Close Encounters

Day 2 in Yellowstone was even better than the first. I woke up early and took  that walk along the river. It was chilly in the morning, to say the least. I was able to see my breath when I got out of my tent. Finally broke out the camp stove this morning, so great to have a hot breakfast. Once the sun was a bit higher I walked along the Gibbon River. The sun was just breaking over the trees, making the scenery even more beautiful. I even came across a few people relaxing in the water; they had found an elbow that was heated by the ground. Looked like they had the right idea.

After Kevin got up we headed back to the Old Faithful area since the weather was starting to cloud over again. We checked out some of the visitor centers, got to see some great old photos and learn some more about the area. Picked out some things to do for the day. Even saw Old Faithful go off again while we were talking with Ali.

From there we drove up to Tower Falls, a tall, narrow waterfall with some great overlooks. The drive out gave us amazing views as we hugged the mountain side. It was the first time you really felt how expansive the park was. We walked down to the river base and had to slide the last bit since it was steep, loose sand. Funny watching other people try to get down. We then took the road back the way we came to check out the Canyon. Of course at this point my camera refused to work and hasn't since, thankfully I finally caved and got an iPhone before I left.

I had been asked on the first day if Yellowstone looked like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon and I was a bit confused. Now I understood. The Yellowstone River had carved through the rock to create an incredible canyon with sheer sides and plunging waterfalls. To get a better view we took Uncle Tom's trail - word of warning to anyone planning on taking the trip - it's a challenge for those afraid of heights i.e. me. It was 328 steel mesh steps clinging to the cliff side descended 500 feet, about 3/4 of the way down the canyon. I definitely thought about not going all the way down to the bottom but I kept seeing all these little kids go by and then realized how close I was so I did make it. I think Kevin thought that was pretty funny. In the end I did manage to get to the landing and back up with now problems. Maybe a cramped hand from my death grip on the railing the whole time, but that was it. Unfortunately no pictures from me on that, too busy not looking down through the grates.

As soon as we got to the top the clouds rolled in, seems like we had been outrunning the rain. Decided to check out a different visitor center to wait out the rain. I'm glad we did because we saw some incredible things along the way. It did take us about 20 minutes to get out of the road though thanks to a huge line of cars because a person had decided to stop in the middle of the road to watch a moose. Backed up traffic in every direction. Eventually we got on the way though. About 10 minutes further we hit more traffic, figured more animals. But this time we were glad to be stopped. A whole herd of buffalo was along the road and they kept crossing the street. No wonder so many cars were stopped. We got started again and then ran into more buffalo. This time we had a close encounter. One buffalo started walking down the road right next to us and passed right next to our car and then behind us. If I had the window down it would of been close enough to touch (not that I would have, no need to anger a buffalo). Unfortunately no pictures of that since the rain had started to come down pretty bad. We also got some good lightening and even hail.

Our last stop of the day was the Norris Geyser Basin. So glad we got there because we almost didn't. It's the largest area of geysers and we saw some more great colors. One of the geysers is the tallest in the world. It's completely unpredictable and might not go off for years. We missed it by 2 weeks.

Spent the rest of the night avoiding the rain. We did both use the stove though.

A very happy camper