Day Two: Yellowstone National Park

With the first day in the books, I had high expectations for the rest of the trip. After a night in the pouring rain snuggled up in our tent, we were up early and ready to hit the park. Coming from the desert, I was not used to 40-degree mornings. It was such a treat to feel cold. Ha!

Our first stop (which wasn't a great idea) was returning to The Grand Prismatic before the crowds started forming. We found a parking spot and started down the boardwalk where we quickly realized that the thermal pools were hotter than the air so the steam was thick. You couldn't see the brilliant colors so it was a bit of a wash. I highly recommend going in the evening when everyone has left the park for the night.

After leaving The Grand Prismatic, we saw the Paint Pots which I loved. We saw many thermal pools and geysers. We saw one erupt which was pretty cool. I ended up reading parts of "Death in Yellowstone" and it's crazy to read about tragic stories that happened where we were throughout our trip. (Including this spot)

After the geyser basin, we started up to Mammoth Hot Springs. I was excited for this part of the day as this is the park's headquarters. The drive there was stunning and we came across Gibbon's waterfall. The cool air and smell of fresh, clean water was exhilarating. This was the first waterfall I've seen in a long time.

The Mammoth area of the park is beautiful. We saw elk grazing by the buildings which was pretty cool. We decided to drive to the entrance to see the big Yellowstone Arch and eat breakfast in Gardiner, Montana at the Yellowstone Grill. We also needed to catch up on work emails during breakfast. Our food was delicious and the staff were super friendly. I highly recommend this place.

After our delicious breakfast, we returned to the Mammoth Hot Springs where we were greeted by massive amounts of people. I wanted to see this section so we ended up having to park down the road and walking to the boardwalk. Just a fair warning, you need to be ready for the people. You will see and hear the dumbest things. Just put your blinders on.. Ha!

Seeing the thermal features and all of Earth's beautiful colors was beautiful.

Once we saw everything in Mammoth Springs, we drove back down to check out Roaring Mountain, Artist Pots, and the Norris Geyser Basin. By this time Andy and I were so tired and hot, but we walked about half a mile around the Norris Geyser Basin boardwalk before calling it.

We decided to head back to the Madison campground but saw the sign for the Virginia Cascades and pulled off. This was such an unexpected beautiful surprise. We drove through big trees and ended up by a small picnic area with a trail down to the river. I ended up getting in and enjoying the cold, fresh water while Andy watched for bears. Ha! This helped me feel so much better considering the Madison Campground does not have showers. IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW.

We went back to camp, started a fire, cooked dinner, and went to bed early. We were so tired by the time we got back that we were ready for a good night's sleep. When you're out in the park all day, tent camping is easy!

Day three recap soon.

Thanks for reading! - M