Re-Entry Not Going Well

We spent last night at a Hampton Inn in Cheyenne. We're only 1.5 hours from Denver's airport and we figured it would make more sense to have a hotel room than a campground on our last night.

On the drive here from GTNP we passed through Lander, WY (pop 960). Scott saw traffic lights for the first time in nearly a week. Even had to stop at a couple of them . . .

The Hampton Inn is not sited well (perpendicular to the major highway, guys, perpendicular). It's noisy. The mattress was too hard. Scott woke up in the middle of the night and thought he was in a giant tent.

Plane leaves at 2 MT, we'll be home around 11 PM ET.

While You Were Out

Signal Mountain Campground has its share of wildlife. It’s not uncommon for animals to wander close – or even in – to vacant campsites. Our first two days we saw a mule deer in the site next to ours. On day 2, it stuck around for quite a while (the site still a couple of hours from hosting its next occupants) nibbling trees and making its way slowly toward the lake. When the nice couple from Colorado arrived we told them about the visitor. That evening about 9 we returned from watching an otter swim through Oxbow Bend only to be told by the nice couple from Iowa across the way that we’d missed two bears “tramping around by the lake” behind our campsite. Apparently, our picnic table was used by the gawking humans to get a better angle. If we hadn’t seen three bears already on this trip, we’d have been bitterly disappointed.

Speed Limit 45

The general speed limit here is 45 MPH. That's a bit high, though, as during the daytime, you've got views like this to gawk at:

And at night, we're constantly reminded by rangers that the park averages 1-2 "big animal" deaths per day during summer due to car collisions.

Indeed, we've named one section of the trip from the Coulter Bay amphitheater to Signal Mountain "the elk run" as we've had to stop for the large creatures in the road each night so far.

Grand Teton National Park

We used up all of our superlatives at Glacier, but they apply here as well. Wow. Amazing. Beautiful. Tetonic, even.

We've learned a lot about plants, animals, and geology on this trip but here we've experienced a uniquely human phenomenon: the "struggle for the campsite upgrade."

Our standard M.O. at a new park is to find a site, occupy it, and pay for one night. If it turns out OK (no noisy neighbors, not too near a bathroom, etc.) we then re-up for the duration of our visit prior to the next day's checkout time (usually around 10 or 11). This morning after our return from the bathroom at 8:30 we found that someone was trying to claim our site even though our car and tent were still there. Pretty wild. Scott hustled to re-up and found cars, trailers, RVs and walkers circling the campground looking for people who were checking out this morning.

It's beautiful here:
We had lunch on the logs by Snake River. First time we've ever forded a river for a picnic spot.

Final Yellowstone Post

Well, it's safe to say that we liked what Yellowstone has to offer, but are not planning to come back. It's a "must do" as the world's first national park and it is an interesting "glimpse into the earth's interior" but the crowds and traffic (before peak season even) were crazy. We've been there, done that, and are moving on . . .

Which is not to say we haven't seen some neat stuff. Like the elk across the river from our picnic spot.

Or the spectacular views from Artist's Point, where painter Thomas Moran created images that helped convince Congress to turn Yellowstone into a National Park.

And even pulling off the road at random turnouts proved enlightening as we watched trout swimming upstream to spawn. Here they're resting and gaining strength at the bottom of LeHardys Rapids before attempting the leap up three feet of white water.

Links for video of geo features

They're hard to describe, so here's a link to video if you're interested...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5FCxEkJxrg
of steam at sunset

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFOHJQpyEWM
bubbling pool.

I wouldn't recommend trying them unless you have high-speed internet, and are patient enough to wait for the download. But, I gotta say, it's pretty awesome. I have had a bit of trouble with youtube before, so if you have problems, please let us know in the comments section, ok?

Itinerary

Tonight, Wednesday, June 28, is our last night in Yellowstone.

Next up: Grand Teton National Park for three nights.

Then, one night somewhere en route to Denver for the flight home on Monday, July 3 :-(