May 24, 2018

Yellowstone Weekend with the Smaller One

The Smaller One and I went to Yellowstone last weekend (the other ladies were at a Girl Scout camp).


We got our spot, one of the last few at Mammoth Campground, and promptly climbed a big hill across the road. That orange thing just off center is Ludwig, of course.



We were in site 14. 

The Smaller One thought another walk/hike would be nice. We took the trail up through a lot of sagebrush to the visitor center area.

We watched some elk, explored the visitor center, checked out the inlaid wood map at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, ate a couple ice cream sandwiches, and headed back to camp.


Our bellies full of fireside pistachios, we slept pretty well.

The next morning we drove past some baby bison (not pictured) and Norris Geyser Basin (above) on our way to Artists Paint Pots.

Before the mile-plus walk we fortified ourselves with feta cheese smashbrowns. That table really needs a second strut if I'm gonna use the stove on it again.










She may look pretty tired, but the mud pots were a huge hit. 

Next stop, Gibbon Falls, where she ate her first of two apples.


Spring runoff had the falls raging.





The second apple.


For a moment it looked like this bison might charge the Old Faithful crowd.

The geyser was predicted to erupt 25 minutes after our arrival. As 25 minutes turned into 45, I suggested we just leave, as we've seen it erupt at least a dozen times already and would see it erupt at least a dozen times more. Literally just as we got through the crowd, it erupted.


Ludwig took us home via a new route for him, US 191, dipping back into the Park and Wyoming for a short stretch, then eventually emerging South of Bozeman here, facing the Gallatin Range.

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