Yellowstone!

When Matt and I were making the drive East, we stopped in West Yellowstone for a night. Over the course of two days, we spent maybe 10 hours in the park. It was nearing the end of April and several of the park roads had just opened, but even so, less than half of the park was accessible by car.

While I’d love to go back and spend some serious time there in the future, visiting Yellowstone early in the season was wonderful. There were very few people – I know you’ve seen the pictures of the nightmarish crowds lining the streets among bison and bears – And if you know me at all, crowds are not my thing.

But despite the lack of visitors, there were still people driving/acting like total jerks. There was a guy who had parked his VW bus on the road. Completely blocking one lane of the two lane road. And I’m not making this up, he was also just around a curve. He was in front of his van, with his camera on a tripod, photographing a rodent (I really hope it was a pika, at least). The car in front of us slammed on their brakes and came to a complete stop so they could see too. This kind of thing happened all over the park. Can you imagine the fender benders during peak season? Oh, hell no!

Unbelievable, right? But the park is gorgeous, and Matt and I had so much of it to ourselves, which brings me back to why it’s so awesome to go when we did. Here are some photos:

Mammoth Hot Springs area