Yellowstone (Day 3) : Animal Jams!

We're back in cell coverage, so I'll try to catch up on uploading postings I wrote at the time...

So day 3 (June 19)  was planned to be a relaxing drive up the west side of Yellowstone, stopping to see the sights, getting to Mammoth Hot springs in the early afternoon and relaxing with Grandma and Grandpa Wilson, before spending the night in a hotel in Montana.

Well, it was exciting (see the end of this post), but for most of it, we did this:

And this

And this

For four hours! On a drive that should have taken 40 minutes.

All because if these guys:

Apparently when you're driving through a canyon and the bison get on the road, in the same direction, you don't get to "pass the bison". So you go the speed of a walking bison. Which is, wait for it, slow. And you just go until there is a field for them to, you know, turn left into.

So as people got out if there cars and explored in the (often dead stopped) traffic jam (or "animal jam" as theses things are called, we hear), word spread about what was happening. So the kids and I started walking - after hearing "hundreds of bison a mile or two up the road". Yeah, let's go see that, we can walk a mile!

After 2 or 3 miles, we never caught up, but we did see some cool waterfalls...

And steam vents...

And...well, lots of stopped cars.

In the end, we finally passed them in the field (see above) and proceeded north. 

We passed some columnar basalt cliffs (did I mention Lisa is loving the geology here?)...

And then got into some road construction we heard could add another 30 minute delay.

We'll, it did, but not completley because of the construction....





Yeah, so it's much more exciting when the bison walk TOWARD your car...It was over pretty quick, and pretty much made the otherwise wasted day all worth it.

We got up north and toured Mammoth Hot springs pretty quick...



Crossed into Montana (first new state before me in at least a decade)

And met up with some worried grandparents (zero cell service for most of the day) for dinner at a bar and grill that had this sign from...home?

(note the marker at the bottom)

and capped it off with a well deserved swim at the hotel.

Tomorrow is the rest of Mammoth area and a drive back in the east side and Lamar Valley, where there should be even more wildlife to see.