We got an early start to drive through Yellowstone National Park. Originally, we had NO intention of visiting the Yellowstone simply because it would be too crowded and too chaotic for us to enjoy. Our goal has been to be off the beaten path, to discover places and people and experience things that make the world seem big again. But our proximity (only 18 miles away from the park’s entrance) was too much to resist.

Angela and I visited Yellowstone 19 years prior almost to the day, and thought the boys would enjoy it immensely – even if only for a short half-day drive. We’d seen lots of animals on the trip so far, but still no grizzly. Besides, we reckoned that we’d bring the boys back sometime in the fall or early spring when the throngs of visitors are smaller.

Within the first ten miles in the park, along the Lewis River, we spotted two wolves stalking a large water bird. We thought we saw another flitting among the pines around the south side of the meadow. Angela and I noted that it was a bit spooky that while we were watching them, they were watching us. They were staring … calculating. The pullout where we stopped was maybe 150 yards from the wolves, and within minutes we were surrounded by many more tourists. Travel tip: if you want to spot wildlife, spot people and cars paused on the side of the road. In this case, we were the people on the side of the road.

I think we knew from the beginning that our jaunt into Yellowstone wasn’t going to be brief. The wolves didn’t take all that much time even through the traffic jam they caused forced me to wait out a busload of people as I re-entered the roadway. But it all started unraveling with Old Faithful. Yep – a stalwart among the cultural American travel icons, right up there with the Alamo, Washington Monument, Mount Rushmore, Statue of Liberty, Hollywood sign, and the Empire State Building. None of us had planned to stop, but Asher really wanted to see it and reasoned, “we’re so close.”

So we stopped and hustled over to the viewing platform that is an enormous semi-circle around the geyser. Ronan and Angela stayed in the car with Timber, while Asher and I sat … and sat … and sat. We got a good seat, which was my first indication that we’d landed too early. Then the folks next to us mentioned that the ranger said it was estimated to go…in 90 minutes! So we waited and watched other nearby geysers blow, and saw toddlers break free from parents, sodas get spilled, and hats being knocked off by the wind. Mostly, we watched people gathering and cameras being prepped for the big event. And eventually, we witnessed the two-minute long spray of hot water. Underwhelming, yes. Worth the wait, OF COURSE!

Asher and I got to spend a long time together waiting and talking.  We enjoyed our time together, cuddled up in the cold wind and making jokes that Old Faithful is just an earth fart. Boys.

We also enjoyed the crowd. As the estimated eruption time neared, we heard cheering off to the right so looked at Old Faithful, but it wasn’t doing anything. I looked at Asher and he at me. Again, we heard more cheering to the right, then booing on the left. We both looked at Old Faithful assuming that it had started…still nothing. We stood up to see over the crowd, and saw that the right flank was trying to start ‘the wave’ and had failed to get very far along in the previous few attempts. Thus, the booing. But now everyone along the viewing platform had it figured out…the next try was going to do it. But alas, too late – Old Faithful began erupting and the wave was forgotten.

Back in the car, we drove along Lower Geyser Basin, down Firehole Lake Drive for a spectacular view of the many sulfuric steam pools. Each one is an opalescent rainbow of crystal clear, boiling water hot enough to cook pasta.  The pools have a color palette of blues and greens at lower depths, reds, oranges and yellows at the midpoints, and creams and whites around the edges. Sure it smelled like eggs, but it was surreal to be surrounded by boiling pots all the way to the horizon.

We stopped at Fountain Flat Drive, near the Nez Perce Creek bridge for picnic lunch. Along the stream, dozens of other visitors were splashing in the earth-warmed water – building dams to pool up as ad hoc soaking tubs. After lunch and one of the worst pit toilets of the trip – and that’s saying a lot – we headed to the northernmost part of the part, Mammoth Hot Springs, to see the Minerva Terraces. This meant going farther and deeper into the park than originally planned.

At Minerva, we first drove through the Upper Terraces area before descending to hike across the boardwalks of the Lower Terraces. Geothermal energy can produce incredible and delicate work. The terraces are calcium carbonate that bubbled up through the ground, then dissolved in super heated water and gradually distilled into little ‘steps’ and pools. They are mostly white, as the earth beneath has gone through multiple cycles over the years and they’re now dry.  The still-active parts are rust-colored and contain intricately detailed patterns in the rock.

In the village of Mammoth Hot Springs, we found a herd of elk lounging under trees next to the interdenominational church just south of Fort Yellowstone. By this time, it was pretty late in the day – around 5:00p, and we still had to get all the way back through the park. So we focused on finding bear with sharpened resolve.

Yellowstone is rightfully one of the most popular national parks in the system. It is absolutely stunning, even the parts devastated by the 1988 wildfire are creating beautiful new views. The enormity of Yellowstone – the herds of animals, the broad valleys and meadows, and the moonscapes of the geothermal forces under the park all give it a vitality that held us in thrall. Even hungry and tired, we watched every mile on the drive back. We never found our grizzly, but off the banks of Yellowstone Lake near West Thumb that we got a great view of a solitary elk grazing among the forest.

As I prepared a homemade pasta dinner back at camp, we received visitors from Chino, California who stopped by to chat with us about the Airstream. Steven (dad), Adrian (mom) and Cameron (3 years old) spent 45 minutes with us. Steven was a Navy mechanic who worked on cargo planes and had almost a dozen landings on aircraft carriers. It never occurred to me that this would be a metric guys would keep, but it makes sense – think about how few people have ever landed on a moving ship. Steven was a good guy and I enjoyed hearing about his family. He currently works in the booming petroleum industry down in Bakersfield, commuting about and hour each way, and was working on his Mechanical Engineering degree at night. All tough stuff to do with a small child at home. Adrian didn’t talk as much, though she was very pleasant and friendly. And Cameron was busy bringing sticks to Timber. So Steven and I talked, drank beers and commiserated about trying to balance the work/school/husband/dad thing.

We’ve met good people on the road.