Yellowstone Day One AGCRV Trip
You can find millions of articles about Yellowstone that are all super helpful, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one. The biggest tip I can tell you is if you go late September is a quiet time in the park. Yes, you get tourist buses, but everything isn’t crawling with people. I can’t imagine how crazy it would be in the summertime. The first day was really all about getting our bearings and figuring out what we wanted to do the next couple of days. Our first stop after the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Byway was a short hike up to a waterfall.
On a random note, why is it when I tell people I have it on sport mode, just keep the button down and it will take like 60 shots they won’t do it? I just want one of my kid looking at the camera...it won’t happen if you don’t take like 60 pictures.
It was lovely, but of course it’s Yellowstone and everything is pretty lovely. Next we stopped at the Grant Village Visitor’s Center to see what was available at the south end of the park, what hikes they suggested etc. This was not super helpful at all. I don’t know if it was the end of the season, or the ranger didn’t get a lot of people asking, but he didn’t seem to know a whole lot and wasn’t super interested in helping us out. However, I am glad that we stopped because Lake Yellowstone was breathtaking that morning.
The water was like glass
(until Zippy threw rocks in it) and you could see the obsidian rocks that lined the bottom for at least 100 feet in front of you. Plus it reflected the sky and the perfect cotton ball clouds passing by. Zippy still talks about “throwing the shiny black rocks into the clear cold water. “ Bryan gets annoyed he had to clean off Zippy once again...Man that kid loves dirt.
We took our chances and headed out to Norris Campground. Which is pretty centrally located near a river and the Norris Geyser Basin. It’s also right next to the Museum of the American Park Ranger. We got a back in spot, claimed and paid for it, and then headed to Old Faithful and that geyser basin. On our way Zippy fell asleep.
Which was a bummer, and led to an accident because we didn’t think to put a diaper on her. I however got to go explore the Old Faithful Inn. I had perfect timing because they do FREE (do you hear that Bryan FREE) architectural tour several times a day. It was fascinating and I learned a ton about the building. Of course it’s been nine months and I can’t remember any of it...except make sure you do it!
When Zippy woke up we got to see Old Faithful
Then we went on a walk. This was the point in her life that Zippy became self-conscious about people looking at her. Everyone smiles at Zippy. She’s a happy kid and we are biologically predisposed to think she’s the most beautiful kid we know, however at this point in her life Asian tourists in particular seem to REALLY think she was adorable. Maybe it was the pigtails, maybe it was the dimples, maybe it’s because she’s always smiling. Who knows? After three national parks of the ooohhhs and aaahhs, look at hers, and strangers talking to her Zippy had had enough. She asked us why everyone was smiling at her and told us they needed to stop. We tried to explain to her that it was because she was going on an adventure and that people thought it was pretty cool. She didn’t buy it, and later we had to tell her they aren’t smiling at you (they totally were) they were just happy to be at the park.
It also might have been people overhearing Zippy’s warnings to not go off trail. I had been drilling it into her head that if she went off trail she might fall into the geysers. She told everyone we came upon, don’t fall into the hot stinky holes! It was pretty hilarious.
At one point we came upon a geyser that everyone was sitting around for. We went up and asked what was going on. Apparently it was three geysers that all go off at the same time every 3-6 hours. People brought lawn chairs and all sorts of things to wait. One guy was talking to us and asked Zippy where she was from. She didn’t know (fair enough since we don’t live within city limits) so Bryan asked her where her office was. She told the guy Flagstaff and NAU. For that she got an M&M.
Then we started again on the long walk back to the Inn. Zippy didn’t know that it was a circle and that we started at the inn. We told her we were going to take a walk to go and get ice cream.
She was a total trooper and for that she was rewarded with huckleberry ice cream on the balcony of the Old Faithful Inn where she got to watch the geyser erupt. Bryan looks unhappy, but he wasn’t I swear. It was a pretty cool Hot Stinky Hole if I do say so myself.