Yellowstone National Park
I visited Joy in Denver on September 20th and we drove to Yellowstone National Park after I arrived from Detroit at 9:30pm. For the first stage we drove until 2am and stayed in the worst motel I’ve seen until then. The water pressure in the shower was like a power washer. It wasn’t worth the 43.50 we paid for it. The alarm was set to 8am but we woke up at 7:15 and left for the last stage at 7:30.
Due to the length we had to change drivers at 10:15 in the middle of nowhere. At 10:30 we had a healthy McDonald's breakfast and only 160 more miles to go. I was looking forward to seeing Old Faithful, the farting mountain and all the other attractions in Americas first National Park. Most of the park is part of an old volcano. First we visited Old Faithful and took a lot of pictures and a video. He was not farting, as I was hoping, but he blew a water fountain 30-40 feet up in the air. Every 80 minutes the same phenomenon. We met two guys from Switzerland. They where visiting the US National Parks. We had a short conversation over the incident at the World Trade Center.
On our way to the hotel we stopped at some other fountains, geysers, pools and springs. All of a sudden we got stuck in Bison jam. A herd of bison decided to cross the main road without looking left or right. All the people from the city, including us, had to stop and take pictures. My plan was to get as close as possible and when one ran after me I would jump on the Jeep roof and give him a headache with the door. I read the fine print in the insurance policy and skipped this idea. Our second overnight stay turned out a little bit better than the first one. The tub was bigger and the water didn’t rip your skin off. The sink and some tiles where loose though.
When we checked out at 6:30, 90 minutes later then planned, the door to the reception was closed. I woke somebody up and finally left the key and the TV remote in the unlocked room. We had another healthy Mickey D breakfast and drove to the pools to take some sunrise pictures. On the way Joy discovered a owl at the side of the road. I took a picture and it seems that it was injured. I tried to wrap it in a bandana to pick it up and bring it to a ranger station. As soon as I tried this it flew away and I had a look on my face like a deer in headlights. A few miles later I had the chance to get close to an elk bull, just because of my zoom lens, but don’t tell anybody. We arrived at the pools and it was not very warm. We took pictures and I still hope that mine will end up in a magazine someday. Due to road construction, we had to drive all the way around the volcano caldera to get to Mammoth Hot Springs. I took some pictures from Lake Yellowstone and of some elk cows. I got one of two elk buts which will be the title of this years Play-Elk magazine. The springs where not exactly what we expected. We checked on the mud volcano, which smelled like shit and the Dragon’s Mouth, had lunch at the shore of Lake Yellowstone and headed for the south exit.
A few miles before the exit, an elk crossed the street in front of us and we had to brake to avoid calling in very sick. We had a sunset dinner somewhere in Wyoming and I tried to order two soft drinks at a "Wendy’s" restaurant at the side of the highway. “One large ice tea, no lemon and one large soda no ice with Diet Coke and HiC 50/50 please.” I got the ice tea, which had 50% lemonade in it and waited another 5 minutes for my soda. “We will get fresh meat in a few,” the server told me. “Fresh meat? I’m waiting for my soda.” “Oh, I’m sorry! I totally messed up your order!” Finally he got it but Joy still had to exchange her Soda-Tea with regular tea. We arrived in Denver at midnight and slept in the next morning.