Yellowstone: Day 2

I'm going to catch up. I swear.

For our second full day in Yellowstone, we spent the morning driving across the park to change campsites which we thought would allow us to shower. This turned out to be a nothing but a childish delusion. The drive was filled with wonderful views and we encountered about one million bison. Being enormous animals, these beasts do not hesitate to cross the road whenever they feel like it and to take their time in doing so. Sometimes they just take a stroll down the middle of the road.

After moving camp. we ate heartily of velveeta shells and cheese, steeled our resolve and left to take a hike along the rim of the Black Canyon of Yellowstone. The hike was about two miles each way and followed the rim of the canyon about 800 feet above the Yellowstone River. The canyon itself is gorgeous. There are many sheer drops and interesting rock formations that you can't really find anywhere else. The view away from the canyon was just as good: open land as far as the eye can see.

The hike was tiring because I'm out of shape. It was around two miles each way and we gained about 800 feet in elevation. I made sure to stretch afterwards.

We had planned on showering after our hike because we're civilized people and that's what civilized people do after getting sweaty. However, this was not to be. Roosevelt Lodge (our first choice for showering) was closed for the season. Oh, no matter, we'll just go to the Canyon Campground showers because we want to check out the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone anyway. No big deal. Except that when we arrive there, we search around the visitors center for a sign for showers. There is no sign. I ask a ranger dude. Yeah, the showers have been closed for the season along with the campground but we're free to drive another hour north or south to where there are showers. No thanks. We'll just shower on the way out of town tomorrow morning. That'll undoubtedly go off without a hitch. At this point, we haven't showered since Minneapolis. We've taken one shower on this trip. We've seen that many bears on our trip so far. For every shower we've taken, we've seen one bear. There is a problem with that ratio.

We've been in the car long enough for today so we decide to remain dirty and check out the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone which is impressive but not as impressive as the real thing.