Yellowstone!!

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I’m sure that the mountain-top drive from Billings, Montanna to Cooke City is just beautiful, but unfortunately I can’t say that I’ve really seen it myself. (I would also like to remark on how incredibly FLAT the google representation of mountains really is!) Actually, outside of Detroit and North Philly, Eric and I really haven’t been more afraid for our lives at any point than we were during this nighttime mountain drive in pitch blackness (no moonlight, due to some clouds I will revisit in a moment) at about 10 miles per hour around absolute hairpin turns with dropoff cliffs. Public Service Announcement: If you are going to drive from Billings, Montanna to Cooke City, Wyoming, please please drive during daylight! Just as Eric and I were beginning to lose our minds, we noticed that banks of snow on the edges of the highway and on the steep face of the mountain. THEN, to our horror, it started to rain/snow again!!! The one positive aspect of this was that shockingly bright explosions of lighting would temporarily light up our mountain landscape and give us a brief peak at the view, but the downside was that it made the driving even more treacherous, and reflected the lights from our headlights until snow was practically all that we could see. Needless to say, we dropped our speed below 10 miles per hour and white-knuckled it until the road mercifully began to descend again. By the time we made it to our Cooke City cabin we were EXHAUSTED!

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And now the fun Yellowstone stories!!

First of all, Cooke City is completely charming!!! Although West Yellowstone is closer to main attractions (and therefore the main base for exploration of the park), towns on the eastern and northern border of the park are a much better option for those who want to really get away and relax. It was pure luck that we were able to spend our first night in Yellowstone in Cooke City, on the northeast corner of the park: With no hotels available in ANY of the towns on that side of the park available online, we called hotels on the morning of our arrival to see if there were any cancellations. Amazingly, Antler’s Lodge had had a cancellation for its largest cabin, which is how we found ourself with a three bed cabin and fully furnished kitchen all to ourselves for a night. Lovely -- especially after our exhausting drive!

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The next morning we breakfasted on breakfast burritos and lattes (okay, that last part was just me) at the “Ice Cream Bike Shop” in the middle of Cooke City’s only street.

Then we finally drove into the park, where we saw all kinds of natural attractions and every manner of wildlife I could have desired! By the time we left the park two days later, we had seen bison, elk, a moose, a deer, a bear, an owl, a pelican, an ospry, a bald eagle, cranes…and I think that’s eveything. I should first explain the protocol for viewing wildlife in Yellowstone (or lack thereof). Whenever people see wildlife from the road, they just stop wherever they are. Consequently Yellowstone gets bison jams, moose jams, etc. About an hour and a half after entering the park, we had driven through the Lamar Valley past huge heards of Buffalo, avoided a deer that had sprinted across the road in front of our car, and taken some pauses to admire the beatiful mountain views when we were caught in what turned out to be a moose jam. At first we weren’t sure what was going on. We saw some people by the side of the road pointing down at a stream, saw rows of cars parked off the road on whatever strips of gravel they could find. Unbelievably hopeful (I had been dying to see a moose since the beginning of our east coast trip) we parked the car and rushed over. I should clarify that, unlike bison, moose do not often simply present themselves at the side of the road. They are the largest animals in the park, and the most rare by far. They are actually the most unlikely animal to see in all of Yellowstone. However, catching site of a pair of bowl-like antlers down by the base of the stream I exclaimed with glee, “It’s a moose!!” We watched for a while until the moose got up again and walked around in the stream. I could have stayed all day -- it was fabulous :)

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That first day we also checked out the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, several views of the large waterfalls, and several crater and gysers. (The sulfer odor is incredible! It is very weird to think that there are miles of boiling volcanic lava just under the surface of a national park visited by millions of people every year, especially considering that it could theoretically blow again at any time.) We stopped to get admittedly way too close to some grazing elk and were scolded (along with all the others) by a pseudo ranger caught in the traffic jam. (in our defense, the elk came up to US right at the side of the road. I mean, we have to respect their decisions, right?)

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For lunch we picked up a few odds and ends at one of the general stores (whose grocery prices are the highest I have ever seen, by the way) and picknicked at one of the designated areas where I kept an extremely vigilant lookout for bears, fearing that they would smell the honey in our peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwiches and come running :)

Before we left the park for the night we traveled all the way to the northern border to take a dip in Boiling River, a designated swimming area where a section of hot spring connects to a very cold river to create a warm swimming area. After a brief 30 minute trek we found ourselves in our bathing suites with one foot in 100 degree water and one in 30 degree water. With strong currents and sharp rocks, we spent most of our time backed up to the springs, every once in a while scalded by a stray drop of spring water that had hit our skin before blending with the cold river water. Though I would prefer a standard jacuzzi for general backyard use, the Boiling River was definitely an experience!

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Driving out of the park that night we stopped in our final animal jam of the night to watch a black bear cross the a river and run along the bank on the opposite side. Very cool!

On our second night we stayed at on the western border of the park, in West Yellowstone. In West Yellowstone we were in for quite a surprise after the quiet charm of Cooke City. Shops and restaurants abounded in the touristy town, with plenty of car and pedestrian traffic to keep everything interesting. Tired from a long day of fresh air, we checked into our little roadside motel (which we decided was a steal at $80 as we looked around at some of its competition) and happily pigged out on pizza, fish sandwhiches, and bottom-less ice teas at the restaurant next door. It was a great day.

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The next day was, well, just one of those days. We went for pancakes in the morning, where we ended up waiting forever for our order. Then we ventured back into the park to make the obligatory trip to Old Faithful. After searching an ETERNITY for a parking space near the Old Faithful site, the max exodus told us that the geyser had just erupted and would not do so again for at least 90 minutes. (Not that I’m complaining that the natural wonder should bother to fit my schedule -- I’m glad it’s mildly predictable at all -- I’m just saying it was rotten timing.) We took a brief hike to a lookout point, then sat down to wait for the erruption on the first row of benches, where some minutes later a group of women sat on the ground in front of us with OPEN UMBRELLAS to block the sun. I don’t think I need to explain how riduculously rude this was (the crowd behind me was rather vocal in their displeasure). Hilariously, when I asked one of them to put her umbrella down a few minutes before the eruption, she just lowered it a little and scooted over, as if I was the only one she was bothering. What is wrong with people? Old Faithful was interesting, but doesn’t even make it into the top 10 of my favorites of Yellowstone Park. I appreciate the predictability of the geyser, but I think a lot of the other gysers and sites are cooler.

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Finally, after a brief walk around the the West Thumb area of Yellowstone lake, we decided to get on the road.