I’m feeling a bit speechless about today. I don’t think that words or pictures will do it justice. The best I can say is that I already have a new favorite National Park, and apparently we’ve barely scratched the surface. But our first day in Yellowstone National Park was one that I will always treasure.
We started the day driving up through the cute town of Gardiner where Rick, Wes and Erin all have many happy memories from their previous adventures here. (Rick was here over 20 years ago with family, so just a few things have changed). There we entered through the Roosevelt Arch and began our day.
I really am a bit speechless and definitely still processing all that we saw. Erin took some amazing photos and is already sharing them in a Google drive, but I think that rather than sorting through them tonight, we will do that later. I will give a quick rundown to validate that we saw LOTS of wildlife on day 1. Our list includes multiple bear sightings (including one with two cubs), three baby fox playing right by the road, a coyote, an osprey, a bald eagle, antelope, elk, and more bison than we could count! We did all of this from a safe distance. We will not be featured in a “touron” video (tourist + moron), although we did see a few today.
Mammoth hot springs was better than all that I had seen in previous videos about it. Lamar valley was a spectacular vista that I could sit and enjoy for hours on end (and we intend to get back there to do it). We saw plenty of amazing views, from mountain peaks to rapids to waterfalls. We also had lunch in the cute little town of Cooke City.
We are so grateful that Wes and Erin tow a Suburban so that neither of us had to take the RVs for this adventure, especially through a couple thousand feet of elevation gain, some amazing adventures down some rougher roads to spot wildlife, and time in the park to fully enjoy the surroundings. We were super comfortable and appreciate how much this adds to the adventure.
We came back here and enjoyed dinner riverside, between our RVs in this amazing location. It’s good to rest up for another adventure tomorrow!!
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