W E S T W A R D | Road Trip Diary [Part Two]

This post is going up a little later than I had initially planned, but I didn’t want to completely overload on photos so tried to keep it to a few favorites. :D Everything was so beautiful, and sometimes I took a lot of photos and sometimes I just tried to soak everything in to remember. I’ve wanted to go to Yellowstone for years and finally seeing it was pretty amazing (even if it was a lot colder than I was prepared for in August).

 

PART ONE

DAY SEVEN, EIGHT, & (part of) NINE

Departure: Helena, Montana

Destination: Yellowstone (Wyoming)

We camped in Yellowstone, which was super fun, though we did not spend much time at the campsite. Still, it was a nice place to stargaze when the sky was clear, and to spend a few moments by the fire for dinner and journaling.

Once we had our campsite set up, we set off for some of the geyser basins! Because it was so cold, the steam gave everything kind of an eerie, winter look. So pretty!

We also watched Old Faithful, but there are no photos of that here because all my phone could capture was the steam. But still, it was cool to see.

Loved this view tucked away by the boardwalk around Old Faithful.

To close out our first day, we took the Firehole Lake drive, and saw this.
(Doesn’t it look like a mini volcano??)

 

Our second day in Yellowstone, we left camp around 5:30am and drove out to Lamar Valley in hopes of seeing some of the wolves there. We did see a few, though they were very far away and only really visible through binoculars and camera scopes. 

Fun fact: One reason I wanted to see Yellowstone is because of a documentary I watched, in which it featured a clip of a hopping bison. So, when this trip was being planned, a hopping bison was one of the things I most wanted to see. And I saw two of them hop on our second day in the park, so I was happy about that. ^_^

Bison ♥

And more bison.

RAVENS. One even “talked” to us.

Bacteria mats around Grand  Prismatic.

After Grand Prismatic, we went to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. (A photo of which is what I used in the header of this post!) Then it was back to camp.

Our last day in Yellowstone was really only a half-day. We ate breakfast at our campsite, then packed everything up, and set out. After walking by the Madison River for a few minutes, we went to the Biscuit Basin Loop.

Madison River.

Sapphire Pool (Biscuit Basin). This pool was huge!

The basins have so many colors in the pools and bacteria mats. So cool!

I saw no pirates, but I had to snap a few photos of this one!

After a quick stop once again at Old Faithful to mail postcards, we began the drive out of Yellowstone and to Grand Teton National Park...

T O   B E   C O N T I N U E D . . .