Thursday morning we left Colorado Springs with intentions of being in Seattle Friday night. We stopped at Johnson's Corner, north of Denver and south of Fort Collins, which is famous for its cinnamon role. I was disappointed in the cinnamon role, but the hashbrowns are quite good- Waffle House style, but without all that grease or the topping options. And the price is right for travelers on a budget. Breakfast for two came to ten dollars.
Our next stop was in Grand Teton National Park to camp overnight. The Teton mountain range is known for being very beautiful because it has no foothills. The deep valley stretches straight up to the 14,000 ft Grand Teton Mountain (tallest in the range). On our way to our camp site, we caught a glimpse of a baby black bear. We finally found a site and set up camp. We bought firewood with the idea that we would be able to heat our jar of tomato soup, but no such luck. I did melt cheddar cheese squares on a stick, though. We ate our cold soup, fruit, and other snacks and settled into our tent, and then we froze our (insert body part)s off. I'm pretty sure it was down to freezing or below when we got up, and our sleeping bags just did not do their job. We got up and packed up our stuff, took some very cool pictures of the morning fog below the mountains, and we were on our way to Yellowstone. On our way out, we spotted a mom and baby moose on the side of the road, and then they surrounded our car.
We thought we would just "drive through" Yellowstone National Park and only stop to see Old Faithful, but we spent the better part of the day there and did not exit the park until after 3:00 pm MST. (Sorry, Baileys.) We saw Old Faithful erupt, did a bit of shopping, and saw lots of waterfalls and wildlife. The animals were definitely my favorite part. We saw pronghorn dear, mule dear (bulls, cows, and calves), bighorn sheep, some kind of peahen-looking bird, and lots of bull bison. Our first bison encounter was actually too close to be legal (25 ft or more), but it was definitely his fault. We was lounging next to the road. The bighorn sheep were cool because they stand right up on the side of the steepest hills and mountains like it's nothing. Also, I think Ben hit a chipmunk with the car.
Although I'm frustrated that we won't be in Port Orchard until very late (or early), we did have lots of fun. I wish we had planned more time to spend in both parks, but we are planning a leisurely trip back to Colorado Springs, so we'll have time to enjoy other sites more thoroughly.
-manda
