Yellowstone: Friends, Evergreens, Waterfalls, Hot Springs, Mountains, and Animals, Oh My!

So excited!

That's a long title for a blog entry.

For those who don't know the history, Yellowstone National Park was established as the first national park in the United States (possibly the world? I forget). It's larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined and has a wide variety of features such as mountains, plains, hot springs, waterfalls, wild life, geysers, among many other things. It's mostly in Wyoming, but does spill over a bit to Montana and Idaho.

The drive in from the east entrance

Our first night wasn't noteworthy, for we grabbed one of the last campsites available on a dusty lot with little to do. After hours of driving, we fell asleep around 9pm.

The next day we checked out some of the hot springs at the West Thumb area. This was our first interaction with the sulfur smelling pools that steamed and showed off their stunning colors. There were a lot of tourists at this particular point, but that didn't deter us too much from enjoying this unique natural phenomenon. 

Steamy!

The colors, dude, the colors!

After checking out the Hot Springs we went down south to Grand Teton National Park to meet up with our friends Caitlin and Mike!

Mountains and stuff at Grand Teton.

The four of us got to watch some bison play in a field for a bit before we grabbed our permits to do some back country camping. I was super paranoid about finding grizzly bears along the trail, but we were never bothered once (woohoo!). 

omnomnom

Backpacking to our site

Foggy morning lake

That next day we checked out the two of the (arguably) most popular destinations in the park: Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Old Faithful. Both, while beautiful and needed to be seen, didn't match up to our relaxed and fun experience back packing through the woods (even though it was only 2 miles in). These areas of the park were severely congested, and it was hard to have an intimate connection with the beauty there with so much noise. However, I'm glad we went to both of these spots, even if just for the sheer fact to say that we went.

Lower Falls as seen from a vantage point.

That famous geyser. 

We said goodbye to Caitlin and Mike as they headed their own way and Jon and I found a campsite close to the north entrance. From our site, we had some great views of mountains and easy access to some other hot springs in a less populated area. Our last night in Yellowstone was an early one (8pm!) and I can say with happiness that we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. I felt like this was a place that deserved all of the attention it receives and warranted the biggest chunk of our trip. I will eagerly come back here with in the future to further explore some other hot spring areas and backpacking routes.

Hot spring waterfall.

Location, location, location!

Badlands: I Refuse to Make a Bad Pun

The entrance! We made it!

Badlands welcomes us with fantastic views and ended up being one of the many highlights of our trip. We had stunning weather the whole time that only emphasized the lush plains, the craggly rock formations and amazing stripes in the formations. I had originally planned a trip to the Badlands with a friend a number of years ago, and while I remembered researching the park then and finding photos of it before our trip, nothing could prepare me for the awesome, unique, and strangely beautiful canyons and plateaus. While we didn't see much wildlife here, we saw many beautiful plants and the stars were unbelievable at night.

Playing in the park

Stripes in the canyon

Pulled over to scope out some of the rocks

Mr. Adventure

This was the first time that we got to use our tent, which turned out to be perfect for our needs. It kept us dry, relatively warm, and snuggly. I couldn't be happier with that investment.

Mid-day nap

Chicago, Badlands-bound, & Rant

I fell behind in blogging the last week, so I'll slowly post a description of our adventure as soon as we get some internet in our new apartment. This is the only post I wrote on the road and I wrote it while feeling passionate about some principles that mean a lot to me. If you don't care to hear about vegetarianism, I'd suggest you skip the last two paragraphs.

Our Chicago host

After we left Chicago we made the 6 hour drive to visit family members in Stillwater, Minnesota. My uncle lives just on the boarder of Wisconsin and Jon's family lives in Stillwater, so it was a great meeting point for everyone.

Old mill in Stillwater

Stillwater is an adorable town just outside of the twin cities. It's the oldest settlement in Minnesota, and has a lot of old time charm. The building facades speak of years of stories and the booming antique stores are quaint and interesting. We met everyone for dinner at a pub along the water next to the only bridge from Wisconsin into Stillwater. It was great catching up with my uncle and his wife, and to get to know Jon's family members better. It was, for the most part, a quiet and relaxing evening.

Corgi host

We got up early that next morning to Badlands National Park in South Dakota, where I'm typing this now in the car. The scenery for the most part is typical farmland, but Jon and I just witnessed one of the saddest things I've seen in a very long time. In front of us, for about five minutes, was a truck towing a large shipment of large, plump, alabaster turkeys, presumably to the slaughterhouse where they'll be prepared for consumption. Feathers flew at us periodically as we watched one of the birds in the top right-hand corner flailing in vain to stand up, get comfortable, or possibly escape.

I rarely ever preach my vegetarian principals, and hardly consider myself someone to push my beliefs on other people, but there was something sincerely sad, desperate, and slightly horrifying about those turkeys. Jon, the man who's eaten every and all types of meats, commented on its sadness, and it just got me thinking about this country's diet and reliance on meat. I understand that humans evolved to eat meat and that it typically is an intrinsic part of our diet, but the fact that we, as Americans, have the luxury to make choices about what we eat and how often, seeing those turkeys made me wish that more people made the conscientious choice to eat less meat. To have bacon in the morning, a turkey sandwich for lunch, and then chicken for dinner is eating a lot-- more than we need-- of animals. Our bodies don't need that much protein and the carbon emissions and waste that is manufactured in order to get that piece of ham on to our plates is astronomical, but Americans have conditioned themselves in believing that this type of over-abundant luxury is preferred and, and some believe, a necessity.

I'm not asking everyone to become a vegetarian or vegan today, tomorrow, or even a year from now. I just wanted to express these concerns of mine, and hope that they get you to start thinking about what you eat and how it affects you and the world around you.

Little bunny adventurer

Road Trip Map!

Leaving today and this is the map of our road trip! You can see the Google Maps version here to get a closer look of our stops. For the lazy, we'll be going to:

1) Chicago

2) Minneapolis/St.Paul

3) Badlands National Park

4) Yellowstone National Park

5) Olympic National Park

6) Victoria!

For those who are curious, stops B and G are arbitrary-- we'll probably just stop by a camp ground or motel in that vicinity, but that's about where we want to be during that time.

So excited!!