This past Saturday I left the hotel I was staying at in Gallatin Gateway and made the short trek down to Yellowstone National Park. I first checked into the campsite that I had reserved which was called Rainbow Point Campground. This was probably the worst campground of the three I had stayed at up until last week. There were tons of mosquitoes - which was really annoying. It was also a fairly long drive from the entrance to Yellowstone. I only stayed there one night and ended up camping within Yellowstone on Sunday night.
To be honest, I kind of hit a road trip wall of sorts last Saturday and although I did see some wildlife (mostly Elk) the geothermal flats and geysers just didn't excite me enough to carry enough energy past a few hours of driving through the park. After a night's rest however, day two at Yellowstone was a much better experience and I accomplished so much. I got off to a really early start and immediately came across Elk and then the first wild Bison that I've seen (other than in Golden Gate Park). I checked into the Grant campground which was a really well run campground with a general store, hot showers, laundry and more. I highly recommend this campground.
I headed north through the park, around Yellowstone Lake and through Hayden Meadow towards Canyon. I wasn't expecting to see what I saw when I got out of the car to the lookout area over the Canyon falls. The Canyon area at Yellowstone is as advertised - the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was an amazing site and the lookout points are not for those that are scared of heights - you really feel how high you are when you peer into the Canyon.
After hitting several lookout points for the Canyon, I ventured north again and headed towards Mount Washburn. My goal was to hike the mountain but after finding out it was about a 4 mile hike each way, I knew I didn't have enough time to do the hike and get back in time to make dinner, etc before dark. I hiked up about half way and took a ton of photos.
From Mount Washburn, which offered great views of Yellowstone, I headed back south to find a biking trail where I could turn the mountain bike loose off-road. I found a trail with a 'bicycles allowed' marker and decided to give it a shot. I was on the trail for maybe a mile and a half and was greeted by a 'road closed' sign that warned of an active bear area. Deciding not to risk it - and because I was alone, I headed back towards the car and went across the street to cruise around Yellowstone Lake for a few miles.
Headed back to camp, opened a bottle of Cline Zinfandel and made a Top Chef worthy dinner of angel hair pasta with sausage and bell pepper tomato sauce (Classico). I later called Rachel to brag of my camping cuisine prowess and also bragged about the killer campfire I built.
Yellowstone pictures can be found here.
The next morning I woke up to rain, packed up and headed out towards Grand Teton National Park.