Today we traveled from Billings Montana where we boondocked at a Bass Pro Shop for the first time!This means you are allowed to stay but don't have water, electricity or dump stations. Don't worry, Our rig is set up so that we can boondock for days in comfort! We arrived at Sun Outdoors Camp Ground at the north entrance of Yellowstone at m
id afternoon! This was a last minute decision so they only had a different spot for each of the two nights so we needed to move to a new site in the morning! Once we got settled we jumped in the jeep for our first yellowstone experience! The north entrance is marked by the famous arch dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt for his support of preserving our wonderul countryside!
Our first stop was Mammouth City. This is where all the business of Yellowstone is done. As we turned onto the main street, Duke jumped up and his nose went crazy! Sure enough, there was a huge male Elk in the middle of town right in front of our car! Three rangers immediately drove up with bull horns telling people to get inside. The elk appeared to be frustrated and was letting out the most horrible, loud sounds!!
We made it through town and came upon the Mammouth springs. The first several parking lots were crowded so Dana and I went to the last empty lot and were fascinated by the white ground that was being created by clear water. Evidently we got pretty close while trying to dodge the many Bison and Elk poop piles because as we were walking back to our car a ranger shouted through his open window, "Why would you do that? That's a $1500 fine! " He drove on and Dana and I looked at each other not knowing what we did wrong. As we got to our park we found a small 6 inch wooden sign that said do not walk here! I googled it and found out that the thermal active ground of Yellowstone can be unpredictable and you can cave in and die or scalded! Who knew? This is why they built the boardwalks!
eWe continued our drive realizing that tonight is the night to make it to Lamar VAlley to see wildlife! The terrain changes constantly in yellowston!
When we reached Lamar Valley we saw hundreds of Bison, Prong horn deer and elk! After watching the beautiful sunset we headed back through Yellowstone to our campground! This is when the excitement happened. Hundreds of Bison started walking down the street on both sides of our jeep! Our windows were down and Duke was barking, then whining then growling and the Bison just ignored him! At one point we thought a big guy was going to stick his head in Dana's window to say Hello!
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