser while my Dad watched the dogs. It was really nice and we got back in the car with a little more vigor this time. We had lunch at Old faithful and got to see it do its thing and then went and toured the Old Faithful lodge. Naptime was near so we headed back to camp took a nap. It was bit hot but we made do and ate another one of Lyn’s great meals around 8. We saw another ranger program about discovering Yellowstone and headed to bed about 10:30PM. After another great night of sleep Lyn and I got up about 6. We had breakfast and decided to take an early shower. Lyn had planned on doing her make-up and drying her hair there since they had a very nice facility. I found a place to charge my phone and got ready for a long wait. Surprisingly Lyn came out really fast. I asked her why she did not do her hair and she said the mirrors were to high and she could not see herself in them…. Ha Ha! That’s life at 4 foot 10 inches!! We decided to head down to the Grand Tetons. Some people refer to these as a\the American Alps. They do not disappoint! (See the pictures below.) In any National Park you do a lot of driving to get from point to point. During this time I found out that Joanne has a condition known as Auto-narcolepsy. Anytime she rides in the car she can be asleep in 5 minutes. Usually we would be riding along and a beautiful view would pop out through the trees. My Dad would yell Joanne’s name to wake her up she would be startled a wake and yell something like “lake…got it!” This happened about every 10 minutes through out the entire park. It was very entertaining! Thanks Joanne! We stopped at the visitor center and then walked around back to the Marina where some of the best views of the Tetons are. After that we took a two-hour tour around the park stopping at Jackson Lodge for lunch. We brought our own picnic lunch and had it right in front of the hotel looking out over the mountains. It was priceless! After touring the Tetons we headed back to camp and arrived around 5. Lyn fixed Spaghetti and salad and we finished up around 7:30. It was already starting to cool off so we just sat around camp while waiting for the nightly ranger show. One thing that has been hard at Yellowstone is not having access to wifi and the Internet. Even our phones were limited and can rarely get the Internet to work. So to find out information you have to use all of your resources. That may include rangers and word of mouth from other campers. We had been trying to get information on Glacier Park our next Destination. We had been especially interested in the weather since things have been a little hotter than usual these past few days. All of a sudden my Dad gets a call from the “Mole” a childhood friend who’s real name is Dane (He calls my Dad “Turtle” for reasons better left unknown.) that had been looking up the weather for us. Thanks to that call we now knew that we going to be treated with Daily temperatures that will be 10 degrees cooler than here. Thanks Dane you are a lifesaver! We did not want “The Hot Woman” to return! Ha Ha! After the ranger show we went to bed about 11. I woke up at 12 and could not sleep for some reason. I could hear a father in the distance yelling at his kid that had to have a midnight bathroom break. I also heard hushed conversations around the camp. I l so heard something like an electric fan being turned on and off. It was like woosh and then woosh and then woosh. Kind of strange since there is no electricity in the camp. As I lay there this sound started getting closer and closer. Finally the sound arrived at our tent accompanied by heavy footsteps and the sound of something eating grass. By this time Lyn and I were fully awake and both quietly listening to this noise that just got louder and louder. I wondered if maybe the lone bison had come back. The sound grew louder as it got up to the tent and as we waited for it to pass on by it started to circle our tent. By now it was obvious that this sound was that of a large bear checking out our tent not a Bison. The sound was the bear exhaling. I had already grabbed Jasper and kept him in a wrestling hold with my hand forcefully covering his mouth. I could tell he wanted to bark but he made now whining sounds. The three of us waited quietly for the Bear to leave but it kept circling our tent. We could hear every exhaled breath along with every footstep and the occasional rooting along the ground. Our heartbeats increased with every sound while we tried to remain as silent as possible. At the ranger show that night we learned a little about bears. They told us that the black bears were mainly to the north and the grizzly bears wear the ones that were known to come through our campground. Lyn and I were both praying and waited for what seemed like ever for the sounds to move away from our tent. Finally it moved away by maybe 10 yards. We had to decide what to do. The problem was to get to the car I had to get the keys, put Jasper’s leash on and then unzip the tent. The zipper alone would make a lot of noise so while we were debating quietly it came back. Finally it moved away and we could not hear it any more. We quietly went to the car and got in. We felt safe but our hearts were pounding. Our car was next to Joanne and Dad’s car. We decided to let them sleep as we could blow the car horn if it came back and we felt like it had left. This was by far the scariest moment of my entire life and I am sure it was for Lyn as well. We slept off and on in the car for the rest of the night. Tomorrow we head off to Glacier National Park. We shall see if we camp in our tent or try our hand at car camping! (Sleeping in the car.) Either way the adventure continues and I am glad to be on it!