Yellowstone: Spectacular. Even In The Rain

Good thing we’re not the kind of girls who let a little rain ruin their fun because it alternately drizzled, rained and poured all day.

Worse, temps were in the 40s. Like February in Virginia Beach, only with bears.

This was our shortest driving day: 133 miles and we’ll pay for it later this week when we break for home. But worth it. We drove from West Yellowstone, MT to Cody, WY, spending the day in Yellowstone National Park.

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The geyser basin was especially eerie in the fog and we experienced a magical moment when a bison appeared out of nowhere and sauntered daintily through a field of steaming vents, while ignoring the ground-is-unstable-stay-on-the-walkways-signs that keep tourists from plunging through the crust of the earth into the super-heated water.

Bison in the geyser basin.

I asked a ranger how these enormous animals know where to walk and she replied that if it gets too hot on their hooves, they change direction.

“Occasionally a bison will scald a leg and then he becomes a meal for a pack of wolves,” she said matter-of-factly.

Life is cheap here in Wyoming.

We spotted another bison grazing near a parking lot, completely oblivious to tourists. Naturally, everyone grabbed their cameras and leaned in for selfies, like Governor Northam on the Virginia Beach boardwalk. 

Meanwhile a ranger was waving her hands, screaming ”25 yards, keep 25 yards away!”

Our lone brush with death.

Disgusting: A face mask in a geyser..

We waited in a bone-chilling rain for Old Faithful’s expected eruption at 11:11 a.m. but Yellowstone’s favorite attraction kept the crowd waiting for a few extra minutes. I learned that OF erupts 20 times a day and predictions are made by geologists who watch the duration of each event to calculate the next one.

They’re pretty dang accurate.

Old Faithful, which has been performing regularly ever since it was discovered in 1870, may seem like a cliche, but watching a plume of steam and boiling water shoot 180 feet in the air is one heck of a show. No matter how many times you’ve seen it.

Next we crossed the Continental Divide and then headed through breathtakingly steep and winding roads out the east side of the park, bound for Cody, Wyoming.

Yellowstone’s geyser basin is otherworldly.

Old Faithful. Kept us waiting in the rain, but worth it!

Yes, I bought her buffalo binoculars. Who wouldn’t want a pair?

Hey, there’s a nightly rodeo in Cody. Who can pass THAT up?

Yeehaw!