This was the first view we had driving into Yellowstone! Bison!
We had arrived the night before, but all the campsites were full! So we found an RV park outside Yellowstone, and spent the night there. We left super early to get in, so we could get a camping spot! The person at the gate told us that camping spots fill up quickly, sometimes everything will be full by 9 am!
To me, Yellowstone was more of a tourist attraction. At Glacier, it really felt like people wanting to get outdoors and enjoy what nature has to offer. At Yellowstone, people line up for hours to see Old Faithful explode!
But I digress..
We wanted to stay somewhere near Yellowstone Lake, which is a couple hour drive inside the park. So I sat back and enjoyed the view!
We found a campsite, and found our spot. Unfortunately, we were placed in an RV only campsite. It was good for running the generator – they allowed you to run the generator from 8am – 8 pm - but we didn’t have a firepit! That meant all the cooking was done in the RV. And camping to me is about a campfire. We were both bummed about that.
Breakfast!
We took it easy, and did a little hiking around. We walked up to a store – which had a little of everything! Souvenirs, food, drinks, coffee, and a restaurant.
This is what our “campsite” looked like. Just a parking spot, basically. After a brief nap (I was exhausted!), we headed out on a bike ride!
It felt good to get out and ride. After tripping over the bikes the rest of the time in the RV, it was good to actually use them! There were a lot of rolling hills though, and it wore us out!
A rabbit!
They had a presentation in the amphitheater that we went and saw. It was pretty cool — a park ranger talking about Yellowstone, and how it became what it is now. It was actually pretty interesting.
Day 2!
This was the only full day we were going to have at Yellowstone, so we wanted to take advantage of it.
We did a lot of just driving to get from place to place …
They aren’t kidding when they say “thermal area”. The water that shoots out of Old Faithful can be 204 degrees, and the steam up to 350! (see here for more information)
There were lots of mementos around — stories of the fire of 1988. Check this out for more information regarding the fire and Yellowstone Inn. Rob told me there can be a waiting list of up to 3 years to get a room there!!! I told him we should plan for our 5 year wedding anniversary 
With that, we drove on to Kepler Cascades! This was just down the street (ha!), and it was gorgeous!
Sammy apparently was not interested in all the water below him
With that, we got out our bikes and rode here!
We heard about the Lone Star Geyser and the amphitheater the night before. It is the second biggest geyser next to Old Faithful, and just a 2 mile bike ride off the main road! We decided to go for it!
When we got there, some people were just leaving, and said we had just missed the eruption! Since it only happens once every 3 hours, we were kinda bummed. As we sat there, it started doing this:
And then this …
It was by FAR the coolest thing I saw the entire time we were at Yellowstone. Pardon the next multitude of pictures..
