Greg and Chris Do Yellowstone!!!

Friday, June 12

So the epic Yellowstone trip started when work decided to send me to Salt Lake City for a conference starting June 16.

So I pulled out a map and said "What's near Salt Lake City? Yellowstone!!!" I called my exiled friend Chris Kinsman and we landed in SLC on Friday, June 12, rented a car, and trekked the four hour drive to the world's first national park.

After we'd landed, and I quickly noted how friendly everyone was in SLC, Chris' immediate response was "White and Delightful!"--which I had no idea is how Mormons (up until 1981) described themselves. This became a running joke. I couldn't help but giggle when the information desk at the airport gave me directions to the car rental place by starting "You go to that WHITE building..."

The drive to Yellowstone itself was awesome. I love mountains, and I love snow, which makes you wonder why I live in the hottest, flattest place in the universe.

At the park entrance, we were greeted by a very cute co-ed with ponytails. She took our money, and I looked at her with this relieved expression and said "Thank you for letting us into Yellowstone!!!"

With great sincerity she looked back and said, "Wow. Nobody has ever said that to me before!" And Chris shot back, "Hopefully you don't regret it." We could see her peering out the window at us as we sped off into the wilderness.


"Sped off" is an exaggeration. As nice as the Mormons are, they gave us a Nissan Versa. Sure, it only weighs about 1100 lbs, but it also only put out about 50 horsepower. If we committed any crime, any halfway in-shape business owner could hold on to our bumper and keep us immobile until the police arrived. Actually, Chris pointed out, they could probably call 911, go to the toilet, catch up to us after a brisk jog, and THEN hold us still till the cops came. And we daydreamed that entire weekend about all the fun ways we could irritate local law enforcement, and the Park Service.

We meant to make a bee-line for Old Faithful, not because we thought it'd be the coolest thing in the park, but because we wanted to see it on Friday before the weekend mob showed up. That threatened to become our first run-in with the Park Police. We were both getting impatient because Old Faithful was behind schedule. It was all I could do to keep Chris from running out there with a pipe wrench to fix whatever valve was stuck. 

But in all seriousness, Old Faithful was really cool, but our trip got more and more beautiful with each new excursion. Just when we thought we'd seen the most amazing sight, something even more stunningly beautiful awaited around each corner.

The first river we saw as we entered was beautiful enough... 

Then we arrived at midway geyser basin...

And the Grand Prismatic Spring...

We actually climbed the hill opposite the spring to get a better birds eye view. I'd seen photos on Facebook of people doing this before, and it was worth the hike.

By now, it was very late, almost 9pm, we were exhausted, and had a long drive home to the cabin. We got a beautiful cabin south of the park where we rested up before each day's adventure.

Saturday, June 13

As the Psalm says, "Hungry they were and thirsty", so we drove AWAY from Yellowstone, into Jackson, to both eat a good breakfast (The Bunnery) and buy ice, water, food, and gas. We didn't get to Yellowstone proper till after noon, but on the way we learned something else new. Grand Teton National Park is between Jackson and Yellowstone--and it was every bit as beautiful as we had heard it was.

I mean, really, Whose idea was it to put the world's most beautiful mountain range right in the middle of a mesa, where it stands out most stunningly? Whoever He was, He has a better artistic sense than I could ever have.

Once back in Yellowstone, I had to get another pic of a mountain stream. And it was more beautiful than the one we'd seen Friday. 

The fun thing was going on little hiking trips for the best view. Most people just pulled off the road. We actually went walking to find the best vantage point.

And after we led the way, a copycat crowd followed. We should've charged a fee for being tour guides.

Lastly on Friday we really wanted to get to the north end of the park, to see Mammoth Springs. It was as far from our cabin as it could be, in the extreme north end of the park, but it was worth every mile of driving. Without doubt the most beautiful thing I'd seen so far this trip.

 Our last excursion on Friday was to see the original park entrance, near Mammoth. The fact that it was now on a construction site didn't stop us from climbing over barricades and through ditches to get a closer look. We'd come this far, and nobody was gonna stop us.

We gave some thought about moving the bulldozers out of the way so we could get a good picture, but with my luck I'd accidentally put the darned thing in reverse and knock the arch over. Our pony-tailed park lady who first let us in would never hear the end of it.

Sunday, June 14

Since Msgr Steenson gave us permission not to hunt down a Catholic Church for Mass on Sunday (Thanks for sparing us "Roman Roulette"!!) we got an early start. We were determined to make it to Lamar Valley, to see all the wildlife we could see, and then to go to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.
And we DID see animals. Mostly buffalos. They were cool at first, but eventually there were so many of them they were like the Pigeons of the Park, and we lost interest fast. I thought this one looked cool, though:

And one of them had the gall to cross right in front of us, blocking traffic. And he just moseyed along. No respect. 

We did eventually get to Lamar Valley. This is what it looked like.

And the weather was so perfect, we had to stop for a pic. It was 70 degrees and clear as a bell all weekend.

I think it was after this that Chris made some Chinese lady get out of her car so he could park it (or was it a man? Hard to tell). There were Chinese people everywhere, sometimes letting their 3 yr old walk up to pet the nice 1200 lb elk (the park rangers saw this and just went ape), and none of them could drive. This woman/man spent five minutes trying to get into a parking space at the general store. And I'm not lying that Chris knocked on her window, made her get out, and parked for her. The video I made didn't turn out, but it looked something like this.

And the last place we went was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. I've never been to the one in Arizona--can it possibly be more magnificent than this?

And that was the grand finale. Monday we drove back to SLC. GPS took us via backroads, which was a treat in itself. I think I could live up there. Send me up in January and I will probably reconsider that though :)