Adam and Ashley's Alaskan Adventure!!: Where the buffalo roam!

After leaving Glacier National Park we made our way south and what do we hit? Rain. Unfortunately, it seems to be unavoidable. We drove in the rain for a few hours and it never let up. We finally pulled into a KOA and it was pouring! We looked inside the camper and some water had leaked inside so we spent about an hour with a heater inside the camper while we sat in the car and were eventually able to go to sleep. To pile on more there was a winter weather advisory for an incoming snow storm so we gave up. We checked into a hotel in Bozeman and took a much needed hot shower after a cold wet night. It actually worked out in our favor because we needed some light work done on the Jeep and we were able to get groceries.

After spending two days in a cozy hotel it was time to head out. It was not cheap to get work done on the jeep and stay in a hotel for two nights so we did not do much in Bozeman beside driving around and checking it out. We headed south for Yellowstone National Park. It had been roughly a decade since we had been there so we were stoked to see it! We pulled into the north entrance and explored Mammoth Hot Springs. There is a little village there with hotels, shops, visitor centers, etc. Much to our surprise we pulled into the small town and not only were there lots of people there but there were lots of elk! They were wandering around the town like it was no big deal. We counted at least 20 elk in the town. After capturing a few pictures from inside the car we made our way over to the Mammoth Hot Springs. We hiked around, taking in the rotten egg smell and enjoying the amazing geologic feature. Afterwards we had some lunch and continued on our journey to see the park. Next up we came across Calcite Gorge. The wonders of Yellowstone never cease to amaze us. Less than a quarter of a mile off the road is an almighty gorge with a roaring green river at its depths. If we had not turned off we never would have known it was there. Same goes for Tower Falls, a beautiful waterfall that you could only see by getting off the main road.

Elk wandering around the village!

Mineral Hot Springs

The terraced hot springs!

Calcite Gorge

Enjoying the nice weather while it lasts....

As we turned and drove south through the park we had to cross Dunraven Pass which has an elevation of roughly 9,500 feet. This made us a bit nervous but the cherry on the sundae was the snow that started to fall as we breached 8,000 feet. Luckily it was not accumulating on the road and we were able to cross safely. Next we came across the Canyon Village Visitor Center. We got our Jr. Ranger booklets and we walked through the awesome exhibits. After spending probably 30 minutes in there we walked out to see that it was snowing heavier now. There wasn’t much we could do to avoid it so we just continued on. Next we came across Norris Geyser Basin. Geysers and hot springs are probably what Yellowstone are most famous for and these are what we were most excited to see. The snow finally let up by the time we got out of the car and we started the boardwalk trail over the thermal area. The geysers and hot springs we saw were beautiful but to our shock there was so much steam coming off of them that it was hard to see all the vibrant colors inside. We hiked around and saw lots of cool things but it was a bit disappointing to not be able to see them very clearly. We hiked around for about an hour before calling it a night, finding a campground and crawling into bed.

The view from the top of the pass

Geysers!!!

Norris Geyser Basin

Trying to get the geyser in the background while having fun!

Cool green and orange colored algae

We love the Sweaty Yeti, it is awesome but it is not an all-weather camper. It is meant for good weather camping not cold, snowy nights. The next morning was a cold one and we woke up early and hit the road. It wasn’t long before we came across a heard of bison. It was so much fun seeing them move across the valley, the little baby bison trying to keep up with mama. We stopped and took pictures of them for a while before heading on to try our luck at viewing some more geysers. Again it was a cold morning so they were just a mess of hot stream and you could hardly see anything so we moved on towards Old Faithful. We got there with about 45 minutes to spare before Old Faithful was expected to erupt so we worked on our Jr. Ranger Booklets. About 15 minutes before it was supposed to blow we made our way out and got good seats. We sat their patiently waiting and we kid you not, not 5 minutes before its scheduled to blow it starts snowing. We already had on our winter coats, mittens and hats so we thought we would be fine, we were wrong. It started snowing so hard that it was a complete white out! YOU COULD NOT EVEN SEE OLD FAITHFUL IT WAS SNOWING THAT HARD! So we accepted defeat and went back into the visitor center to wait out the snow. The only good thing was we became Jr. Yellowstone Rangers before we decided to just head south. Yellowstone is amazing and we want to come back when the weather will be a little more cooperative.

Snowy bison

Bison early in the morning

Cool colors of the geysers

Unfortunately due to the steam you cannot see the color of Grand Prismatic Spring-the largest one in Yellowstone

Us trying to see Old Faithful, we were quite upset.

Next up, came Grand Teton National Park. The weather was a little better here but there were still intermittent snow showers. We were tired and exhausted, we had spent the last several days being rained or snowed on so we did not take our time and explore Grand Tetons. We would do it justice when we came back to do Yellowstone in the future. We drove through the park and we did manage to become Jr. Rangers and we decided to spend the night in the park since there were no campgrounds south of the park that were within a reasonable distance. We parked the camper at the campground and headed into Jackson Hole. We looked around for a restaurant that Adam’s dad recommended but couldn’t find it and gave up. We had a delicious dinner at the Pizza Hut. We then went exploring downtown which had really cool elk antler arches throughout the downtown square. We played tourist for a while and then headed back to our camper for the night. When we got back to the camper night had fallen and the clouds parted to show a bright sky covered with stars. We braved the cold so that we could get some pictures of the night sky. Then we curled up in the camper and got some sleep.

The Tetons were a little cloud covered

We saw a grizzly bear!

Faint view of the mountains!

Beautiful fall colors

Pronghorn sightings on the way to the campground

Elk Antler Archers in Jackson Hole Town Square

A beautiful star-filled night sky

We had a lot of fun with night photography

It was extremely cold taking these pictures but worth it!

We had to hold these smiles for over 20 seconds, not easy work.

The next morning Adam got out of the camper first and to his surprise there was full grown female moose sleeping not 10 feet in the brush behind the camper. We weren’t quite sure what to do so we very slowly and quietly packed up came without going on that side of the camper. Once we started the car she got up and slowly, very slowly made her way away from us. It was a thrilling way to wake up, that is for sure. Then we hit the road to see where the next adventure lay!