Day 24

States: Idaho and Wyoming

Sites seen: Yellowstone National Park

Today, since we found a Wyoming license plate, we have officially seen a plate for every state on this trip! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Before I get to our day today, let me just say that we woke up to temps hovering just under 40° this morning. It made for some excellent sleeping (finally got to use the sleeping bags!) but we all only packed one “warm” outfit each. This means we were all wearing lots of layers as we left the campsite early this morning to head into Yellowstone.

We were told yesterday that we wanted to make sure to head into the park early and once again we’re happy we did!

Yellowstone is 2.2 million acres, more than the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. We spent over 12 hours in the park today and probably could spend another 12 tomorrow. Basically, Yellowstone sits on top of an active volcano and was formed when it exploded years ago and caved in on itself causing what is known as a caldera.

We headed to the Geyser Basin first because we figured that would get the most traffic. We were super lucky because as we got there Old Faithful erupted so we could check that off our list early on.

We took a self-guided tour that basically covered about 7 miles of geysers. We saw lots of thermal pools and geysers on the walk. And we were fortunate enough to see two other geysers erupt.

Grand Geyser

Castle Geyser

Geysers happen because about 3-8 miles underground there is magma. This causes the water that has come down from the mountains and seeped into the ground to heat up and boil and evaporate and cause steam. The steam travels up through the ground getting hotter and hotter until eventually it has nothing to do but explode the water so it can escape as well. I used the teapot analogy to explain it to the girls. But I do believe the very tiny human who said it is basically a water volcano also paints the picture quite nicely!

Next we took a scenic drive up to a trail that led to an overlook of the Grand Prismatic. This included a lovely view of Lake Yellowstone.

After our seven mile trek in the morning it seemed difficult to climb the .15 miles to the overlook. But we made it and the view was fantastic!

After this we took another scenic drive (let’s be honest- everything is scenic here) heading up to Mammoth Hot Springs. The views were spectacular.

We also got to see some bears!! The rangers were already there when we got there and everyone was carrying bear spray. The ranger just kept repeating “No squealing. Everyone stay calm. Take deep breaths.” Then the bears turned and were walking straight at us and everyone started to scramble. But the ranger stopped us and said “remain calm. Back away slowly. Back away. Keep backing away.” It was incredible to see them up close! (Even if I’m terrified of them!) And the babies were so cute it was hard not to squeal!!!

We finally made it up to Mammoth where we were greeted with elk just strolling through the streets of town. They were so close that it seemed unreal. There were so many of them and they were so close to everyone that the rangers had to come and help maintain appropriate space for everyone. At one point the rangers got a phone call about elk in the hotel so they left to take care of that. 😂 Just a regular day with the animals.

We were all exhausted but after dinner we decided to climb the 300 ft to the top of Mammoth Springs. Totally worth it.

Then, having fully exhausted ourselves, we headed back to our campsite. We were surprised at how long it took to get out of the park. We were basically in a line of single file cars moving super slowly for 30+ miles. Needless to say, it will not be an early morning for us. Not sure yet what tomorrow holds!

Talk to you soon-

Deanna