Yellowstone is beautiful and huge. But it’s as schizophrenic as Jekyll and Hyde. On the one hand, it’s nature in all it’s raw glory – wolves hunt elk and bison, forests burn from lightening strikes, and careless people die. But at the same time, it’s a crazy reality show, with 4 million visitors annually to an area that’s not quite three quarters the size of Fiordland National Park. To make this tension work, there is a ring road that only provides access to the tourist highlights normal people visit – the geothermal areas, the canyon, and some other bits and pieces. But the real business of the park happens in the backcountry, were hardly anybody goes because you have to walk, and it’s your own responsibility not to get eaten.

After our fuel pump problems, we rolled into Yellowstone four days later than intended. We were only a few kilometres in when we got to see our first bear sighting for the whole trip – a black bear sow and her cub that had cars and people slowly accumulating. The bears eventually wandered off over a hill, and we did too.

Our plan for Yellowstone was to do the things normal people did for three days, then head north for the border. The delay meant we had missed most of the educational ranger tours, but we were glad to be truly clear of the tourist season as the congestion in summer is legendary. I had talked to a local couple two towns back who had made their first visit a few months previous, and they had taken six hours to drive across the park on a trip that we could now do in 40 minutes in our rocketship.

We had still managed to arrive on an auspicious day, though. The park rangers greeted us with the news that a bill to approve the federal budget had not yet been passed. Depending on how the political brinkmanship played out, federal government services could be suspended nationally from midnight, in which case we would all be asked to leave the park in the morning. Thankfully, a temporary budget through till December was passed, the rangers still had jobs, and we could stay. Welcome to America, but only three months at a time.

We used our first evening to check out the terraces of the Mammoth hot springs, just up the road from our campground. These are one of the iconic destinations in the park, but most of the springs had dried up. I’m not sure if this was due to it being the end of summer or from budget uncertainty.

Our second day, we visited Old Faithful, so named due to it’s predictable 90 minute eruption cycle. We followed this up with three three hours of boardwalking to check at rainbow coloured springs, churning cauldrons of steam, and other geysers that only erupted on days we weren’t there. By the end, the kids had had enough of it all, but just to be sure we went to another couple of sites to look at more of the same.

By day three, the kids were noticing a pattern. The first mud pool was interesting, as was bumping into a random Kiwi who used to farm on the end of our road, but it was clearly just going to be a day of more mud pools. Apparently, they stink and if you’ve seen one gallooping mud pool, you’ve seen them all.

Our fourth day, we took a break from all the gallooping and made the Boiling River our last tourist stop. Here, scalding water pours out of the rock into the Gardner River, a shallow fast flow of frigid fluviality. Somehow, we spent 90 minutes enjoying the delicious tightrope act of trying to hold to the goldilocks zone of warmth, with swirls of water eliciting yelps due to either Papa bear burning or Mama bear cold. And if you forgot to pack your bathers for Yellowstone, please don’t stumble past in peach knickers, it’s way too much for my kids.

The non-geothermal highlight of Yellowstone was wandering out onto a valley floor on the third day, to take a family photo. Apart from the geothermal areas, people are free to wander wherever they want, and so we did. We skimmed stones in the river, had fun with some bison horns we found, and were grossed out by the rest of the bison. Before we had walked down, I had checked that the valley floor was free of bison or elk. On the return walk, we were laughing at the number of people that were now standing around the little car park looking out at an empty valley. Once we got back, a nice couple let us look through their telescope at the grizzly bear and white wolf that were on the other side of the valley. The animals were both some distance away on the other side of the river, but it was an interesting feeling to know that we had been playing in their neighbourhood.

And that was Yellowstone, and we were headed off for three days of driving north-ish. What felt really weird was that after 6 months, almost to the day, of driving on roads we had never seen before, we were now back in familiar territory – we’ve driven here once before. And slept in that Walmart carpark once before. Talk about déjà vu. But then, with a “Welcome to Canada” and one more hour driving, it’s finished. We’re pulled over, parked up, disembarked. With hugs, family welcomes, and smiles, we’re off the road. I don’t know quite what we’ve done, but I’m sure we’ve done something.

So that’s mostly us. The kids are hanging out with cousins and we still have a bit more time till we return home proper. And there will at least one more post here, from a last trip to a Canadian national park. But this feels like an ending. Feel free to send an email via the Contact page if you’re any of (both of) our regular readers, plus I’d love to hear from whoever is responsible for those random hits from Russia and Brazil. And if you’re back home, we’re all looking forward to seeing you soon.

Cheers,

Glen & Family

Our first bear sighting. The cub had already cruised over the hill – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The big knobbly bits at the Mammoth Terraces – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Tiny little terraces, only a couple of centimetres tall, forming on a flat slope on the Mammoth Terraces – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

I don’t know if it was because we were at the end of summer, but the top of the Mammoth Terraces was pretty much dried up. It’s not quite so pretty when it looks like a dry moonscape – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The Liberty Cap, a dormant hot spring at the Mammoth Terraces – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

I love this sign! – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Helping to lower the flag at the end of the day – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The completely off season crowd waiting to see Old Faithful. I can’t imagine what peak season looks like – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Old Faithful, so named because it goes off every 90 minutes, give or take – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Cuddles and smiles over the Firehole River – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Formations around the edge of Doublet Pool – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Hot water and bacterial mat with water from the Beach Spring – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The Belgian Pool. The colours are because different bacteria survive in the different temperatures as the water cools. You really don’t want to fall into the blue water – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The Giant Geyser. It looks big in the pictures but it only errupts a few times a year and today wasn’t out lucky day – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The kids checking out the Excelsior Geyser Crater, but really just wishing that they weren’t stuck looking at yet another pool of hot water – the Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Red bacterial growth, blue sky reflected, and white clouds floating. We couldn’t see the the Grand Prismatic Spring for mist, but there was still beauty to be found you slowed down to look – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Water from the Excelsior Geyser flowing into the Firehole River. It would make a great water slide if you didn’t mind being cooked by the end – the Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Ghost trees next to the Fountain Paint Pot – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Kyla and me cooking dinner. We called our creation Yellow, Red, and Brown, and it included lots of cinnamon after Kyla got carried away with my secret ingredient – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

A random big elk, grazing next to the road – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The Lower Falls, on the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Cuddles at the Lower Falls on the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

What do you call a photo of selfying? A yourfie? – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The valley we walked out onto for our family photo – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The things you find when you walk out on a valley floor – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

A bison carcass we found on our walk to a look for a spot for a family photo – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

The tiny pale spot on the tree line to the right of the two trees in the centre is a white wolf. I saw her raise her head while looking at her through a telescope – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Everyone loves a happy contractor – the Mud Volcano Boarwalk, Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Lake Yellowstone and more rain – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Amateur photographers with some *really* serious, professional gear taking photos of the bear – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Our third bear sighting. The bear caused a massive traffic back-up up but we were happy to drive past slowly too, once we were along side it – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

One of the valley floors alongside the loop road. With the sky overcast, the colours were all husky muted, and sultry intense – near Swan Lake, Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

A spot the locals call ‘The Boiling River’, where water pours out of the ground at about 70 deg C and drops into the Gardner River, which felt like about 10 deg C, tops. We sat in a spot where the water was still mixing, with changes in the mixing sending swirls of freezing or steaming water flowing past, leaving pink high tide marks on our skin. We soaked for over an hour, including dares to sit out in the freezing Gardner River proper, before the kids got bored – Yellowstone NP, Wyoming.

Probably the last time ever that we will overnight in a Walmart carpark. And this was the very first Walmart we overnighted in too, so it was all weirdly familiar – Missoula, Montana.