Still. Couldn't. Sleep.
The wooden floor outside our room would creak whenever other guests walked past, which was pretty frequent, as the bathroom was just down the hallway. Somehow I managed to get into a half-sleep-half-awake stupor, and then the alarm clock rang.
We quickly made ourselves some coffee and toast with peanut butter someone had left for the hostel. This is the nice part about hostels, there's always these kinda stuffs lying around, courtesy of ex-guests who decided to
We decided to get drinking water and snacks, and bear spray, being our first time staying overnight in a wild wild forest. There's been recent bear attacks in Yellowstone that got us pretty freaked out. Btw, bear spray = pepper spray which some ladies have in their handbag to ward off attackers. You may have seen in movies of them squeezing on the nozzle into the eyes and immediately the offender can't see, the victim then use the time to escape.
While checking out at Safeway, we asked about the bear spray from the staff, she didn't understand at first. CH then waved his hands wildly (trying to 'look' like a bear), and she got it! She gave us very clear and precise directions to the store selling it, and also mentioned about the recent bear attack, which seemed to be caused by someone who intentionally wanted to lure the bear to him, but apparently the bear attacked someone else instead. Its sad cos once a bear attacks a human, it will be put to sleep, no plea given. Whatever happened to us being guests on their turfs?
Boy this bear spray actually set us back by an hour as the store only opens at 9am. We finally reached the town of Gardiner just at the northern entrance of Yellowstone, at 10am. :(
The roads in Yellowstone resembles the number "8". Coming in from the north, our plan was to go southwards along the left side of '8', before heading back to our campground at Canyon (which is at the right middle '8').
Barely reaching our first stop - Mammoth Hot Springs we were hit by a strong smell of rotten eggs. If the photos could show! I guessed we'll have to get used to this, as the whole place is full of these gases released by the hydrothermal features.
The landscape here is totally different from the rest of the park. Hot water from underground brings limestone to the surface and deposits gradually built up and formed terraces. It was estimated that 2 tons of this limestone get transported to the surface each day.
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Moving on, the next destination was the geyser basins, namely upper, midway and lower. We had been warned about road construction between Norris and Madison which further set us back by half an hour.
Caught a glimpse of this biker bear snoozing...
At Midway Geyser Basin, Grand Primatic Spring - the largest hot spring in Yellowstone, with its wide spectrum of colors beckoned to us. This is my #1 favorite attraction. Boy wished I could live here.
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With great reluctance, we left the place heading for our final destination of the day - Old Faithful. First stop was the highly raved Old Faithful Inn. It was rustic, cozy and big. We had originally planned to have lunch at the restaurant here, but due to the delay we decided to have an early dinner instead. Which was good cos we didn't made any reservations in this ever-so-popular restaurant.
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| The intricate structure inside the inn | Can you see a small house? |
We both ordered bison burger *exclusive in Yellowstone only!*, with different 'toppings':
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Verdict: Bison meat was overcooked and too dry. Service was pretty sloppy, the waiter noticed the blue cheese was missing on my burger, and gave me crumbled ones instead. Hur? Ain't it supposed to be melted, dude? Oh well, at least the plates looked nice. Oh btw the meat came from bison farms, you can't touch the ones in Yellowstone which are protected. Some
With renewed energy, we proceeded to check out the trail in the region, including the famous Old Faithful Geyser which erupts more frequently than others at consistent time intervals.
More geysers in Old Faithful:
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| I think this is Old Faithful? | My #2 favorite - Morning Glory |
Believe me, the trail was covered with so many geysers/pools/etc that we couldn't make it for the Old Faithful eruption. :( But I seriously don't think we missed much.
The last pool on the bottom right is Morning Glory Pool - my 2nd favorite, but it has kinda lost its glory. People threw litter, including coins treating the pool as a good luck well, which clogs up the opening underground, reduced the temperature of the water and induced the growth of bacteria around the edges. So this pool was supposed to be turquoise water with bright yellow edges but instead became reddish-brown due to the bacteria.
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The sun was setting by the time we were done with the exploration. We decided to head back to our camp at Canyon to retire for the night. Caught some beautiful scenery on the way back:
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And a deer peacefully munching away...
We travelled slowly in case of animal crossing. It was 9+ when we reached Canyon. After some asking around, we found our way to the registration office to get our assigned campground. There was already a ranger outside the office which had closed. Apparently she was waiting for us as we seemed to have double-booked the campgrounds and she had to confirm. We felt bad for causing her to wait, but she was all jovial and happy cos she would be off the next day with a group of friends to go for some bear sighting. What a life!
Excitedly we headed off to set up our first camp (in our lives!). Boy, I wonder if I could sleep tonight being our first night in the park, with the thought of bear visiting lingering in our minds...
More photos of our Day 2 trip here (in flickr)
[To be continued...]
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