Yellowstone!

We made it to West Yellowstone (the city just west of the park entrance) just in time for lunch... So, we checked on Yelp to see what people recommended in the area and this place came up!  If you've jumped on the food truck craze, you'd love this place because it takes it to a whole other level!

Not only was the food INCREDIBLE and completely 100% authentically Mexican...

...but they cook your meal in the back and you actually eat it on the bus!  GENIUS!

We made it to Yellowstone, which happens to be the very first National Park in the world by the way, and checked into our campsite in Madison Campground.  Did I mention we're here in off season - cuz we're here in off season and this is the ONLY campground open in Yellowstone this time of year!  Thank goodness we loved it and it was right near the river and close to some of the best geysers in the park - including Old Faithful!

Speaking of Old Faithful... It was the first Geyser we drove to check out!  Old Faithful is truly old and faithful... Its eruptions can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water up to 185 feet in the air for 1 1/2 to 5 minutes and it's called the MOST predictable geographic feature on Earth because it erupts almost every 91 minutes!  The rangers actually have a sign nearby with the next eruption time so you're sure not to miss it! 

 On our way back north, we stopped in at Biscuit Basin, an area with a ton of "thermals" or in plain English, hot springs, or holes in the earth where hotter than boiling water randomly bubbles up and sometimes even shoots up into the air like a geyser! I wish I could explain why the hot springs make the earth glow in oranges and greens, but I just have no idea!  Science has never been my forte! 

 There's a little boardwalk of sorts that you can walk along to see all of the "thermals" and there are signs all along the way reminding you not to step off because the crust is unstable.  Could you imagine falling into one of these things!  Ugghhhh!  We were walking by this one and as you can see, the water was just hanging out at the top and then it started gushing boiling water up in the air!

We took our sweet time checking out all of the "thermals" here, but decided it was time to get back in the car with a storm like that heading our way!

Luckily, our route back to the campground side swiped the storm and we missed it completely, so we were able to pull off the road to gather some dry firewood for camp!

We spent the rest of the night cooking dinner and staying cuddled up next to the fire!  The next day, we stopped in at the Artist's Paint Pots for a mile long walk/hike to see the colorful hot springs!  I never knew so many hot springs existed in Yellowstone!  Apparently there are over 10,000 "thermal features" in Yellowstone!  You could probably spend a month here and never see all of them!

 

Sadly, everything in Yellowstone is completely spread out.  I just read that the park is larger than the state of Delaware and it shows!  We spent the majority of today driving from site to site, with 15-30 miles in between sometimes!  Forgive me, I have no idea what the name of this waterfall is, but we spotted it from the road somewhere on our drive from Madison Junction and Mammoth Hot Springs.

After about 50 miles, we made it to Mammoth Hot Springs and it was definitely worth the time spent cooped up in the car!  It was like crystal blue boiling waterfalls on a marshmallow mountain!

We had definitely never seen anything like this!  And what's crazy is, it's only 25 years old!  The thermals (hot springs / geysers) are always changing throughout the park!  Some go dormant while others pop up randomly and make stuff like this! 

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, we stopped the ranger and asked where all the best places to see wild animal are.  She pointed us north and we jumped right back on the road and saw all kinds of animals - like this Bull Elk!  

... and this momma Black bear and her two cubs!  

... and another Bull Elk!

 Driving through Yellowstone is like taking a North American style safari!  In the last week, we've seen:

1 Moose

3 Bull Elk

2 Coyotes

4 Black Bear and 2 cubs

1 Yellow Bellied Marmot

300+ Bison or Buffalo... I can't really tell the difference!

500+ Deer

and over 1,000 sheep!

We made it back to camp right as the sun was setting around 8:30pm and cooked up some stuffed bell peppers for dinner! :)

This is our little camping kitchen set up. :)

We spent the rest of the night by the fire roasting marshmallows and trying to stay warm!  This fire was ESPECIALLY awesome because I happened to look down at the wood and there was a distinctive HEART SHAPE right in the middle!  See it?

It's a sign, that love is in the air - and in the fire apparently! :)

Jackson Hole, Wyoming!

We LOVE Jackson Hole, Wyoming and everyone that we’ve met who lives here seem to love it too!  Have you ever been somewhere in America where EVERYONE is in a good mood, helpful, accommodating and just plain happy?!  Well, if not, come here and see for yourself!  It’s contagious and I love it!

Our original plan was to camp while we were here in the Grand Tetons, but the next 3 days showed rain and snow for the forecast, so we checked into this hotel, right smack dab in the middle of downtown! J

  

In the morning, we jumped in the car and headed 12 miles into “the park” (Grand Teton National Park) to see the century old homes and barns on Mormon Row, a settlement where a dozen or so Mormon families came to farm and live in the early 1900's. This is the John Moulton Homestead. 

Usually there are hordes of tourists here, but we had the place to ourselves, which was a fun treat!  The perks of coming in the off season, I guess!

  

I've had people say they can't imagine me roughing it for a month, camping and not wearing any makeup or heels... well, here you go, friends!  PROOF!

After leaving Mormon Row, we drove over to Gros Vente (pronounced Grow Vant) road to check out the wildlife, which technically is ALL over the park, but we gave this road a try first!  Good thing we did, because we spotted a moose!!!

We made a giant loop around the park today and stopped in at Jackson Lake for a chance to get out and stretch our legs and see the lake!  When this isn’t frozen over, it’s great for fishing, boating, and kayaking!  At this time of year it’s just good for looking at!  Lol

...Well, and for having snowball fights! 

Before heading back to town for dinner, we stopped in at Jenny Lake to see what was going on!  Just like Jackson lake, parts of it were FROZEN too which I happen to think is stunning!  I’m a little obsessed with “reflection photos” now!  You’ll see a few more in this post!

My friend Adam has a family cabin in Jackson Hole and my aunt Debby worked as an activities director for a season here, and both recommended that we check out Cowboy Bar downtown!

 We were huge fans!  The inside is rustic and cool and the food was fantastic!  They have a special for a burger and beer between 5:00 and 7:30pm for $6.50!  Aaron was especially excited about the deal cuz he got my beer!  Haha. Boys!

 

The days here are VERY LONG!  The sun doesn’t seem to ever go away, which is kinda nice when you wanna see a bunch of stuff… like this antler arch at 9:00pm in Jackson Square! Oh and yes, it’s frigidly cold here!

In case your wondering where all the antlers came from… pretty interesting if you ask me!

The next day we decided would be a fishing day!  Luckily the rain wasn’t forecasted to appear until late afternoon, so we bought a fishing license for $14 and headed out to the Snake River!

I knew I brought my  Hunter rain boots for a reason! J

Sadly we didn’t catch ANYTHING, but it’s all good!  We spotted 3 animal tracks near the river though, which was just as exciting to me!

 1)Elk 

2) coyote/wolf?

 3) BEAR!!!

My aunt Debby told us a road to take where we would probably see a bear… Sadly, we didn’t see any, and it wasn’t because we were driving too fast – we were cruising at about 25 in a 45mph area! Haha. We did see a buffalo though!

After a full day of fishing, we headed back into town for dinner at Betty Rock, another charming and delicious spot recommended by Adam!  The next day was spent hiking up to Taggart Lake! 

I obviously wasn’t aware of all the snow we would encounter when I opted for my adidas capris! Good news is the sun was out in full, so I didn’t catch frostbite on my calves!

We made it to the lake without running into any bears, which I consider to be a stroke of luck!

  

We had lunch here on this rock and took in the scenery for an hour or so! 

Then we did boy stuff like throwing rocks into the ice!

Then made our way back through the snow…

Back to the main trail, where we passed a ranch with this awesome long haired horse, which looks to me more like a lion than a horse!

We made it back to the hotel right in time for dinner, which we decided we would cook, out in the hotel courtyard… Call us ghetto, but we had just bought a ton of fresh veggies and some tofu dogs in SLC and didn’t want them all to go to waste!  We had a nice laugh about how ridiculous we probably looked!

For the record, I’m a little obsessed with organizing and love the little packets of spices I put together before we left Korea!  No need to bring the ENTIRE bottle when you’re living out of a car for 2 months and space is extremely limited!

After dinner we decided to go over to the Snake River to check out the sunset.  We were hoping to not have to hike through the wilderness to get there, but such is life - and off season!

As it turned out, it was one of the more beautiful adventures we've had thus far on the trip!  There was even a group of deer to the left, walking along side us towards the river.

Earlier this week, Aaron had told me about how he would throw Buffalo "dong" like frisbees when he was little!  I made him prove it!

We walked through the forest for a good mile or so before we reached this AMAZING spot to watch the sunset over the Teton Mountain range, along the river!  I was in awe the whole time!  

I'm pretty sure this is one of the most amazing spots I've ever seen the sun set!  We literally watched it until the sun was completely gone and had to walk back to the car in the dark - and YES, it was SCARY, but worth it!!!

We knew that tonight would be our last night in Jackson, so we stopped in the town square to walk around downtown one last time before bidding farewell!

People rave about the shopping in Jackson Hole, but unless you're looking for a touristy shirt or cowboy gear, it's really better for window shopping, which is fine with me!

We're pretty bummed about having to say goodbye to Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons, but tomorrow we're heading 200 miles north to go camping in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming & Montana... and hopefully we'll spot a bear!  A girl can hope, right?!