As we awoke next to the lake, we were happily surprised to learn that the bugs sleep late and we’d be able to enjoy breakfast without breaking camp. Back on the road, we crossed the Continental Divide several times, occasionally marked by really cool huge signs.

In the line to enter Yellowstone, I saw a strange message scribbled on the side of a pickup truck. I honked, naturally, and received a smile from a fat elderly woman…. very strange.

Lance was in front of me as we entered the park and after a lengthy talk with the park guy he came over the radio and informed me we’d been denied access to Yellowstone on account of mud on our trucks. A stunning victory for muddy trucks! Fortunately there were a few carwashes in town, not far away. With sadness, I washed away my beautiful mud…


Image credit: 1leglance

Yellowstone was pretty cool and very unique. There were frequent, naturally occurring hot tubs for you to enjoy. Or maybe they burn your skin off, I can’t remember.

There were also strange looking areas that reminded me of the floor in my bathroom in Milwaukee.

Upon closer inspection, a sign indicated that in fact it was the same as my bathroom in Milwaukee!!

As a thermodynamics person, this was an awesome sign. It needs to hang in my office. I should be saying something like “screw that sign, thermo is everywhere!” but that would be bad.

Gurgle, gurgle… Bubble, bubble, gurgle, bubble…. POOF… gurgle.

We stopped at Old Faithful for lunch. Basically Old Faithful is this: you stand around for a while, alternating from staring at the ground to staring at a throng of people staring at the ground…

…and then the ground blows up! Honestly it’s not very exciting, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen the ground explode. It’s like raining upside down, but steamier.

The rest of Yellowstone (minus the huge sections that burned in recent decades) is your standard awesome woodsy stuff; rivers, rapids, dense forests, waterfalls, etc. Like all national parks, there is a thoughtful network of parking areas and brief to long hikes for visiting cool spots.

Probably the most exciting part of the day was our capture and taming of a live buffalo! I know, insane!!! Here he is, jumping out of Lance’s window after goring everyone inside…