Sunday was our drive almost to Yellowstone. We originally planned to boondock just west of Big Horn National Forest after doing a hike, but the weather forecast wasn't looking promising at all. So we found a Walmart in Cody and decided to boondock there Sunday night. We slept in Sunday morning a bit, then packed up and headed to Planet Fitness for one last lift until we're in Montana. It's shocking, but Yellowstone doesn't have a Planet Fitness. The drive was uneventful until we reached Big Horn. First of all, WHAT a cool place. As we drove, there were signs along the road indicating the ages of the rock wall formations around us. One was 2.3 BILLION years old!
Making our way slowly up to Powder River Pass at 9,666 ft. of elevation, we admired the scenery and bemoaned the lack of rain that our weather apps warned us was coming. Because we anticipated rain, we didn't leave time for a hike! But we enjoyed our drive until we reached a point of 7% grade down a windy stretch of 18 miles, on the side of an otherworldly canyon. Very fortunately for us, we pulled over to admire the sights and realized the steep grading was too much for our brakes and they were getting hot. We took an extended break to admire the scenery, turned up the gain on our trailer brakes (so they would brake harder when the truck brakes - this was the long term fix) and continued on our way, stopping to give our brakes a break whenever we could find a spot to accommodate the trailer. It was an eventful drive.
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| Percy enjoying a break from the truck while the brakes cool off |
We know this will be a niche recommendation, but the Walmart in Cody is a fantastic place to boondock. It has a large RV department with a lot of essentials, ample parking for boondockers, clean bathrooms open until 11 pm, and a Subway! There is decent wifi there, enough that we could get a few hours of work done until it was time to head to our Yellowstone campsite.
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| Boondocking at the Walmart |
Monday we worked a bit at the Subway inside the Walmart, timing our departure so we showed up at our campsite just after check in time (1pm). We set up and worked the rest of the day. Tuesday we tried to get up early to start work, so that we could hike later in the day. We were camped a short drive from the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and did a 7 mile hike along the north rim. The canyon is a relatively young geographical phenomenon, only about 140k yrs old. The North Rim Trail offered fantastic views of vibrant colors along the canyon wall and the trail went close to the water and both waterfalls. Many of the lookouts are also accessible from parking lots, as the road winds near the rim as well.
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| Brink of Upper Falls |
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| Lower Falls from Lookout Point |
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| Admiring the canyon |
For the next couple of days, we mostly just got our work in for the week. Starlink continued to provide solid speeds, even in the middle of Yellowstone. One notable event during this stretch was when Shawn went for a long run (he's beginning training for a race in December) in the evening after work. He did a couple of miles to a trailhead and then did a trail run along along Yellowstone Lake (the Storm Point Trail). Approaching the trailhead at the end, he got stuck by a pair of bison on the trail and had to wait 5 minutes for them to move along before he could continue the run. Quite the different delay from the usual crosswalks!
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| Yellowstone Lake from the Storm Point Trail |
On Friday we worked an early day so that we could start a hike in the afternoon. This day we hike to the summit of Mount Washburn from Dunraven Pass. This hike is an out and back of about 7 miles roundtrip, with 1400 feet of elevation change. During the ascent you climb switchbacks and get views of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from above. As we neared the top, snow began to appear on shaded spots on the ground. The summit has a great 360 degree view, with a small observatory building complete with bathrooms and a telescope. From here the view grew to include the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Yellowstone Lake, some of the Tetons, the Lamar Valley, and the Gallatin Range of mountains blocking Mammoth Hot Springs. The hike was not that steep, but consistently uphill with few flat sections and at high elevation. The last mile or so was was above the treeline with the summit at 10,219 feet, and we felt the thin air.
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| Mount Washburn Summit and northeastern Yellowstone beyond |
On Saturday we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs in the northwestern part of the park. This was about an hour from the campsite and contains a lot of geothermal features. On the way there we passed by Roaring Mountain, a hillside that is constantly steaming and occasionally roars from the pressure (though it didn't make any noise while we were there). Once we reached the actual Mammoth Hot Springs valley we spent a while walking the boardwalks among the hot springs.
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| Roaring Mountain |
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| Pallet Hot Springs |
We had originally intended to hike Bunsen Peak, a mountain overlooking the Mammoth Hot Springs valley (and yes, named after the burner guy), but discovered that Bryn had not packed her athletic shoes so we pivoted to looking at more geothermal spots. From Mammoth Hot Springs we drove to the Norris Geyser Basin. This is a hot spot of geothermal activity, with several mile long loops you can walk through geysers and hot springs.
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| Emerald Spring |
At Vixen Geyser we found a woman who is tracking the geyser's eruptions for a volunteer group. This was her second day in a row sitting in front of it all day just marking down when it started and stopped, and she mentioned that it was going or stopped for several hours at a time. Fortunately for us, it was active when we came by, constantly spouting up small bursts of water about 10 feet high.
When we left Norris Geyser Basin it was still a while before dark and we had to pass by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone on our way back to the camper. We took the opportunity to drive to the end of the South Rim (the opposite side from where we hiked earlier in the week) and check out the view from Artist Point which has a parking lot right next to it. This was probably the best view of the falls, and we would recommend trying to see it in the morning since you're looking west at them.
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| Lower Falls from Artist Point |
Driving home from the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, we finally stopped at the Mud Volcano area, another geothermal section. We had passed this several times already, but without time to explore it before dark. It's a short walk to do the loop and the features here are less impressive than elsewhere in the park, but it's still worth checking out if you're already driving by with some time. After this stop we returned to the camper and had a movie night where Bryn watched Hocus Pocus for the first time. We also did a bit of prep work to leave the campsite the following morning when it closed for the season and we would move south to Grand Teton National Park.
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