I have always wanted to visit Yellowstone Park since watching countless Yogi Bear cartoons when I was a kid, but now I am here it is somewhat different to what I expected. I had a picture in my mind not unlike the Grand Tetons National Park we have just been through with its dense woodland, snowy mountain peaks and gushing creeks, but Yellowstone is quite different. Firstly, it is mostly flatland and, secondly, the key feature of it is the geo thermal activity that breaks through the surface of the land.
Not far from the visitor’s centre is ‘Old Faithful’, the famous geyser. We time our visit well as it goes off powerfully spraying boiling water up to about fifty metres into the air and the blasts keep coming for a good few minutes. We also visit a few of the geothermal attractions, including the ‘Paint Pots’, featuring bubbling pools of white minerals circled by red lines coloured by the magic of chemistry.
Bison wander freely around Yellowstone, within the car park and along the foot paths. They look like placid animals, but a nameless member of our party got a bit too close to one to get herself into a picture, eliciting a crude grunt and a brief charge from the Bison, sending our friend scuttling away in a yelping panic. On a brief walk near the centre of the park, I discover a recently defleshed bone, though I am guessing this from the remains of a bear victim....Bison are supposed to be herbivores after all. Bison or Bear, a bit of hair near the bone now rests in the strap of my kangaroo skin hat.
At tonight’s campsite, we find that all the sites intended for buses are closed. We find one space for an RV. After parking the bus in it, we find it not only too small but also on a slope, so decide not to stay there. However, there is an elevated log barrier to the parking space and, although Charlie got the bus into the space, the barrier is preventing him from getting the bus out. This is no problem for the determined and uninhibited though, and Charlie decides the best way out is to remove the barrier, although it is planted into the ground with concrete blocks. With the aid of a shovel and multiple man power we pull one end out to open up a gap so the bus can pull out, then hastily and sloppily plant it back in before the ranger catches us vandalising the campsite.
We park the bus in a lay-by near the camp recycling bins. A ranger has told us that we are allowed to park here, but that nobody is allowed to sleep on the bus. Jimmy encourages some people to set up their tents on the site we just abandoned, but as it is raining there are few takers. Because, I suspect, Jimmy doesn’t want to sleep out in the wet, he tells everyone that they can sleep on the bus as long as they are quiet in case the ranger comes by. Despite this, some of our group decide it is a good idea to get some booze and have a party at the front of the bus, which not only risks getting us kicked out of the campsite but also annoys everybody at the back end of the bus trying to get to sleep without the benefit of road noise to drown out the revellers. Eventually the drinkers are told to go to bed by the disciplinarian hippy Jimmy.
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