Yellowstone (days 1, 2, 3, and 4)

Yellowstone is huge.  It is the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined, which is all academic until you actually have to drive through it.  The time from when we entered the park through the East Entrance until we reached the first visitor center was an hour and a half.  From where we're camping to the nearest shower is half an hour's drive, the nearest cell service is an hour away, and the distance to the attractions range from right next door to a nearly three hour long drive.

We've chosen a campsite that is as near to the center of the park as possible, which puts us in a reasonable range of most of Yellowstone's offerings.  The campsite borders a meadow with a creek winding through it; it looks especially nice when the sun sets during dinner.

If you haven't reserved a campsite in advance, finding an opening at one of Yellowstone's 10 campgrounds can be a a true test of your determination.  The campgrounds run by the National Park Service are first come, first serve and fill up quickly in the morning.  To get a spot at one of the more popular campgrounds, such as Norris, you need to be there by 8am to cruise the campsites, looking for anyone who appears to be packing up, which can also look a lot like someone just getting ready for the day.

You ask them, hopefully not looking too desperate, if they're leaving.  If they are, which they usually aren't, you plop a camp chair down to establish squatter's rights until you can fill out the self-reservation form by the bulletin board.

Much of the time at the park is spent driving between the campsite and different points of interest, although the drive itself is almost always very scenic and well worth the extra trouble and fuel.  You often see wildlife by the side of the road or, in the case of one Bison, wandering down the middle of it.  You know there's an animal up ahead by the number of cars backed up along the road, trying to park off to the side.  This is so predictable that many people will pull off and park long before they can be certain what they're stopping for.  This bison was kind enough to graze off of the side of a parking area so that traffic didn't back up on the road.

Besides Bison, we've seen numerous hot springs and geysers.  Below is a picture of the Grand Prismatic Springs.  Not only is the water mulit-colored, but the sulfurous steam that rises from the pools is also lightly tinged red or blue.

There are many tourists here at Yellowstone, both native and foreign born.  In particular, it seems to be a popular vacation destination for Chinese families.  Lester translates for me sometimes.  The popular complaints amongst the Chinese children are:

"Mom, you've taken enough pictures.  No more pictures."

"This hike is too hard.  I don't want to go on anymore."

"I'm too hot."

Yesterday, we hiked out to Shoshone Lake, which is only accessible by walking or canoeing.  We found a grizzly bear paw print by the lake shore, although we haven't actually seen any bears yet.  Lester has the bear mace ready just in case.

On the way back from the lake, we managed to catch the eruption of the Lonestar Geyser, which goes off every 3 hours.

Today, we hiked part of the trail around the Grand Canyon (of Yellowstone) and managed to find some 3G coverage up on a hillside, enabling this blog post.

The nights in Yellowstone are cold and dark, dark enough that you can see the Milky Way Galaxy spanning the night sky.  The temperatures dip below freezing somewhere around two or three in the morning, but quickly climb to 85F during the day.

 We'll be in Yellowstone until the 14th.