So we headed out to Yellowstone a few weekends ago two reasons. One, I've never been and Corey really wanted to take me there and two, it was our six month anniversary and we wanted to get away before we moved and went back to school and wouldn't be able to go on very many grand adventures for a while. So off we went.
We left on Thursday and stopped by Big Spring. It is a place where a river just starts out of the ground, it was very cool. The water was very clear and underneath the bridge are these really big fish (they weren't all that big when we were there but that's because a local said that otters were eating them further down stream). There was even a little water wheel house that supplies the power to the visitor center.
We camped at Madison Camp ground for the night, after setting up the tent, in the dark, cooking dinner, in the dark, and brushing our teeth, in the dark (just kidding you can't do that they have bears and you get in trouble for it but they do have bathrooms with running cold water and flushing toilets (YAY for camping with flushing toilets! Can you really call that camping?)
The next morning was Friday and we headed off to cover the lower loop. Here is our list of stops for day 1:
Fountain Paint Pots (see photo of us in front of tree roots)
Grand Prismatic Spring
Biscuit Basin
Black Sand
Old Faithful
West Thumb
Mud Volcano
Watch wolves eat dead buffalo remains
Artist Point -Fabulous view by the way
Canyon Village Visitor Center
Norris Geyser Basin -Desolate waste land don't bother stopping here if you go
As you can see our day was absolutely PACKED!!! After Norris we headed back to camp to make dinner, again in the dark I've got to learn to plan better. Corey made a fire, there was some guy singing Flogging Molly songs (he was actually really good) and then we went to bed.
Day 2:
Gibben Falls
Artist Paint Pots - very cool I liked this the best (see video)
Pull out to check the unofficial climbing (Corey did find a bolt and remnants of boldering)
Mamoth Hot Springs - also a desolate waste land but worth stopping by there is a awesome road that is almost like a rollercoaster.
Liberty Cap, Devils Thumb, & the moving spring @ lower Mamoth
Petrified Tree
Calcite Springs
Tower Falls
The best part of Day 2 was the rapids we played in at the Firehole River. This was at the very end of the day and it was fun because we got to hike around/swim across the current to get up to the top of the rapids and then ride the current back down. We even found some "deep" water soloing while we were fighting the currents to get back to the top. It was very fun and very tiring. If you look carefully at the picture you can see someone about to jump in near the top of the rapids and other people working there way there.
So, this is about 2 weeks late. Jentri and I packed up 2 pick-up trucks, a trailor, my subaru, and her car to move to Rexburg for school! All I can say is that we have got a ton of stuff! Over all the packing and transfer went quite smoothly. Now we are moved into our, larger than last, one bedroom appartment. With full access to the 2 rooms upstairs, which is now our storage. Now that we have got all of our crap in one place we can go through it all and try to slim down. Next time 2 trucks are not the option.
