‘Many Visitors Have Been Gored By Buffalo’: Yellowstone National Park

When I arrived, I found out that the UW Outdoor Program was running a trip to Yellowstone for Labor Day weekend and even though it meant missing the Oregon vs. LSU game, I decided to go. I definitely wanted to visit Yellowstone during my time here, but I didn't think I’d get the chance to go so soon.

We left campus a little after 6am on the Saturday to begin the eight-hour drive there. The trip was almost entirely international students, there were only two Americans. The rest of us were from the UK, Germany, Mexico, Estonia, China, the Netherlands and a guy from Libya I sat next to on the way there called Ishmael (who, to my disappointment, introduced himself with “my name is…” and not “call me…”).

We stopped for lunch in Dubois – a tiny town of under a thousand people, but where, surprisingly, I met a man from Doncaster who works in the gas station. Since Yellowstone is on the other side of the state to Laramie, we saw a lot of the varied Wyoming landscape (it didn’t seem like eight hours) and when we turned a corner, we got an amazing view of the Tetons.

Old Faithful

We visited Old Faithful, which was great. While waiting for the next eruption, we looked around the famous Old Faithful Inn, which was built in 1903 and, although damaged by an earthquake in 1959 (which led to the permanent closure of some of the upper staircases), still attracts many visitors and guests, who can watch Old Faithful’s eruption from their viewing platform. My pictures don't capture it terribly well, but it really is very impressive.

Old Faithful Inn

When we arrived at our campsite, we had someone come and speak to us about bears. At one point, he said “I hate to be the bearer of bad news”, which got a bit of an unintentional laugh. We were told we should not have anything in our tents except our sleeping bags – all cosmetics, food, water bottles and so on had to go into the ‘bear box’. Although I didn’t see any bears while I was there, I definitely heard other wildlife outside our tent at night and while in the park and during the drive we saw elk, bison, a bald eagle and pronghorn antelope.

Bison

We were told by the trip leaders to pack lots of layers as it gets very cold at night – the forecast overnight was 32°F (0°C) and last year on this trip, it snowed! Although it didn’t snow for us, in the mornings, ice had formed on the cars and the outside of our tents.

We did a tour of the lower loop of the park and saw the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (where it gets its name from) – one of my favorite parts, the Grand Prismatic, lots of geysers and a strange bubbling-mud spring, which fascinated our group for a good twenty minutes. It was completely beautiful (the park, not the mud, as fascinating as it was) and I definitely want to go back at some point.

Mud Pot

On the way home, we stopped in Thermopolis to go to the hot springs. I spent only 20 minutes in the 104°F (40°C) springs, but it took me days to get the hot spring… odor out of my hair. Since we drove back a different route to the way we came, we got to see more of the state. The scenery really is stunning. I think before I came, I expected Wyoming to be mostly empty and, to be honest, kind of dull. Although it certainly is empty, it’s gorgeous – red mountains, rolling hills, unusual rock formations, dramatic canyons. I love it!

Wind River Canyon.
Taken from inside the car, but you can still see how beautiful it is.

Yellowstone was great and I'm looking forward to exploring more of Wyoming.

Yellowstone Lake