Arriving to Yellowstone

9/22/11

We woke up at Bighorn and realized the temperature was in the 20's. We  packed and drove to Yellowstone taking route 14 which passes throughout Cody. At Cody we stopped at their impressive first ever concrete dam 

It was ~120 miles from Bighorn to Yellowstone, therefore, we arrived by lunch time at Yellowstone. Once there, we drove from the east entrance to the fishing bridge RV camp and paid $3.25 each for using their showers. We had not shower in 2 days. 

We continued driving to find the nearest information center at fishing bridge. By then we had started to discover why everyone raves about Yellowstone. Wildlife thrives and its easy to see while driving. Animals seemed to have gotten used to the cars driving around. We saw tons of bison, 2 coyotes, a fox and  4 mule deer  2 meters away from us at the camp site. Disappointingly the Rangers said we have a better chance to see wildlife while driving. Our plan so far is to rest today and stay a couple of nights to cover various hikes across the eight shape loop at the center of the park.

Although they said September was the better and less crowded time of the year to visit, the Rangers have told us than a larger than normal amount of visitors are here this time.

Next we wanted to find a site to camp but a bunch of the campgrounds had closed for the season and the ones left were pretty crowded. The campgrounds filled up by 5pm therefore the Rangers recommended to set camp soon. We settle for  a less than desirable campsite.  At camp we met a Chech duo and aThai family who asked us to share our campsite with them. We agreed after making clear we didn't want them smoking. After Paul was done cutting wood with a  hatchet and had sat to rest, the  Chech guy approached him pointing a saw at him. For a split second it looked like a Freddy Crogger movie, but he was just offering his saw to Paul, little we knew he didn't spoke English.   

At night we cooked , played cards, sang songs and drank whisky. Before going to bed, we went for a short drive to see the stars. It was at this time that we saw the fox crossing the road. when we got to bed we realized our mattress was leaking so for the fist time we had to sleep on the floor. This was good for Monica who finally slept the night after 3 days of restlessness.