We spent the night in our cozy digs in Sheridan, WY dreaming of bears because we just KNEW we were going to find some when we made it to Yellowstone National Park. Mark’s life purpose was (and still is) to see and befriend a grizzly bear. What we didn’t know was that the drive this day would be something dreams are made of. Look out geyser land, here we come!
A few hours into the drive and we were pleasantly surprised to cross through the Bighorn National Forest. Beauty abounded here and we took it all in.
Later that day we entered Yellowstone National Park via HWY 14 through the Shoshone National Forest.
We drank in a quick view of Yellowstone Lake before heading up to Canyon Village to check into our frontier cabin. Here we spotted our first whitetail deer and a territorial elk. We didn’t know for sure but we thought the ransacked trailer had grizzly bear written all over it. Sadly, we never spotted the perpetrator.
Our first hike in the park was to the Upper and Lower Falls to witness the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The waterfall sang sweetly and we listened closely!
We continued our drive north to Mt Washburn, Tower Falls, and then to Petrified Tree, which all provided short hikes. Short hikes were ideal because it was raining pretty steadily that day.
We did a little off-roading and took a drive down Blacktail Plateau Road where we spotted our first black bear. Mark almost lost it! We call him Bradley and we love him with paws outstretched. We still think about him and often wonder what our furry friend is up to these days.
Later that evening we returned to our cozy cabin and cooked up a mountain dinner.
LESSONS LEARNED:
-
No matter the amount of preparation, there are always surprise sights and scenery along your route.
- It gets COLD in Yellowstone at night! Don’t forget to turn on the heat in your cabin or you’ll be quite chilled in the morning (learned this lesson the hard way!)