Yearning for Yellowstone

The alarm goes off at 4:15 am and I fumble in the dark to turn off the unfamiliar clock. I’m forced to turn on the light eventually but Bill will have to get up soon, too.  After getting dressed, I load the cooler with lunch fixings and snacks, grateful for the list I wrote the day before when I wasn’t sleepy.  Then it’s time to wake the rest of our group and when our older daughter and her boyfriend arrive, we load ourselves into the van (most of us wrapped in blankets) and we’re off on a one-day whirlwind trip to Yellowstone National Park, America’s first national park and a unique place.

It will take us about 3 1/2 hours just to get to the park’s entrance, not because of simple distance but because that distance has many literal ups and downs and the first part of our trip is on an unimproved road.  For “unimproved road”, read “a road that you’re lucky to go 30 mph on.”  The washboard surface can slow you to about 5 mph and the effect of hydroplaning without the water.  Luckily, the road is relatively smooth this year and we can make good time.

We leave in the dark.

Dawn is the perfect time to see animals, or hit one, so we scan the area constantly and are eventually rewarded by the sight of moose having his breakfast not far from the road.  He’s not worried at all by our presence and on this surface, he could run faster than we could drive.

The sun finally deigns to peek over the horizon, changing the look of everything from dawn’s muted colors to daytime’s brighter shades.

We leave the dirt and gravel not far past Dead Swede Campground, (yes, there was a dead Swede once), and increase to highway speed.  Our first destination is Shell Canyon and the falls.

When we arrive, the restrooms are open (thankfully), but everything else is closed and we’re the only people shivering in the morning’s chill wind.  The falls are spectacular as always, even though I’m mortified to find that I still have a difficult time walking out on the wooden part of the viewing platform where you can see between the boards to the rocks far below.  I force myself to the railing to take pictures, then hurry back to terra-more-firma for additional shots.

Back into the van and we’re ready to tackle the rest of the canyon, then head into flatter, barer ranch land.  We still have a long way to go.  But the journey is part of the fun.