Later on, IRL

Day 13, Yellowstone NP -Day 3 and Grand Tetons

September 20

Today was another day of no expectations and our minds being completely blown. We began with breakfast in Grand Teton National Park because it’s near our little cabin and the same road took us from the Tetons to the area of Yellowstone we wanted to visit. Low clouds socked in all our views of the Tetons but we knew the day was just getting started so we’d see more eventually.

We ended up making it all the way to the eastern entrance of the park, after passing the northern shoreline of Yellowstone Lake. We did a couple walks along the water, where we saw ducks and other shorebirds. We came to the spot where the Yellowstone River begins as it comes out of the lake. There’s a fishing bridge there.

No fishing allowed at the fishing bridge

The road after the fishing bridge became less populated with cars, as we climbed hill after hill to 8600 ft in elevation. We saw some spectacular views all across the valleys below in every direction. As we continued east and began to descend, we saw several cars stopped in the road, in both directions. We knew there was wildlife nearby. We stopped when we saw these two big boys come walking between a couple cars. They walked right past us, as we stared, frozen, our hearts racing.

At that point I was ready to come home. I’d had enough excitement for the day. But we were only 15 miles from our destination of the eastern entrance, and Marshall said to me, “I’d hate to turn around now and miss some more cool wildlife.”
Fair point but how do you top what just happened? You top it with this:

Around 5 miles down the road there was a bachelor group of bighorn sheep, bedded down in the undergrowth on a rocky outcropping above the highway. They stared at us like we were aliens, as they yawned and ate the plants around them. Just four bachelor dudes chilling on a Sunday afternoon. We were ecstatic.

We reached the eastern entrance and turned around to drive back. Along the way we saw a few more waterfalls.

The clouds had lifted from around the Grand Tetons so we had our first glimpses of their true enormity. Add in an entire herd of Buffalo frolicking in their shadows and we had a full day under our belts. What more could we ask for?