So, neither Rebeka nor I have ever visited Yellowstone National Park. We pushed it to Idaho and about an hour from the West Yellowstone entrance. We got up bright and early to make the push to Yellowstone.
We made good time, and seeing the entrance station was exhilarating. Our first day in the park definitely got off to an amazing start. We entered around 8:15 a.m., and we were almost immediately greeted with our first wildlife experience.
Rebeka as beside her self looking at the elk and the babies hunkered down in the shadows of the trees. You can imagine the squeal of Rebeka saying “BABIES, they are sooooo cute!”
At this point, it was too early to check into our campground at Madison. Instead, I decided to head down toward Old Faithful and just see what we got to see during that day. To say the least, it did not disappoint. We did the whole loop from Madison, down to West Thumb, back up to Canyon, and back to Madison. It was a full day, but we squeezed in a lot for our first day in the park (though, of course there are dozens of stops along that loop I still want to go back and do).
However, as we are heading down the road we encounter our first Bison, or the goofy person in me who kept saying “Tatanka.” As we watched the Bison, I observed this mother down by the river with her calf and she then leaned in and gently began to groom it.
The mass of these animals is awesome.
And, Rebeka decided it would be her mission to be silly or goofy in every picture. But, I nevertheless try.
Not long after our bison encounter, off in the distance we see our fist real glimpse of the hot springs and geyser features.
It was incredible as we approached and then joined the giant crowds to go take a walk a about at Upper Geyser basin, which did not disappoint.
Rebeka was not a fan of the sulfur smell or getting sprayed with geyser water.
After walking the loop, we headed off down the road. I was going to stop at Midway Geyser basin, but wholly crowds batman. So, we kept on our way to Old Faithful and vowed to get back to Midway in the future. We have to leave things for our next visit, right?
After getting to Old Faithful, we stopped, put some air in the tire (its looking like we have a very slow leak on a tire) lucked out on an amazing parking spot right near the Visitor’s Center, and then made sure to get Rebeka’s Junior Ranger book and started straight away on touring the sites there and working on her Junior Ranger requirements.
And Rebeka’s mission to be a goofball continued.
Oh yah, and her stuffed Elephant, Sugar (?) came on the tour with us.
And probably the oddest moment of the day is we’re walking the path, and I am standing next to a couple older ladies whom I overhear pointing at some stuff on the ground next to a hot spring, and one lady asks “what is that?” Her companion friend replies “Oh, I think that’s a fungus.”
This was the “stuff”:
Was it wrong of me to laugh (inside of course), or should I have been a kind person and corrected them and told them, no ladies, that’s POOP!
Besides poop, there were other beautiful features out in the basin loop, like these lovely wildflowers.
And the hot springs and geysers just continued to be amazing and awesome.
Then, according to my plan, while we were out it was time for Old Faithful to go. Much to Rebeka’s surprise, we had a great view, away from the masses of people.
After enjoying Old Faithful we continued on our way, and past one of my favorite features of this stop:
After Old Faith and its many friends, we continued on to West Thumb for another tour of hot springs and geysers. Somebody was rather excited to get out of the car and walk again.
One of the really interesting features of the West Thumb area is the presence of geysers within Yellowstone lake.
And, I couldn’t pass by a picture of Emerald Pool.
After a tour of the West Thumb geyser basin, we headed off on the road again, as it was starting to get late and I knew we had some time and miles to compete the loop and get back to Madison and check into our campground. But, of course we had to stop and observe another herd of Bison.
I love how their coats shed.
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We finally get back to the campground and start to get settled. Rebeka wanted desperately to have a fire and roast marshmallows. Which we accomplished.
However, not without incident.
As I was splitting kindling into smaller pieces, I got distracted by a little one, and not looking combined with a very sharp instrument spelled near disaster for me. I got myself really good. So good that I contemplated trying to figure out how the heck I was going to get myself to get stitches. But, I’m stubborn and it really would have been a massive inconvenience to try to get the camper popped down, gear loaded back up, and off to medical help. My mad backcountry first-aid skills came to hand, and after what felt like forever (because it really was), I got bleeding under control and wrapped the bad boy up and then called it a day.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, it’s a doozie, but I was able to get steri-strips onto it the next day, and while it’s going to leave an ugly scar, but, again, made first-aid skills came to my rescue, I don’t think I hit a tendon (which I was initially concerned about but who needs to bend the tip of their finger, right), so onward we go. And, kids, this is why you always have a good first-aid kit in your gear.
The Endless Evolution 
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