Yellowstone! Oh, Yellowstone!

Ok, so this keeping up with the blog thing can be a little tricky at times.

Warning: Since it's been a few days until I've updated... this one is loooonnng!

Well, we wound up spending 4 nights in Yellowstone. The first 2, were spent in Gardiner, Montana, near the Northwest Entrance of Yellowstone. We stayed in the Honeymoon Suite of a very small hotel. We were fortunate in the fact, that most hotels and most of the park were not open until May 16th, which meant not a lot of people in the area, in the park, or on the trails. The area had a cool spring as well, so with the cool weather and the non-heavy crowds, the animals were ALL over the place.

The night we arrived and got settled in Gardiner, we thought we'd go for a night drive in Yellowstone. The sun doesn't set in this area until around 9 p.m., so our night drive was still light out. That first night, as soon as we entered the park, we saw hundreds of elk, buffalo, deer, and antelope, with a few baby buffalo too. We didn't even make it much further than 10 miles into the park before we turned around to go home because of all the animals we saw and stopped to watch.

The next day we headed to the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" and the falls. Our hotel guide told us that if we ever got a sunny day to go there. It was a bright, sunny, blue sky kind of day - one we hadn't seen in awhile, so we took advantage of it. The only flaw - at about 10 a.m. it was only 24 degrees outside. The high of the day was supposed to be near 60, but 24 is not that appealing to go out in when it's the middle of May! By the time we got to the canyon, we were anxious to finally start hiking. The plan was to start slow and just do a 2-3 mile hike that day. We started our hike in about an inch of snow - no big deal, the sun was shining and the views were awesome!


After a mile or two we made it to our destination - Artist's Point - for another waterfall. These waterfalls were in full force, with ice surrounding the sides of them and snow at the tops. It was just beautiful - there was nowhere you could look and not drop your jaw in amazement. Once we got to artist's point, our hotel guide told us there was a really cool trail off that. We didn't think it would be that long and we still felt like hiking, so trekked off in that direction. After walking for an hour and not seeing any signs for Clear Lake, we thought we had gotten lost or on the wrong trail. I was getting tired because our 1 inch of snow turned into 3 feet, our flat trail turned into a steep trek up the mountain, and the high elevation was making me feel like my lungs were going to pop out of my chest. We didn't have any good trail maps, so were just going on a whim, so Eric tried to use his GPS on his cell phone to see where we were. That didn't work. So, we decided to just keep walking. We didn't turn back because it was a loop trail, so at some point, we figured it would eventually bring us back to our starting point. We eventually made it to the sign that pointed us in the direction of Clear Lake, but the trail was closed. We had no idea why, because there was no snow on it, completely open, and looked like a way easier route than the way we came. So ... we ignored the sign and took that trail. It started as a hike in the forest, then went to a hike in a thermal area (think: Old Faithful), then a lake. So, at this point we thought maybe we were finally on the right track. But then, we noticed some pretty fresh buffalo tracks on the trail we were walking. I started getting nervous, I had already worried about running into bears, but knowing that Buffalo were near freaked me out a little more - that, and not seeing another person for awhile. We wound up losing track of the trail and Eric, of course, wanted to try to find the buffalo. Thankfully we had purchased Bear Pepper Spray that morning, so we were at least prepared and figured it should work against any animal. We did find the buffalo, there were 2, along with some neat birds. It was pretty neat seeing them so close and without them knowing we were watching. Until, one noticed us and gave us a really dirty look. We slowly started to back away... I was officially out of my comfort zone and we were officially lost in the back country of Yellowstone. We decided to continue walking, because I didn't want to turn back, I wanted to get back to my car, where the metal frame would protect us from any animals that wanted to attack. Shortly after that we came to a wide open clearing, covered in snow with 6 new directions for us to go. Eric picked one that he felt was the right one. After hiking that for awhile, I officially asked him if we could turn back. We had no idea where we were going and it was close to 4p.m. Better safe than sorry and stuck in there for the night. So, we made it back safely, but exhausted. Our 2-3 mile hike, turned into an 8-9 mile hike through snow.

On our way back to the hotel to eat dinner, we saw a coyote in the distance. We sat and watched him for awhile and saw him pounce, catch and eat his dinner. He was pretty entertaining! Then, we saw a bunch of cars pulled off to the side of the road. We pulled off to find out what they were looking at... A grizzly bear! But.. they had lost sight of it. So, we all stood there searching and finally found it. But it was wayyyy off in the distance that we could barely see it. So we went on our way to find a similar situation a few miles down. We got out and there was another grizzly! But this one was really close, so close we could see it with just our plain eyes. We took lots of pictures!! And with my new camera, got really close shots.

The next day we headed towards the east side of the park - Lamar Valley. There was talk of wolves being in that area, so we were hoping we would see some. I made sure to make it very clear to Eric that I didn't want to do another 8-9 mile hike today. So he was nice enough to limit it to 1 mile or less trails. We had a lot of fun on this side of the park. We sat and ate lunch at Buffalo River Valley where at least 100 buffalo were there grazing along with elk, deer and antelope. It was so beautiful and so relaxing. While eating, we saw a couple coyotes approach the valley, along with pikas (like mini prairie dogs) and eagles. Unfortunately, we didn't see any wolves, but we had a great day. Later that evening, after dinner, our hotel owner told us of a place only locals know about. It was a thermal pool, or natural hot spring, just into the park that was unmarked so tourists wouldn't find it. We went out and had a blast. Usually thermal pools are at a boiling temperature, but this one ran into a river and so the 2 equaled itself out and made it warm but not deathly hot. It was really nice! To just be sitting in a valley surrounded by nature sitting in a natural hot tub watching deer walk by in the distance. We met some people who were spending their summer working in the park. It was fun talking to them about what all they have done and seen. What a relaxing end to our day!

The next day (Day 3) we decided to leave Gardiner, MT to stay in Yellowstone N.P. at the Old Faithful Inn. It's a national landmark and sits right outside of Old Faithful. It's a quirky little hotel. In order to keep the price just at reasonable (but still too high) we could only get a room with 2 beds and a sink. The bathroom was shared. There is no internet, no tv, no radio, not even a clock in the room. Luckily, Eric managed to work his "special deal" magic and since we had joined a Yellowstone Association earlier in the week (with yet another Eric deal), that membership got us 20% off the room rate, making it officially reasonable. It was neat though, it has a clock that tells you when Old Faithful will go off (roughly every 90 minutes) and then has a deck you can watch it from with chairs to relax in. Unfortunately, we ran into a lot of problems with the hotel restaurant that made our first night really frustrating. I don't think I would ever stay there again, it was too touristy and filled with too many old people - nobody around our age. Plus the 2 days we spent in that area we saw hardly no wildlife. We went from seeing everything, to seeing almost nothing. Old Faithful was pretty cool, but we were fortunate to see a few other geysers go off before we saw that one, ones that are a little more rare to go off, and they were bigger and cooler. So needless to say, I wasn't as impressed when we saw Old Faithful. Eventually all the thermal pools made me sick, they smell awful - like rotten eggs, but way worse. We had fun in this area too, it was so different than the northwest part of the park. We saw 2 more Grizzly bears which was awesome!

Overall, Yellowstone was awesome. It is one of my favorite places. We saw every animal in their pamphlet + a couple more - bison, elk, deer, antelope, grizzly bears, osprey, eagles, yellow-bellied marmot, pika's (like mini prairie dogs), a snake, white pelicans, jackrabbit, coyotes, falcons, hawks, and a couple other birds that we haven't figured out what they are yet.. The only 2 animals we didn't see were wolves and black bears. Below is a picture of the yellow-bellied marmot and one of my favorite buffalo pictures (although I have probably 100 or so more) of a Mom and her calf.




Before I forget, I need to mention that we went back to the Old Faithful Inn restaurant and had the most delicious Bison Ravioli ever. Not that I have anything to compare it to, but it was awesome! The antelope sausage... a little too chewy for my liking.

At the end of our Yellowstone run, we checked out of the Inn and went on our next journey: Grand Teton National Park. It's just about 20 miles south of Yellowstone, so the goal was to go through the park in just one day. This park is absolutely gorgeous - just breathe-taking! I would post a picture, but I haven't uploaded those pictures yet to my computer. But, I do think that it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! The tetons are a large mountain range, they were covered in snow and sit on a lake that is still frozen now. I could've sat there all day just staring at them. Now I feel bad that I'm not posting a picture.. another day.

My goal for Tetons was to see a moose. They advertised them all over the place and the ranger told us a few locations we could find them. Eric was still hoping to see wolves and black bears. This day was finally warm, so during the day it was too hot for a lot of the animals to be out. We made sure to hike around during the day to kill time for dusk. We didn't come across any animals, just animal bones. Again, this freaked me out a little. On our way out of the park and closer to the areas the ranger told us we'd see moose, we saw 2 moose!!! Right on the side of the road. So close to the car, I could've reached my hand out and pet him!! Although, with him being that close, we were also afraid he was going to stick his head in our car. They are so funny looking!! I love them! :)

We spent that night in Idaho Falls, Idaho and did laundry in a hotel for the first time ever. It was just like being in the dorms again. The next day we spent driving 7.5 hours to Spokane, Washington where we had plans to have dinner with an old friend of mine from college, Nick. We told him to pick a delicious restaurant and he did! We went to this place called Twigs, a bistro and martini bar. Everything was delicious and it was awesome to see Nick again. For those of you who know him, he's still crazy and silly as always. :) When we asked him what there was to do in Spokane, he told us.. nothing. After harassing him a little, he finally told us it was more a winter town. So we wound up spending no extra time there. Good times, though!

Then we were going to head to Mt. Rainier as our last official stop before heading to Bellingham, WA, but decided against it. We have been filling our days with so much activity and driving and mortgage stuff and emails and Eric's job stuff that we've still been managing to overload ourselves. We decided to just drive straight to Bellingham and cutting out the extra driving to Mt. Rainier. It's close to Seattle, so it'll be easy for us to explore it at another time. We spent most of today just being lazy. We explored the town a little and stumbled across this absolutely gorgeous area, a drive in a natural rainforest just covered in huge evergreen trees with views of the water. Then we drove past a restaurant called The Oyster Bar, that was amazing! Once you walk inside the entire opposite wall is windows that overlooks the water. The food was stellar! I highly, highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in this area. I read in a travel magazine (that's like 6 months old and I'm just catching up now) that Bellingham is one of the best cities to live in.

Tomorrow we get on the ferry to Juneau. It leaves at 6pm, but with us bringing a car we have to be there by 3pm. Fortunately, there is a Trader Joe's in Bellingham, and since we won't be driving very far anymore, I will be stocking up on my cheap wine and filling it in every crevice I can find in my car. lol. There isn't any internet, or so we know, on the ferry, so also part of the reason why I made sure to write a lot in this one. We think our mortgage stuff is finally all good to go and we're set to close on our new condo on Wednesday. We'll be staying at the same hotel that we stayed at while in March, which is a nice 1 bedroom apartment so we'll have some space. I am so anxious to stop living out of a suitcase, but that still won't happen until mid-June. We don't know yet when our stuff will get delivered to the house yet. And Eric starts work on Tuesday.

So I think I can stop now...I think I'm completely updated now. I am definitely tired of writing and ready to lay on the bed and watch TV. I'll write again probably on Tuesday when Eric is at work. Hope I didn't bore you guys too much! :)