Yellowstone Day 9

 Wednesday Sept. 15

I got up again at 5:45 in the morning. I am finding that for me it’s very important to get into the park as early as possible. I packed up my belongings and again I stopped at McDonald’s, picked up breakfast and was in the park before 6:45. The views in the early morning are just stunning with the steam rising and the sun peeking out....

I headed down to Grand Prismatic Spring which was one of the Yellowstone features I was most looking forward to seeing. It was really awesome! I spent quite a bit of time walking around the boardwalks. It was really cold this morning, 23° again, and there was frost and ice on all the boardwalks.

Seeing the springs in the different colors and the steam rising up over that was super interesting. I don't know what exactly causes the vibrant colors but they weren't super vibrant that morning so I'm wondering if it has anything to do with the air temperature or the sun. It wasn't super sunny out yet. At any rate, the springs were beautiful and I was so glad I got to see them.

.After that I headed down to see Old Faithful and I got lucky because I got there at 9 o’clock and heard that Old Faithful was scheduled to go off around 9:30. I walked around on the boardwalks for a while, took some pictures, and grabbed a seat to watch Old Faithful erupt. Again, going early was key and there weren't a lot of people there yet.

Almost as if on cue, Old Faithful erupted one minute after its scheduled time. I even saw a rainbow in the mist.

After that I ran into the extremely crowded visitor center to buy a jacket patch and then decided to slowly head out of the park and towards my next campground. Heading south along The John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, I stopped along the way to check out some views eventually landing at the Colter Bay Visitor Center where I got out to stretch my legs, fill my water jug and stroll through the gift shop.

Continuing on I skirted beautiful Jackson Lake and pulled into my pre-booked campsite at Signal Mountain Campground earlier than I expected....

I found my campsite at The Signal Mountain Campground and loved that it overlooked Jackson Lake. I know I was lucky to score a spot here even though I booked it months in advance and I was glad I did because they were completely full when I got here. The campsites there are a little tight and close together. There were 3 of us packed nearly side by side under the tall trees, but the view was really pretty. Bear boxes are located at each site for safety measures and that was the first time I've ever actually seen one. By walking through the trees behind the campsite you can get a clear view of the lake. Unfortunately, it was a 30 foot drop off down to the beach, so I didn't get to explore the lake like I wanted to.

I unloaded some stuff and decided to go check out the nearby Chapel of the Sacred Heart. This is an adorable little chapel and it's open so you can go inside. I sat down in one of the pews for awhile to meditate and say a prayer. It was so peaceful and relaxing there.

I still had quite a few hours of daylight left so I took a drive down to Jackson Hole via Teton Park Road. Well, going to Jackson was a mistake. When I arrived I pulled into the Jackson visitor center and it was closed. Grrrr..... Then it took me 10 minutes of sitting in the driveway before I could even pull back out onto the main street. It was just so unbelievably crowded with people walking and driving everywhere. I was told afterwards that it's not usually like that so I wonder if something was going on that day? I just did not feel like dealing with the crowds so I left and headed back north along Teton Park Road and through the Tetons again just to enjoy their beauty.

So, on to Plan B and I decided to head over to Jenny Lake where I wanted to get out and do a hike. Again, it was just not my day - when I arrived there were signs up saying that all the parking lots were full and at that point they were only letting in registered guests. I just couldn't believe it.

Really? On to Plan C.... I got back in my car and started driving, stopping at several of the pull offs just to take pictures of the Tetons which were so beautiful and one of my favorite parts of the trip. I even stopped and did a geocache. But the blue ribbon goes to The Tetons themselves - they are massive and beautiful and glorious. They just go on forever and they were more impressive than I had hoped for. The Tetons support several environments including high elevation Alpine areas, forests of lodgepole pine and other conifers, sagebrush flats, meadows, wetlands, lakes, ponds and rivers. It's a beautifully rich and diverse area.

I arrived back at my campsite where I fixed myself some dinner and spent a very relaxing evening sitting in my rocking chair and reading.

Tomorrow I start heading back towards home. I think I’m getting to the point where I’m tired of all the people and the crowds. I read this article which stated record number of visitors for August and I'm willing to bet that September was a repeat of the same. For the next couple of days I have several Oregon Trail related stops planned and I'm extremely excited to see these landmarks that I've dreamed about since I was a kid.

Yellowstone Trip Day 7

 Monday Sept. 13

Today was an extremely long day in the car - much longer than I had anticipated. It started out great but by the end of the day I was frustrated and had a total meltdown but more about that later. 

It was a five minute drive from the campsite to the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument - also known as Custer's Last Stand. The battle took place June 25-26, 1876 along the Little Bighorn River. When you stand at the top of the ridge and look out over the battlefield, the immenseness is staggering. Try to imagine thousands of Native Americans spanning the area and you might get a small sense of what Custer and his 700 men must have seen and realized they were up against.

The free small museum in the visitor center was very interesting and certainly worth the time to walk through it...

Another area is dedicated to the Indian Memorial. I really liked this iron sculpture...

They have a separate cemetery for the horses that died in battle....

A National Cemetery is also located on the grounds... 

Geocachers will be happy to know you can do a geocache here. It always pays to check before you leave.

After buying a book on the Battle I headed out, first west on 90 and then swinging south on 212 aka Beartooth Highway. Starting at Red Lodge Montana, it winds it's way through Montana and Wyoming, ending at the northeast entrance to Yellowstone. I stopped and did a couple geocaches along the way - first one in Hardin....

Another geocache that I particularly enjoyed was in Red Lodge .  

The drive along Beartooth Highway is an adventure in itself, taking you to an astounding 10,947 feet above sea level at one point. There are numerous twists and turns and quite a few drop off areas. The views are stunning but it's hard to drive, gawk and take photos at the same time. The highway closes part of the year and is typically open from Memorial Day until mid October. Allow yourself plenty of time to meander down this highway especially if you're by yourself and want to get loads of photos. I would have stopped more often than I did but it was definitely taking me longer to drive this section than I had allotted for.

Once I got past Cook City and into Yellowstone they were rebuilding  a huge section of road and only had one lane open to traffic. They let 20 or 30 cars go through one way and once they passed through then they’d let 20 or 30 cars go back the other way. I sat there for quite some time in the traffic jam getting aggravated and annoyed at the delay. Not a good way to start my Yellowstone experience. I was hungry and I needed to go to the bathroom. I pulled out some snack bars and munched on those while I sat in traffic and waited for my turn to advance.

My plan was to stop at Mammoth Hot Springs before I went to my campsite in West Yellowstone. I planned it that way because I was going past Mammoth anyway and it would keep me from having to drive back north that way the next day. The drive through the park to Mammoth Hot Springs also took much longer than I expected. There was lots of traffic on the road and my impatience and frustration was building. I finally spotted a small pull off area so I swung over and I climbed into the back of my car to use my port a potty. I saw quite a few bison at many different spots along the way. I was happy to at least start seeing some wild life...

When I finally got to the Hot Springs it had started raining and it took me a few minutes to find a parking space in the crowded parking lot. I ended up taking a quick walk around the boardwalk’s snapping pictures. The springs are stunningly beautiful and I was sorry it was so late in the day, raining, and that I was so tired. I definitely would have liked to explore that area a little more but the rain pissed me off and I still had over an hour to go until I reached my campground.

As soon as I got back onto the grand loop heading south towards the west entrance I ran into more road construction. They were repaving a section of road between Mammoth and the West entrance, so again traffic was backed up for quite some time.   By now I was exhausted and aggravated and I had been on the road and/or sightseeing for almost 10 hours. All I wanted to do was get to the campground and I felt like it was taking forever to get there, and I wasn't enjoying my first afternoon in Yellowstone at all. Then I started thinking about what a long drive it had been so far, how I’m doing it all myself, and how much I miss my husband who passed away last year. I just lost it and started crying and I was kicking myself in the butt thinking I’m an idiot to try to do a trip like this by myself. I just had a massive melt down. Imagine my happiness at finally seeing this sign towards West Yellowstone...

Finally I got to the Yellowstone Park Mountainside KOA campground with a big sigh of relief. The campground itself is really nice with roomy showers. I ate a quick dinner and then I pitched my tent but ended up just crawling into my car. The temperatures were predicted to be in the low 20s that night and I wasn't in the mood to be cold. I was fast asleep by 9 o’clock.