Yellowstone is supposed to be the most beautiful, popular and go-to place of all the National Parks! Vanessa a co-worker of mind was soo envious I thought she might just get up and leave just to join me. lol. Thankfully she didn't because I felt that the park was alittle played up. I know, I know! I'm going to get sooo much crap from that statement but... having already have been to Yosemite I was thinking it would be MUCH more awesome! Don't get me wrong it was pretty cool but I think my expectations well exceeded it's delivery. Weather was perfect and big open skies... I couldn't have asked for more perfect circumstances.
The drive thru Wyoming to get to the very west corner was a long one. Wyoming, is a lot more high desert and baron then I had thought. Actually, many of my expectations of places have been shot out of the water. For the better, mostly. Out of my normal character I didn't look ahead of time to where I would been staying for the night once I got to Yellowstone. I was just going to stroll up to the entrance station and just ask the Ranger where the "free" camping was. It has worked the last three times so I figured eh... no need to pre-plan. Unfortunately, I got the grumpiest worst communicating old man ranger possible when I pulled up to the Yellowstone pearly gates! After I gave him my Pass ( it's good for a year, lets go somewhere) I politely, ask "Oh, can I ask you were is the free camping on this map?"................. (long silence)................... With such disapproval, "We don't do that." Wait.... what? I mean what are you supposed to say to that? Really? "Actually, no sir there is designated Federal Land all over this great state of Wyoming that you live in. Now, where the F is it?" But really, that's what I was thinking. I replied, "nothing? I checked on line and I know that there is Federal Land in or near Yellowstone, I just need to know where it is." He just said "the camp sites over there behind you are $15 and they are attended (which means there is a host)." Uhhhh... okay well...I wasn't going to argue with the man. I just need to find someone who knew exactly what I was asking. Oh and I forgot to mention that I just drove 40miles to get to Yellowstone from the closest town (Cody, WY). So, there was no way I was going to drive 40miles back into town to do a hotel! No!
After finding a "nice" ranger I found that the closest "free" primitive camp is 50miles North on a dirt road. Guh! It's 7pm and the sun is going to set in an hour. Jesus! By the time I get 25miles in it'll be dark... on a dirt road.... setting up my tent...prolly with no one around.... and just my packaged ramen. RRRrrrrrr. Okay, okay...just think. What do I want to do? I was stressn'. I was hungry and tired from driving and I couldn't make a decision. The only logical thing that came to my hungry mind is to drive out of Yellowstone to Cody (40miles) and get some fresh cooked food. Okay. Cody is a super cute cowboy town. Lots of boot barns and cowboy shwagger with a saloon here and there. I'm lookn' for sumthn' good... Sushi! Yes! In Cody? Eh, whatever how bad can it be? I sit down at the sushi bar and hassle the cute little white sushi chef for a Vegetarian roll saying; with this, but not this... oh and this too! Come to find out he's my age and Mormon...bahaha that's just funny. We got to chattn and I figured we'd had built a rapport. Then I had asked him where there is free or cheap camping around here. He struggles to find an answer. Let me think about it. I figure maybe he'll let me sleep in his yard or on his couch. He comes back and says...................................... "You can sleep in my families sheep wagon!" WHAAAA? WTF is a sheep wagon?!?! He laughs and says "You don't know what a sheep wagon is?" An eyebrow raised. "No!" Then he goes on to tell me he'll get off in 20min and I can follow him to his folks house and check it out. If I don't like it I don't have to stay. I was like, F I don't care if they're sheep still in it. I'm down. The picture above is the sheep wagon that they had remolded into a guest bedroom that was place in their backyard. It's cute and was super cozy. The mom Suzie totally took me in and made the sheets for me..... remember, I just meet this boy at the Sushi Restaurant. Thank God this happened because there was a gnarly thunderstorm that night. :-D The next morning I woke up to a homemade breakfast and jam with the rest of Joe's siblings. All seven of them....LOL. I thanked them kindly and washed the dishes and then head out to Yellowstone for the day.
Okay, on the Yellowstone newsletter that they give you upon arrival it states "Old Faithful erupts on the hour +/- 10min. Schweeeet! That's first on my list. After driving 2hrs. I get to Old Faithful 1:30p. 30min before eruption, so I can go to the gift shop, bathroom, mosy around. Then 10min before the show I sit and wait with everyone else... 25mins goes by....30mins.. Okay! WTF is going on! Who turned off the valve?! Then I walk around like everyone else aimlessly. Suddenly, a ranger is walking around and says that the next prediction is at 3:00p. F! Are you serious?! That's not what it said on the paper!? I'm not waiting around for this to happen. I have to pick Shiya up from Doggie Day care in Cody in 3 hrs. And it takes two hours to get the the gates and another 40mins to go to Cody. Bah! Well I took a picture of it (not erupting). Yellowstone is flippn huge is a series of two large circles. Where each circle takes 4ish hours to drive w/o stopping to look at things. It's huge! Most of the National Parks I kinda got a sense in 2-3 days of being their. Or maybe it was just that's my camping limit. Bathing in a sink, constant bug-spray and cooking with my one burning MSR (thanks Maricar). But Yellowstone, I needed more time to just even complete the circles.
After seeing Old faithful and picking up Shiya that night I was going to meet up with Alison and Rich my homies from PA that I meet in Badlands, we planned on doing to do the Tetons (south of Yellowstone) together. When they got in we decided to head to the Famous Cody Rodeo. Hell why not?! I like horse, bulls and cowboys. It was a great time and we all made sure to wear our cowboy hats to look like we knew what the hell we were doing. hahhaha..yeah right. After the show I hadn't planned on staying in the sheep wagon again since they're in town. So, I made no plans again to where I'm going to lay my head. I figured now that I'm with two other people and Rich is pretty resourceful that I need not to worry. So, I thought! We meet up about 7p and get some dinner and then head to the local bar and shoot pool. It's getting close to 10p and then I start thinkin about where the hell are we going to sleep? By this time Alison and Rich had about 3-4 beers and were not in the same mind set as me. Rich was busy playing more pool with a couple of guys he had just meet. I pulled Rich over and said "Hey, ask your friends if we can camp on their lawn?" He looks at me glossy-eyed and says " Oh, yeah that would be cool." I just laugh.... OMG. This is crazyness.... sleeping in strangers sheep wagons and now asking to sleep on some strangers lawn that we meet playing pool at a bar?!?! Rich smoothly asks the guys "Hey where u guys heading tonight?" they reply "Oh prolly just back to out hotel and then party some more, you guys like to party right?" I grab Alisons arm and just shake my head. She reassures me it's cool "we got Rich." Rich is a pretty strong guy so I guess it's cool. Our new friends tell us that "hell you can sleep in our hotel room, no prob." I perked up! Sweet! Remember, we got Rich. It turned out these guys were super cool and totally let us take a shower and sleep in their hotel room no strings attached. Wow! Gotta love the Midwest!
We got up the next morning and carpooled to The Tetons (1hr South of Yellowstone) which is a series of snow cover mountains that kinda look like the Patagonia Logo . We all fit three people, two dogs and camping gear. It was very cozy! Our first day we backpacked into Shadow Mountain (Federal Land) and set up camp. It was pretty funny cuz none of us had backpacking gear. So our Jansport paks looked like pieces of u know what. Just orange nylon string held our sleeping bags, tents and food off of our packs. A total shame. We got to the top and then set up camp and made a fire pit and gathered some wood. The night sky was just like you'd seen at museum. Complete darkness. So beautiful.
The next morning we packed out and then headed to the lodge. A co-worked of mine at REI Tres hooked me up with one of his friends that works at the Siren Mountain Lodge in the Tetons. We got to shower up, eat pizza and just hung around the lake with good conversation. Later that day we headed South to Jackson Hole WY. where were camped at Curtis Park also Federal Land so the doggies can rome free. So, we spent the evening at the Nepalese restaurant and the Virginian Saloon. This saloon was very Wyoming! All locals, chaps, animal heads on the wall and the only beer options were Bud and Bud Light. Yeeeeah! They had live music where I insisted on just watching. Eventually, an old man pulled me onto the dance floor and was dancing with me... He was prolly 70. That was fun. After three nights together we headed back to our cars and parted our separate ways. I wanted to do the Northern Circle of Yellowstone and then head to MT and they still had to do the Southern half.
New Years:
Drove into Bozemen, MT. Well I'm in the land of the people who live for fireworks apparently (I was told). I guess the festivities had started about a week ago and there are firework stands on every block. I'm staying with my couchsurfer Mary (currently mowing the lawn). By the way being around her 4 roommates really makes me feel inadequate. As an empowered women. They're attire consists of dirty jeans, messy hair and a beer. These women are no joke. But they are also very beautiful and confident. They cook, clean, mow lawns, and cut wood for the bonfires too! Jesus! I look like a frickn priss from California. But besides me standing by and watching all of this go on Bozeman is a pretty cool town. Beautiful men everywhere and you know the country kind. :-D
Glacier National Park is next... boy it was a real treat.
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