yellowstone

The first thing you see coming into Yellowstone's south entrance are towering walls of rock that look like they're right out of a Lord of the Rings movie. To add to the awe we were feeling, it was the first place that our National Parks Access pass got us into. $25 for $80 and counting! It was late so we ended up having to go camping in the biggest site in Yellostone - almost 400 sites were there. I was so prepared for Yellowstone rules. I'd read a million different pamphlets, websites, and books about bear safety and the proper way to keep food smells and other odors away from you and away from the scent of bears. Consequently, we were pretty surprised as we pulled into the campsite to see people washing dishes at the water stations, throwing food and wrappers into fires, throwing food away without it being bagged first, etc. And despite the 100 yard rule people are supposed to keep from bears and wolves in the park, not to mention bison, people would get out and park across the street from these animals, edging closer and closer, to get their photo op. I think they think they're in a safe zoo, or that they imagine there's still TV glass in between them and their big adventure.


Our first night we camped across beautiful Yellowstone Lake. We figured out that if we were up early, we could get to a remote site the next day, which was one of the first things that went according to plan. As we headed for the site, we had our first bear site: a mama grizzly and two cubs. A ways down the road, we saw a black bear grubbing in the grass. We got a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet campsite at the Tower Junction, and just kept our tent there for the next 2 nights. The rest of the time, we hiked ourselves into oblivion.

We decided to summit Mount Washburn first...our map said it was a 2.5 mile hike in and back, but it failed to account for switchbacks. We kept our GPS on and when we finally crawled back to our van, it had been a 9 mile plus hike, gaining 2,000 feet on the way up and then 2,000 feet back down. The start was beautiful. It was early spring up there, so the wildflowers were out. Blue, purple, yellow, white, pink, orange...I have never seen such amazing wildflowers. As we got further up, the vegetation faded along with our breath and stamina. The wind picked up to make up for it. By the time we were to 10,000 feet, we were walking next to snowbanks that were still 15 feet high. And by the time we made the final summit to a very lonely fire-spotter ranger living quarters, the wind felt gale force strong and our feelings of triumph were wilted a bit by the whipping the altitude gave us. Us poor little flatlanders.

The next day, we played it mild and hiked Lost Lake. Aside from a swarm of mosquitoes, it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Alpine sage brush meadows with even more impressive wildflower displays. Waterfalls. Blue water reflecting snow covered mountains. Playing antelope. Trees twisted into strange shapes from the wind and providing such wonderful shade it seemed like they were there just for us--of course, they are there for themselves and everyone else, but it seemed like it at the time. Even though this was a fairly easy hike, we were so pooped from the day before that we fell into our tent exhausted in the afternoon. We slept so soundly, we didn't notice the spooked bison run through our campground a few feet from our tent. We were told about it later by some incredulous fellow campers who'd just arrived.


We left Yellowstone early in the morning on a weekday, so the roads were fairly quiet. That's probably why we were the first to come upon a subordinate grizzly in the road. (That's right - subordinate. It's a teenage bear who has recently been kicked out of mama's protection. For those of you haven't attended a Yellowstone ranger talk - put it on your To-Do list if you vist. We loved the ranger talks and I learned so much about bears that I now feel like I understand them a little more and fear them just a little less.) Cars started piling up on either side of us soon. The idiots starting trundling out of their cars, right next to the grizzly. We had stopped, trying to give the griz the 100 yards. But it was walking right toward us, and cars were lined up behind us, so we had no choice. It munched juicy green grass, not caring much about us at all, right up to our car and past. I could feel my stomach tighten a little bit, just because they are really intense looking creatures. It walked by us so close that if I'd been as big of an idiot as everyone else there, I could have reached out and touched him.

And I'm still alive. Maybe a little more so.