Americas First National Park
Sam in the morning at Yellowstone Park
We woke up early to the sound of rain starting on our tents, Reed and I rolled back over and went back to sleep for a couple more hours. We woke up once again to the rain stopping around 6:30. We quickly packed the tents up as it started to rain again. We got a little wet as we finished up packing up the tent. I was cold and wet, so I thought I would take a quick shower to warm up before we left (very rare we have access to showers). I got out of the shower and felt much better. I walked out of the bathroom only to find it was snowing! I was amazed as I started my walk back to the van. I have never seen snow in June before.
As soon as I got back to the van we left for Yellowstone, with our campsite being a short 2 miles from the entrance. Today it was difficult though, it was snowing very heavily, and it was hard to see. Once we got to the Yellowstone entrance sign, we had to get out and take a picture. The day before we were wearing shorts and jackets. After the pictures we continued. We all watched in amazement as almost a quarter of an inch of snow accumulated on the ground. We got out one a bridge and took a couple of quick pictures and proceeded on. Next stop was Old Faithful geyser.
As we arrived at the Old Faithful gift shop and visitors center, we realized we had a little more than an hour until the next eruption. We spent our time searching through the gift shop seeing of anything would catch our eyes. We saw that the next time was at 10:37 AM, give or take 15 minutes. We headed out about 20 minutes early to ensure that we got a good parking spot and a spot to see the geyser erupt. As we were walking up the viewing area, we noticed there were very few people. We walked around the boardwalk until it was close to the time of eruption. Once it was close, we stopped and picked our spot to view the geyser. About 15 minutes before it was said to erupt, more and more people started to show up at the viewing area. About 5 minutes past the time it was said to erupt, it erupted. The 30 seconds seeing hundreds of gallons of water being shot hundreds of feet in the air was pretty impressive. After viewing the geyser, we headed down a walkway to check out the hot springs.
Ben and Sam walking up to Old Faithful
The walk was almost 2 miles long from the start to the end of it. As we followed the boardwalk we found many small burbling hot springs that all had a reek of sulfur gas. At the end of all the impressive hot springs and geysers, we found one of the more famous hot springs called Morning Glory. After viewing the beautiful hot spring, we started the long walk back to the car for lunch. When we got back to the car and headed out. We drove around a little bit to find an area to eat.
We soon found an area to eat a few miles outside of the Old Faithful parking lot. The little area we sat and had lunch was hidden back in some trees and was nice and quiet. There were few people back in this area also enjoying their lunches. We ate our peanut butter, Nutella, and jelly sandwiches, and also made a few cups of coffee. After our peaceful lunch we headed out to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.
The drive lasted about a half and hour and we were there. We parked in the parking lot and walked up to where we could view the large waterfall. As we got closer we could feel the temperature getting cooler and also hear the many thousands upon thousands of gallons being poured over the edge of the waterfall. When we got to one of the viewing points, we were amazed. Just seeing how big and forceful the waterfall was was amazing. As we looked for a couple of minutes, we would just look at each other and smile. We checked out a couple more viewing sights of that side of the river and headed back to the car. On the way back, we joked about whitewater rafting down that river and waterfall (it would not have been a good idea at all). We drove to the other side of the river to get another viewpoint of the waterfall. It was a short couple minute hike to the other viewing point. We were once again amazed by the sight. We soon left and headed to the Canyon Visitors Center to get more information.
One of the top views of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
Once we arrived at the visitor’s center, we realized it was closed. We were trying to get a back country camping permit for one of the following days. We realized we could not get in and get the permit. The one thing that we did realize was that we had service in the parking lot. We were all very excited because we rarely got any service in the park and got nothing at the campsite. We sat in the parking lot for a few hours working on writing and posting blogs. We also sent quick texts or calls to our parents. We decided on going back to the campsite we had stayed the night before.
When we got back to the Flag Ranch campsite it was a quick check in and our new site was only a few down from the night before. We set up our tents, cooked some dinner, and went to bed since we were all very tired. Before I went to bed, Reed and I had a quick shower (it was very rare we had access to showers), and then went to bed. Once I went to bed I knew it was a great day and tomorrow was going to be filled with excitement. I was excited and knew I had no regrets!