Day Six: Teton and Disney

We had to leave Yellowstone, eventually, I guess.

Le sigh.

We drove down through the Grand Teton Park, and let me tell you, that is probably the prettiest place I'd ever seen. I am fully convinced that it's photoshopped, or that Disney is somehow behind it. Unfortunately, I only have one picture (my camera decided that that was a fabulous time to die), but hopefully I'll get Casey's soon. Just know that it's stunning. You've got these really craggy old mountains, grey and dusted with snow (in July. Really, Wyoming?), wildflowers, lush greenery, stunning lakes, and butterflies everywhere. It's almost too pretty to be real, and it smells faintly like the colour green.

We made it to our campsite near Jackson, WY, and set up the tent in record time. In the rain. Like bosses. Eventually, though, we headed out into the wild that is Jackson Hole. It's actually this cute little tourist-trap town. We got some ice cream and wandered around, looking at all the hokey little things. Moose stuff everywhere, which was particularly difficult to stomach.

See, when we went on our unsuccessful moose hunt, we decided that we were using the word too much, and thus jinxing it. If anyone said it, they had to put in a quarter, sort of like a swear jar. A swear jar that never got cashed. For the record, Casey won.

Anyway.

We had dinner in Teton Village, at this great restaurant called the Mangy Moose Reindeer. It's pretty good, but the best part is definitely the atmosphere. Everywhere is just crammed with things. There are flags and movie posters all over the ceiling, moose reindeer heads on the walls, and an airplane hanging over the restaurant. It's actually pretty cool.

On the way back, though, we saw a moose! It was a female, and she was just hanging out in a marshy area, grazing and looking completely bored by the dozens of people taking a picture.

It was beautiful, though, because we could say the word moose again. You never realize just how much you love the word moose until you can't say it...

Day Five: Multistate Adventure

Casey and I woke up...lazy. Not sore or exhausted or anything, just lazy. So we nixed the original plan (hiking the Grand Canyon) in favour of something a little less ambitious. So sue us. Regardless, we'd seen the canyon from above. That was all we needed, you know?

Right. We're hideously lazy, we really are.

Since it was our last full day in Yellowstone, we did something awesome: we went on a two-for-the-price of one hike. We saw the Grand Prismatic Pool and the Fairy Falls.

Being the lazy fools that we were, we complained (quietly and amongst ourselves) about the short trek from the parking lot to the lookout for the Grand Prismatic. Keep in mind, that when I call it a lookout, I'm both being generous, and severely underselling it. That "lookout" is actually the side of a mountain, littered with fallen trees that serve double duty as hiker-helpers and benches. Casey and my aunt climbed up higher than I did (Casey for the picture, my aunt for fun), but you don't have to get very high to get the most spectacular view.

For those not in the know (and keep in mind that my pictures will not lessen your status), the Grand Prismatic Pool is this roughly 300-foot hot spring. It's this deep, vibrant blue-purple in the middle that extends out into the clearest, most flawless blue and then yellow, and then orange. When it's sunny out, it's so bright and gorgeous and bizarre. The steam coming off of it is either turquoise or orange, and it's one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

After a while, I hiked down to perch on a tree and read. Let me tell you that going down the side of that mountain was tricky business. It's all loose dirt and rock and dangerous and awesome.

When my people came back down, we "hiked" to the Fairy Falls. I say hike, but really, it's little more than a long (1.something mile) walk down a gravelly path through a forest. We did more complaining (the best part of anything, really), but when we got to the Falls, we couldn't complain about a thing. At all. Ever.

It's two hundred feet of sheer gorgeous. And it does a neat job of cooling you off. It's absolutely ridiculous how pretty it is.

After our trek, we drove to Montana for showers in a laundromat and pizza. If you're ever in West Yellowstone, MT, then get pizza at Rocky Mountain Pizza Co. on Canyon Street. Best. Ever. Plus, they have huckleberry Italian soda. Be still, my heart!

On the drive back to our campsite, we saw several animals of the baby variety. Be aware that there are few things in this world as adorable as a baby bison.

Also of note, Wyoming doesn't understand nighttime. It was ten o'clock, and there was still plenty of light on the horizon. Of course, when it gets dark, it gets dark, but still. Casey and I carried on and on about the sky. It was great.

Day Four: Equine Adventures

I don't have pictures of our horseback ride right now, but you will see them when I have them! We weren't allowed to have anything (anything!) on the horses. No water, no cameras, no cell phones, nothin'. It's all good, though. But I'm starting the story early!

We got up late (blissfully so) and so we just did normal morning things that you do when you camp. We headed out eventually and got lunch at a fairly nice restaurant. I discovered that bison burgers are delicious. Like, obscenely so.

Later, we checked out Yellowstone's Grand Canyon. That place is photoshopped too. I swear it, I really do.

We might have temporarily misplaced my aunt for a little while and we might have missed the first appointment for the horses, but it was all good. We went to the corral, explained the situation, and mounted half an hour later. I'm terrible at mounting, but not too bad at the actual riding. It helps that my horse (Dandy) knew where we were going. He was determined to graze on every green thing beside the path, though, like a punk. Casey's horse (Sage) wasn't quite so bad. He was sneaky, actually. He'd dip is head down and grab a mouthful of grass on the way up.

Punks.

The trail was gorgeous, of course. It's in Yellowstone, everything is gorgeous. That's how it works. That's how Yellowstone rolls. We also saw a moose-ette while on the trail, but we later decided that it didn't count because, as you may well know, "pics or it didn't happen."

We had dinner by Yellowstone River. That was great. We set up our chairs on the bank and just chilled. That does have photographic evidence! Casey and I waded in the river a bit (squelched is a better phrase), which was cold. Very cold. SUPER cold.

And rad.

Later, since everyone was disappointed that the moose incident didn't count, we went on a moose hunt. We drove around for the better part of an hour, and found nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. It was like all the animals had the night off, I swear.

After the lack of success and a short walk to the lake, we got ice cream, had a fire, and did some stargazing. That's another thing that Yellowstone is wonderful at: night skies. It's absurd how many stars there were!

Day Three: Ursa Major (Cool)

This was the designated Thermal Stuff Day. We checked out most of the hot, sulfur-y things at the park. It's so odd when you're driving through Yellowstone, because you're in the forest, and it's pretty and you feel like there should be a Disney Princess nearby singing to the bird perched on her finger, when suddenly: STEAM. EVERYWHERE. It's so odd to see, it really is.
We checked out some interesting mud pool things. Some of them look like dragon dens, so, yeah.
When we drove through Hayden Valley, we saw a ton of bison just wandering around, looking all sorts of happy in their pasture. One of them, though, walked onto the road, right into traffic! We ended up playing Follow the Leader with him while he took his sweet time crossing. It was hilarious.
We took a break from geothermal goodness to look at the Tower Falls. It's a short hike to the bottom, by the river, and absolutely stunning. I mean, it's absurd how pretty it is.
After that, we checked out another waterfall, and I got stung by an angry mini wasp thing. In the car. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I'm just so grateful toward my genes that I'm not allergic to bees or anything.
There was a short break in Mammoth for ice cream cones (huckleberry for Casey and my aunt, mint chocolate chip for me) and then we went to check out those springs. Let me tell you, the mammoth springs (wish I could remember the exact name) are some of the coolest/weirdest things I have ever seen. Especially the terraces on the side of the cliff. It's downright bizarre. It almost looks like an Antarctic landscape, instead of a bunch of calcium/other stuff deposits in Wyoming.
There was a short detour when we saw a small group of elk grazing by a river. I'm going to say it again: gorgeous. Seriously, they were the prettiest animals ever. Huge bucks with huge racks (heh heh). It was funny to see so many people sitting on the bank opposite them, taking pictures. You never see the other side of those Yellowstone shots, the huge clump of people standing together and taking pictures. It's kind of hilarious.
We caught Old Faithful on our way to dinner. Well, it caught us. We weren't there for five minutes before it went off. So cheesy, but so cool.
We took showers by the lodge there and headed back.
Also of note: we saw a bear. It was probably a juvenile grizzly, and we saw it from the car. But nevertheless, we saw a bear.
Yeah, buddy.
More tomorrow!