Day 12 - Yellowstone

Today is our big camping trip to Yellowstone...decided just one night would be enough for us as we knew it would be pretty cold (little did we know just how cold). So we got all packed and drove into Yellowstone to our camp sight in the West Thumb area (this is part of Yellowstone Lake). Upon registering, we were given a big list of how to be "Bear Aware"....this pretty much freaked us out & added to our fear of having our tens overthrown by a big black bear! But there was no turning back for us, we decided to take our chances.

Next on our to-do-list was to see Old Faithful. She was about 20 minutes away from our campsite. There were lots of people leaving as we pulled in...that only meant one thing - she already erupted. We quickly found out that there is generally 92 minutes in between eruptions so we had a while to wait. We found a front row seat & just rested. While we waited, a kid behind us got a nose bleed...apparently this happens often because of the dry climate...even Chrissy got a bloody nose on the disc course yesterday. So far, we've been nose-bleed free. While we're on the subject of noses, I have to tell you about the smells out here.......the first night we stayed near Mt. Rushmore we were next to an RV...I thought he had some sort of air freshener inside that was just pouring outside. I finally said something to Mike and he informed me its just the mountain air! He made a good point about why deodorants have flavors like "Mountain Fresh"...I had no idea! But it really is a different smell, one I can't describe other than clean and air-freshener like!
She constantly has steam rolling out, but when it was time for her to erupt, water starts slowing spitting out until it completely shoots up to 150 ft high! We got a great video of this I will post later.
After Old Faithful we wanted to head into Montana through Yellowstone's West entrance. We ate some DQ (no new flavors to report this time) & walked around down town, but Mike's legs were hurting so bad from his down-mountain discing the day before that walking far wasn't an option.
As we headed back to our tent, we stopped at Firehole Falls - very cool!
We made it back just at dusk, right in time to grill some hot dogs & get a fire started. I went ahead and put layers of clothes on so the cold wouldn't hit me too badly....we ate and then we cleaned up really well....I was so paranoid about dropping even a crumb on the ground for fear a bear would smell it from afar and attack our tent for more food! As we were cleaning up it was completely dark now...the last thing to put away was our big cooler...Mike was coming around the car & I had the door open, but had to shut it so he could get by...I quickly went to open the door back up so he didn't have to set the cooler down before he put it in the back seat and I slammed the edge of the door onto his hand.........it was not pretty! I felt soooo bad....I guess the guy next door heard me and he came over to take a look at Mike's hand - he said he was a doctor. Luckily I didn't break Mike's finger...he'll live, but with pain for a bit.
After that drama, we bundled up and headed for bed.......the temp is definitely in the low 30's as we are almost 8,000 feet up.....it was FREEZING COLD!!!! I even slept with Mike's toboggan on (or for you real Northerner's, a ski hat?) & I still was ice cold! So a few light sleeping hours later, Mike is sitting half way up....I ask him what's wrong....he asks if I can hear "that".......I listen intently, sounds like an angry bear huffing & puffing up & down tent lane......our imaginations get the best of us.........then we realize its the good doctor next door snoring very inconsistently. Close call.