On the Road: Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yellowstone is the granddaddy of all national parks. Established in 1872, it is America's first national park and it is huge! It spans almost 3,500 miles; mostly in Wyoming, but extending into parts of Montana and Idaho also, making it not only the first national park, but it is also the largest.

Yellowstone is perched on top of a dormant volcano and is home to more geysers and hot springs than any other place on earth. Approximately 50 percent of the world’s hydrothermal features are at Yellowstone National Park. The most famous of all the geysers is Old Faithful which we checked out.

Yellowstone is really quite remote. Cell and internet service is very limited. We camped at the Fishing Bridge Campground which is the only full hookup RV campground in the park. We had zero Verizon service. No phone, no text, no internet. Yikes! For a day or two, you don’t really miss it but after that you start to feel incredibly isolated. It was so bad, that we actually drove 3-10 miles down the road searching for cell coverage and ended up sitting in a turnout on the side of the road to use the phone/internet. The view from the car of the lake across the road while talking on the phone was gorgeous!

No trip to Yellowstone would be complete without a little wildlife. Yellowstone boasts the oldest and largest bison herd in the U.S. The bison (which are the same as buffalo in case you’re wondering) seem to subscribe to the philosophy that if we can look at and study them, that turnabout is fair play. So one day driving back to camp, a herd of these huge animals decided to cross the road and some decided to stand in the middle of the road and look at all the people in their cars. Apparently, they can be dangerous if provoked, so no horn honking, etc. you just have to sit and wait until they get bored and move on. That was the cause of the longest traffic jam we experienced (20 minutes or so) while in the park.

There are signs everywhere warning of bears, although we were not lucky enough to see any. I suspect that Yogi and Boo Boo snagged enough picnic baskets that they weren’t out foraging when we were there. The waterfalls at Yellowstone are amazing. The steamers (that’s the technical name I assigned them) are interesting – just openings in the ground all over the place around the park where steam escapes. Some of them contain which a bit of sulfur and stink like crazy.

We enjoyed our visit and think that everyone should visit at least once. This park truly reflects the beauty of God’s creation.