Hello! After being without internet (or cell phone service!) for the duration of my stay at Yellowstone, the Epic Road Trip Journal has some catching up to do. I plan to get several posts out tonight until I’m caught up. Let’s start with:
Day Ten: June 19 (posted on June 23)
Today was a driving day, Vernal, Utah to Yellowstone National Park. A day later than my original itinerary.
It was a pretty drive, with changing scenery along the way. I had my GoPro’s dashboard mount set up again. To save the battery, I didn’t leave it turned on the whole way. I didn’t constantly turn it on and off either, that would defeat the whole purpose of having the dashboard mount, which was not to be distracted by messing with a camera while driving! Instead I turned it on and off at intervals, when I was pulled over for lunch or at a rest stop.
The battery lasted that way, but a spattered bug on the windshield got in the way! I think that’s the last time I’ll mess with the GoPro dashcam, it was a sideline anyway: the real reason the GoPro’s along on this trip is to shoot video of geysers in Yellowstone. More on that later.
Here’s some of what the GoPro saw on the drive, though:
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My route eventually led to Jackson Hole, WY, which was insanelybusy and crowded— I had to sit through a long traffic jam along the way— and then into Grand Tetons National Park, which borders Yellowstone on the south.
It stings to have lost a day at Yellowstone, and it’s Grand Tetons that’s going to get lost; I would have found time to drive back south and explore it a bit, but with one fewer day this pass-through will be all. I did get to see this, though:
Then it was on into Yellowstone.
When I planned this trip, I was going to stay at the historic Old Faithful Inn. But it and all other hotels in Yellowstone are closed due to the epidemic, they’ve only opened up the cabins at the various “villages” in the park. They switched me to a backup reservation with two nights (now just one night due to my delayed arrival) in the Old Faithful area, followed by three nights over by Lake Yellowstone.
I arrived early enough to take a preliminary stroll around the Lower Geyser Basin (home to Old Faithful) before checking in. I recorded video of Old Faithful erupting— but it turns out I can’t post videos on my blog directly, I’d have to upload them to YouTube or a similar service and link to them, and I don’t want to mess with creating an account or channel or whatever for that. So blog readers will have to rely on my still photos. The GoPro did its work, but it turns out that’ll be for my private review, at least for now.
I still got good photos as well:
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Old Faithful is still old and faithful after all these years. |
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After a quick look around, I checked into my cabin.
It’s smaller than the Holiday Inn at Vernal! But it’ll do just fine.
Tomorrow the plan is to spend the day going over the main geyser basins in the southwest corner of the park, starting with Old Faithful itself.
Trip Report:
Miles driven today: 423.2
Total miles so far: 2064.1
