Jackson Hole / Yellowstone Recap: Day 3

DAY 3 – 8/22 (Saturday): Our ambition to get up at 6:00 am and hit the road this morning failed as we decided to sleep through our wake-up call. We rolled out of bed an hour later, ate our breakfast croissants from the Bunnery (which turned out to be delicious), then packed up and checked out of our room. Due to construction along the route, it took us probably about 2 hours to get to the South entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Once we passed through the gate we made our first stop at West Thumb Geyser Basin. Our initial experience of such natural wonders was truly breathtaking, and as the day went by I found myself continually amazed at God’s creativity in piecing together this Earth. We saw a female elk and her baby wandering through the steaming field of water with shimmering Yellowstone Lake in the background. So many different shades of blues and greens tarnished by the lovely scent of rotten eggs aka sulphur. Despite the odor, it all meshed together into a memorable 1st glance at what the park has to offer.




We continued along Grand Loop past Yellowstone Lake, past Hayden Valley, stopping at various look-outs such as Fisherman’s Bridge, Upper Falls brink, etc. I snapped pictures out the passenger window while K drove. Note to self: bring CD’s on next trip to Wyoming as radio stations are hard to come by in national parks.




Our final stop before making our way back down south was Mammoth Hot Springs:



While it was a lot of driving in one day, we saw many sights and honestly preferred viewing it all sitting down instead of hiking due to the limited amount of sleep we got the night before. In Mammoth we consumed MRE #2: chicken and noodles with vegetables, New England clam chowder, crackers and cheese, and Skittles again for dessert. After a short hike around the springs, we headed back to Old Faithful Inn, our resting spot for the night...



While it was one of the most expensive hotels we’ve ever stayed in relative to quality, it was worth it for the ambiance. Checked in and ate cheeseburgers and fries as a fountain shop just down the road before watching Old Faithful erupt.



This to me is such an iconic American landmark – kind of like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, for example – and to be seeing it in my own country in person made me feel proud and honored in a weird way. We finished the evening with a beer on the upper porch looking over the geysers, then hit the sack early on our uncomfortable double beds hiding mousetraps underneath. Yes, ambiance...