Anyway, I left Missoula (loaded up with leftovers!) and headed toward Yellowstone. Somehow I took 400+ pictures today. I don't even know how.
I want an Anaconda Opportunity!
Yellowstone certainly knows how to welcome you, more so than other parks.
So, I get to Yellowstone, go to the Visitors Center, and head pretty much across the street (down a little ways) to the gift shop (from which I would ultimately exit through), and I just see this. Like, what. It was a big day for animals. Stay tuned.
The first stop was at the terraces. This one is called Devil's Thumb. Well, I think the big rock on the left-hand side of the first picture is the thumb. I couldn't really concentrate because it was the start of an afternoon of stink. Imagine if rotten eggs and sulfur had a baby, and that baby had bad gas. That's what Yellowstone smells like. It's DISGUSTING.
Oh now I know how I took so many pictures. I decided I should take like 15 of each thing instead of just 3 like I normally do. Whatever.
About a third of the way into the park (from the northwest entrance, at least), there's a place where there's just a ton of small geysers and springs. Springs are sort of uneventful -- they're like smelly hot tubs that you can't go near. Geysers are more fun because at least they let off steam and do something.
Thermal area! This place is HOT.
I have like 20 pictures of that green stuff, and they're all at the same angle. I shouldn't let myself do continuous shooting.
Pinwheel Geyser.
More things that aren't Pinwheel Geyser.
Steamboat Geyser.
Geese. They're whatever, but I sort of show all the animals, so here you are.
Grand Prismatic Spring. This is one of the bigger ones in the park, and beautiful from the top. You can't see it in the pictures, and I couldn't see it in real life, but if you get really high up, you can see a really great design and really great colors. Google it or something.
My final real stop in the park was at Old Faithful. I got to the visitor center there around 5:15, and they had a sign saying the next eruption would be at 5:53, +/- 10 minutes. (It went off at I think 5:47.) So, good timing!
First signs of it starting!
First real eruption.
Then another burst.
Watch a (partial) video of it that I took here! (I just missed the beginning, but got most of it.)
The weird thing is that after you see all these geysers and dirt-filled areas, you drive a little bit farther (further?) south and see snow-covered landscapes, probably only about 10 miles from Old Faithful. Very cool.
Exiting the park to the south, Grand Teton is only 8 miles away, and pretty much I'd have to drive through it to get to where I was going, anyway. Teton continues the motif of southern Yellowstone: snow and beauty and such. A lot of these early pictures are taken around Jackson Lake, which is a huge lake that you drive by to enter the middle and southern parts of the park.
Then, excitement! A bear! I was driving down the road when I see a bunch of cars pulled off to the sides of the highway, and park rangers there sort of directing traffic. I wondered if someone hit something, but all the cars were fine. Then I saw what everyone was looking at: this cute young grizzly bear.
Lots of animals today! (More to come.)
Driving more south, there were even more nice views to see.
I exited the park through the eastern entrance, with the intention of driving as far as I could before getting tired. (I got to Riverton, WY around 10 p.m., which I think was like 111 miles from the Teton exit.) But, as I was driving, MORE ANIMALS. MOOSE. TWO MOOSE. MANY MUCH MOOSEN.
Tomorrow, I drive to Devil's Tower, but there isn't much to do there I don't think except a drive around the tower itself. Then, it's off to Mt. Rushmore and beyond. When planning the trip, I underestimated how much I could drive in a day, so I'm not sure where I'll be when. Weird!
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