After spending a week on the north side of Yellowstone, we moved to the west side for two more weeks. This is the side of the park that has all of the "must-see" attractions: Old Faithful Geyser, Grand Prismatic Spring, etc.
And, of course, there's the wildlife. We saw far more bison on this side of the park, and they weren't shy about wandering into the road whenever they felt like it. One day they held up traffic for about 30 minutes while they trotted along the side of the road, just a few feet from us.
We had another roadside encounter with a small herd of elk. We also saw a fox in a meadow from a long distance.
I've said it before, but it's amazing how quickly the landscape changes here. Just a few miles into the park is a beautiful river and waterfall, just like the mental image I've always had of Montana. But a few more miles down the road is an alien landscape of boiling hot springs, geysers, and mud pots.
We learned from a park ranger that of the roughly 900 geysers in the world, over 500 of them are located in Yellowstone. It's just one big volcano brewing under the surface.
Another interesting thing we learned is that while Yellowstone Lake is very cold, there are boiling hot springs right on the shoreline. Years ago, fishermen would haul their catch out of the water and immediately drop it in the hot spring, still on the line; this was known as the "hook and cook." Not surprisingly, this tradition was brought to an end because it was causing damage to the fragile geothermal features.
Speaking of rangers, the boys added another Junior Ranger badge to their collection after touring the visitors' center museums.
We also explored the 100-year-old lodges in the park, which inspired some of the architecture and decor of Wilderness Lodge at Disney.
For the second time (the first time was in Glacier), we crossed the Continental Divide. This is the mountain range that separates watersheds; rain and snow melt west of the Rockies will flow in rivers toward the Pacific Ocean, while rivers to the east will eventually empty into the Atlantic Ocean. While I had heard of the Continental Divide, I never knew its significance before now.
One day we drove all the way south through Yellowstone to visit its neighbor, Grand Teton National Park. The boys thought it was hilarious that "Teton" means "breast" in French, so they called them the "Big Boobie Mountains." Humor aside, these mountains were even more beautiful than Yellowstone's. We kept commenting on how they didn't even seem like they could be real. Sadly, their beauty is hard to capture in photos, but we got a great family shot by Jenny Lake and of course the iconic old barn that is so often associated with the park.
We came very close to seeing snow right at our campsite toward the end of our time in West Yellowstone. After several days of rain and low temps in the 30s the forecast predicted snow one evening, but it was windy that night, so sadly it passed us by. Meanwhile, fall colors are showing up in the valleys and campgrounds are emptying out as the season winds down.
An fun surprise happened just before we left town. A campground just a few miles away was hosting an event for RV influencers, and one of our favorite full-time RV families from YouTube was there. We were able to connect with them and hang out for a few hours. Naturally they were very interested in Eric's line of work and had lots of questions for him, so I expect we still stay in touch and possibly reconnect when they come to Florida in a few months.
I'll close with one more story. On our way to West Yellowstone, we had a tire blow out on the RV. We were driving through a forest with a river on one side and a steep mountainside on the other. Fortunately we only had to drive about a mile on the rim before we found a large pulloff where Eric could change the tire. We were about 30 miles from the closest town and there was no cell signal, so we were on our own - in bear country! I had our bear mace in hand and kept a sharp lookout on the mountainside the whole time while Eric was changing the spare. I'm so thankful that he was able to handle the situation, but I was VERY stressed. This RV life has its ups and downs!
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