The Phallic Road Trip

When we first woke up today, we heard a little rain; looking at the forecast, it looks like we’ll have a mix of showers and isolated thunderstorms during our tour of Grand Teton. The high is still only supposed to be around 40, but that is a major improvement over yesterday’s snowstorm.

We got into Yellowstone early yesterday afternoon after leaving Gardiner. It was cloudy going in, and started raining once we got to the first visitor center, so instead of hitting any trails, we started driving around the park.

The ranger at the entrance told us that one of the major roads was closed due to snow, but that the rest were open. As we made our way from the north entrance into the center of the park though, we began to hit some really bad snow. The roads were still open, but at times, the visibility was 200-300 feet — if that.

It was a shame — not because it was cold, just because we couldn’t see anything. We got to a few major landmarks, but the fog blocked most views of the mountains and canyons. Along the drive though, we did see several bison herds, a few deer and a lone wolf.

As we made our way to the southwestern part of the park, towards Old Faithful along Yellowstone Lake, everything started to clear up. For about 30 minutes, we had a pretty scenic drive, but once we neared the geyser, the storm picked up again.

We got to Old Faithful and saw a large crowd huddled in jackets and under umbrellas. We parked, and as we started walking, everyone started walking back to their cars. Our timing was perfect. Unfortunately, even being within a few hundred feet of the geyser, we could barely see a thing.

Afterwards, we drove out the west entrance of the park and got a few good shots as the weather started to clear again before finding a room for the night in West Yellowstone, Wyoming. We got in early, brought some food to the room and watched TV before passing out, to get a full night of sleep.

Today, we’ll have to drive back through the southwestern part of Yellowstone this morning — about 50 miles — to leave through the southern end and make the eight miles in between to Grand Teton. From what we’ve read, Grand Teton is supposed to be smaller and more manageable for a day trip. On our way, we’ll be passing by Old Faithful again, so we might stop by for a second try.

Tonight, our plan is to make it to Idaho Falls, Idaho, from where we could begin heading north to Glacier tomorrow. Looking at the forecasts, it looks like we’ll be running into similar conditions there, but we’ll have to wait and see.

All told, in our first seven days, we’ve done more than 2,000 miles — over a quarter of our total journey. We have another busy week ahead of us, but we’ll be able to slow down once we reach California in mid-June.