Yellowstone Day 2
Overnight was brutal. Curmudgeon started out snoring till he propped himself up on some pillows. The room next to us was the Tub Room. I didn’t expect it would get much use, as there were showers in the ladies’ room, along with the toilet stalls. We went to bed early out of exhaustion, and people were in the Tub Room being loud surprisingly late. Just after they left, we heard security come by and knock on that door, so evidently there had been a complaint.
For breakfast, we opted for the dining room downstairs. We avoided the $20 buffet and had the $15 French toast, eggs, and bacon instead.
The Internet doesn’t work on the balcony, though it does work inside, but not all of the time. This is one of the times it’s down. It was up long enough for Curmudgeon to see it’s 26 degrees out.
[Later]
We drove up the left-hand side of the park (don’t remember the names of the loops), then along the top. At this point, we pulled over for a quick break. Curmudgeon said he’d like to drive south to some falls. We’d seen a few falls on our trip, and at this point I regret to say we had a disagreement. I had hoped we’d be able to take some time to exit the park at the northeast entrance and go home via scenic Bear Tooth Pass. It was one of my fondest memories of my last trip, but it takes an extra couple of hours, and if we took the time to make detours like the falls, I knew Curmudgeon wouldn’t want to take the extra time for the drive. In a classic moment of poor communication, I thought that the issue had been resolved in Curmudgeon’s favor, and as we got back in the car and I sulked, I thought we were proceeding south to the falls. In fact, we were heading east along the Lamar Valley toward the northeast entrance.
The Valley is known as one of the best areas for wildlife sightings in the park and in fact where I had seen a black bear on my last visit. This time we saw a coyote
watching a deer
and a herd of bison (tiny dots all in a row).
As we continued on, we saw another herd. In fact, we probably saw hundreds of bison. Compared with my previous visit, it seems the bison have truly come back in Yellowstone.
In terms of scenic impact, Bear Tooth Pass is almost like a national park itself. If you have a couple of extra hours and want to exit the park via the north side, I highly recommend going that way. It’s only open a few months a year and closes just a few weeks from now in October, which gives you a sense of how high up it is. When I went last time in July, it snowed a bit. When you get to an overlook and think you’ve reached the top, you haven’t. When you again think you have, you still haven’t! When you finally get there, well, there’s a photo below.
The overlook doesn’t seem that far down. It’s because the plain you see goes a long way out before there’s another deep drop down that the camera can’t see down into.
Here’s another overlook on the other side. Same thing. It doesn’t look as deep as it is. (Also, I just realized there are cyclists in that picture! Amazingly, we saw several of these guys doing the pass.)
We got back to the timeshare about 6:30, and I cooked the rest of the spaghetti with chili and Kraft Parmesan cheese. Curmudgeon was tired from driving and I’m still sick from that cold.
For breakfast, we opted for the dining room downstairs. We avoided the $20 buffet and had the $15 French toast, eggs, and bacon instead.
The Internet doesn’t work on the balcony, though it does work inside, but not all of the time. This is one of the times it’s down. It was up long enough for Curmudgeon to see it’s 26 degrees out.
[Later]
We drove up the left-hand side of the park (don’t remember the names of the loops), then along the top. At this point, we pulled over for a quick break. Curmudgeon said he’d like to drive south to some falls. We’d seen a few falls on our trip, and at this point I regret to say we had a disagreement. I had hoped we’d be able to take some time to exit the park at the northeast entrance and go home via scenic Bear Tooth Pass. It was one of my fondest memories of my last trip, but it takes an extra couple of hours, and if we took the time to make detours like the falls, I knew Curmudgeon wouldn’t want to take the extra time for the drive. In a classic moment of poor communication, I thought that the issue had been resolved in Curmudgeon’s favor, and as we got back in the car and I sulked, I thought we were proceeding south to the falls. In fact, we were heading east along the Lamar Valley toward the northeast entrance.
The Valley is known as one of the best areas for wildlife sightings in the park and in fact where I had seen a black bear on my last visit. This time we saw a coyote
watching a deer
and a herd of bison (tiny dots all in a row).
As we continued on, we saw another herd. In fact, we probably saw hundreds of bison. Compared with my previous visit, it seems the bison have truly come back in Yellowstone.
In terms of scenic impact, Bear Tooth Pass is almost like a national park itself. If you have a couple of extra hours and want to exit the park via the north side, I highly recommend going that way. It’s only open a few months a year and closes just a few weeks from now in October, which gives you a sense of how high up it is. When I went last time in July, it snowed a bit. When you get to an overlook and think you’ve reached the top, you haven’t. When you again think you have, you still haven’t! When you finally get there, well, there’s a photo below.
The overlook doesn’t seem that far down. It’s because the plain you see goes a long way out before there’s another deep drop down that the camera can’t see down into.
Here’s another overlook on the other side. Same thing. It doesn’t look as deep as it is. (Also, I just realized there are cyclists in that picture! Amazingly, we saw several of these guys doing the pass.)
We got back to the timeshare about 6:30, and I cooked the rest of the spaghetti with chili and Kraft Parmesan cheese. Curmudgeon was tired from driving and I’m still sick from that cold.