Bison, Elk, Waterfalls, Double Rainbows and Snow in July?!

Today I check in from a warm room, sitting on a bar stool at my parents place in Rugby, ND. Not exactly the exciting locations of the last couple check-ins, but it feels amazing to be clean, dry, and not smelling like a year-old pile of compost baking in the desert sun. Since the Idaho truck stop the sheer awesomeness of this journey has only increased.

After our 16 hour one-stop drive from Redwoods to Yellowstone, we were able to see the park for nearly a whole 30 minutes on Wednesday night before realizing that we still needed a place to set up camp for the night. The amazing thing about Yellowstone was that in that 30 minutes we were able to see a large buck scampering through meadows without a care in the world (I know my ND hunter friends would be drooling to see such a sight. Along with the buck we saw two bison grazing just feet from the road. Bison have always held a special place in my heart. As a North Dakota State University alumni I am a proud Bison (pronounced Bizon in this case only). Also, I kind of feel like they are my personal spirit animal. They are big, look cuddly, peaceful, and content just grazing and enjoying the day.

Once we realized it was time to set up our tent for the night, we turned at the first sign we saw exiting on the Bozeman, MT side of the park. The campground was the Madison Arms Camping Resort. After not spending more than $25 for camping during the entire trip, the $32.50 fee seemed high but for laundry, on-site showers, and this amazing scenery:

it was worth every cent!

Yellowstone was our best stop for wildlife. Bison, elk, deer, beaver, and even a bear sighting made were the portion that really set Yellowstone apart. The geysers, hot springs, and other volcanic activity sites were incredible as well. I had heard in the past, that Old Faithful was overrated and I couldn't disagree more. It may not be the most powerful geyser but the show it puts on is nature's rival to the highly choreographed fountain show at Bellagio in Vegas.

The surprise of the trip was what came after we left Yellowstone. We exited on the Cooke City, MT side of the park. Within minutes, we were met by a group of 4 bison casually strolling beside the road. A few minutes later we pulled off to take some pics of a valley further down the road and discover this:

After fighting the crowd just to get a few far away shots of Tower Fall inside the park, finding this and getting to enjoy it by ourselves was worth a few hundred mosquito bites. 

From there things only got better. As we continued the drive we truly had no idea where we were headed because we had no cell service for mapping on our phones. I guess this was the purest form of wandering we had done during the entire trip. This is the moment where my catch phrase "Not Lost, Just Wandering" could not have been more true. The result was the best views we would have of the Rockies during the whole trip:

Despite this beauty, we were nearly alone on this stretch of road. It was so isolated that we were able to stop in the middle of the road to take these pics and even observe a herd of mountain goats roaming freely on the side of the mountain. Seeing the mountain goats was one of those moments that really put the trip in perspective. Just as the redwood trees had stood hundreds of years before I walked this earth, these mountain goats had descended from ancestors who had roamed the Rockies for centuries. They were here first and I hope their descendants will roam the mountains for centuries to come. 

I am still amazed by how fortunate we were to witness everything we saw after we left the park. It came from keeping our eyes open and still seeking adventure. Others may have left the park that afternoon so focused on their next destination they may have not even noticed the things that were so stunning for us. I have to admit I was completely lost to the moment when I looked at my clock and realized it was 8:30 at night and we still had 10 hours to reach the final destination, my hometown. All I could think was:

Enjoy the moment and worry about the consequences once the moment has passed. 

In this case, the moment was nature's beauty so stunning I cannot put it into words. The consequences were 3 hours of sleep at a roadside rest stop followed by a long boring driving through the Montana/ND countryside. Worth every bit!