After my night in Sheridan, I hit the road to Yellowstone National Park. It wasn't a short drive, about four and a half hours, but unlike my other long drives, this one was anything but boring. I had seen signs all the way in Rapid City about how Route 14 is the most scenic drive to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. And boy, it's not an exaggeration. What is failed to be mentioned is the fact that you are driving through mountains. The roads are one lane each way, carved into the mountain, hugging curves and cliffs. Beautiful, but scary. Hence, why there are no pictures.
Surviving the mountains and greenery and treacherous curves, you are dumped out in the desert. Apparently, central Wyoming saved all the rest of the beauty it had to offer until I reached the park.
And beautiful, it was! I entered at the East entrance and didn't realize that the park is humongous! My first stop, the beach around Yellowstone Lake, was 40 minutes into the park. I failed to mention that it was 96 degrees outside, so a quick dip of the toes was really nice.
There are pull-off points everywhere, so whenever I saw something I thought was cool or beautiful, I just pulled over and took a couple snaps.
This is West Thumb, my first geyser of the day! Small, but effective. A lot of heat was coming off it to increase the already hot temperatures. And just as you might expect, it smells pretty bad.
Next stop, Old Faithful! But first, some waterfalls. Almost made me miss Ithaca's Gorges!
Old Faithful erupts every 95 minutes. I got there about 40 minutes before the eruption, so I luckily got a good place to watch. All around the geyser is a boardwalk with two rows of benches all around, so as many people as possible can watch the semblance of America. 'Merica. It was amazing. There was a 3-year-old sitting in front of me. She turned towards me, flanked by her dad and baby sister, "Are you excited?" I said. "Did you know the water squirts?" she replied.
More pull-offs until....
...Mammoth Geyser. As you can probably tell, this is the parks largest geyser. At this point, it started to rain. Not your usual raindrops. More like pellets or hail. Just huge raindrops! A couple of snaps and I was out of there.
I exited out the West entrance through Montana, after going about 200 miles through the park. Five and a half hours after entering, I left Yellowstone, the only thing I had wished to see was some wildlife. Seriously. I didn't even see a squirrel!
Good night from Montana! More to come, next time from Idaho. No. You da ho.
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