June 8th - Yellowstone II

Yellowstone canyon - maybe how the park got its name?

A sunny morning, so we decided to drive out to Old Faithful. Quite a long drive as the maximum speed limit in the park is 45 miles an hour. That’s because drivers hit a 100 bison, deer, sheep, bears and moose a year, so they’re trying to stop crazy drivers killing them and themselves. I guess it still doesn’t stop them driving fast sometimes. So it took us a while to drive there and we had to stop a few times as there were lots of bison on the way. We saw quite a few big herds off in the distance and then as we were coming around a corner we saw the car coming the opposite way had stopped. There was a bison walking along the road! On our side! So we pulled right over and let him walk past. It was so great seeing one so close up! He had the cutest little beady eyes and a huge shaggy neck. He didn’t seem worried by us taking pictures of him out of the window, or the cars around him. Crazy Cruise America tried to overtake us on the gravel median strip of course, what a fool. Guess he didn’t see the FRICKING BISON on the road! (Like the ranger said at the info centre yesterday – he gets off the road when he sees Cruise America (the bane of our RV existence) and he drives with a 42 foot trailer. On a side note, he said so many tourists come here who have never seen snow and then hire a huge beast of an RV which they can’t drive. That explains a lot!) 

Bison walkin' the line. 

We drove a little further, seeing more bison. Then suddenly we had to stop in a line of probably fifty cars. We wondered if that was the queue to get into the carpark to see Old Faithful and cursed our bad timing. Then as we finally were able to continue on, we realised we had been waiting for a bison family to cross the road. There were the cutest little babies! Bison calves I guess! One bison even stamped its foot and charged at the ranger’s car! Didn’t hit it though – just a bluff, but it still looked pretty funny!

Old Faithful – little squirts; not that spectacular. Walked the loop, taking photos of mudspots, hot bubbling springs and geyers. Castle geyser was the best – huge!

Had lunch listening to the ambient sounds of small dogs barking and car alarms bleeping, then headed back for more of Old Faithful. Small children kicking (and adults) pushing us put us off kids again. Not as good at the first show = pretty poor! 

Traffic jam reason - can you see the baby?

Started to rain, so we went to watch the movie at the Visitor Centre, but it was the one we’d already seen so we left. We went to the post office (off for lunch of course) so then went to the visitor shop. Bargain t-shirts and caps! Post office again, avoiding crazy idiots who stopped dead in the middle of a two-way thoroughfare and then proceeded to offload, reload people who stepped out in front of us. D-heads.

Headed back to Norris. Drove Firehole Lake Drive, then Firehole Canyon Drive. Avoided tourists taking photos of bison in several places. Especially amused by the ones taking photos of one or two bison in the distance, when hundreds awaited around the corner!

Stinky hot water hole thing.

Went back to Norris campsite where someone realised he didn’t have change for our site. Went down to Norris Geyser Basin to buy a bookmark to get change. Did the Back Basin loop and saw Steamboat Geyser and several mudspots and hot springs and bubbling puddles. It looked pretty cool – lots of stinky sulphuric steam though! Some parts, with the burnt dead trees, made the landscape look like a warzone or something out of a Dr Who episode set on an alien planet. 

Back to campsite (lucky we held our spot as the loop filled up where we were!) Stopped to take pics of bison and bison babes (Borisina and Alanis Borisettes). Soggy dinner once the fire worked, evacuated to inside as it rained (does that work? To inside??!)

Castle Geyser going crazy - it went higher!!

A quiet night with Sudoku, iPod and old school paper style. And I believe Will sneaked in some Angry Birds too – as always! Hot chocolate with marshmallows and Hershey’s choc like last night. Chilly again.