Road to Yellowstone

I won't be able to post this today, Saturday. I don't know if I'll be able to tomorrow either. I'm standing in a wonderfully heated bathroom at the Bridge Bay Campground in Yellowstone, charging my phone. It was a long slug of more than 80 miles from Cody to here today. In many ways, it was considerably easier than the Big Horns, but it was still farther and not at all easy. Well, I should say I spent the first 50 miles wondering when it was going to get hard...then killing myself on the next 10 or 15. Up to Yellowstone east entrance really isn't bad at all. But from there it's a very sharp rise to Sylvan Pass, and making that segment was exhausting. But I did it, and I'm here, in for the night. ...I just hope my poor tent with its broken stakes holds up through the storm tonight.

Just the road into Yellowstone was incredibly gorgeous. I had a hard time keeping myself from constantly stopping to take pictures, pressed for time as I was. I forced myself awake early in the morning, crammed food in my face, and then rushed out the door, knowing the long day this would be.

I saw plenty of wildlife today, though I got few pictures. Even before getting into the park, I saw a black bear run across the road and nearly get hit by a car. In the park I saw a couple mountain goats on a ridge (which I did get shots of), pelicans on a lake that people were photographing with massive telephoto lenses which my phone camera could capture only as white blobs, and a bison so close to the road you could touch him, who I just passed on by at all haste. I also saw a deer right here in the campground. There's no lack for wildlife here, to be certain.

I discovered much to my and my wallet's joy that I don't need a reservation, nor do I need to pay nearly as much, when entering a campground as a hiker or bicyclist, and that I'm guaranteed a communal spot for me and my ilk (got a refund even for my unnecessary reservation). And arriving at my spot, what do you know, but there after my long, long day, I'm surprised to stumble onto a familiar face (actually two) at its end.  For lo and behold, the two Polish ladies that stayed with my same hosts in Cody are at my same camping site. ...And I get to be informed how quick and easy it was to get here by hitchhiking (their chosen means of travel). They left far later, and got here much sooner, and with way less effort. ...Ah well, at least I got to impress the German bicyclist with how far of a ride I made today.

Tomorrow I think I shall head north, try to hit Mammoth Hot Springs. There's lots to see here, and a lot of difficult climbing to do it. But that's tomorrow. Tonight, I sleep off my long day, and hopefully stay warm and dry through the night.