Lost in Yellowstone!

When we posted about our Yellowstone adventure last month, we left one story out. We got lost! Now, for all of you who have been to Yellowstone, I know what you're thinking. The whole main section of the park is made of two loop roads. How could we possibly get lost?! That's a question we still can't answer to this day.

We were finishing up our day, leaving the Old Faithful area, when we got back onto the southern loop, which at that point is US191. Before we knew it, we were stopped in a ton of traffic. What could it be? A bison jam? Construction? Traffic got so bad that we saw people ahead of us turning around. Then, we noticed a police sheriff. Not a ranger, but the actual Popo. He was going from car to car and talking to everyone through their windows. Finally, he reached us. He let us know that the road was closed up ahead and he had no idea when it would be open again. We asked him what was the best way to go around, because we needed to head towards West Yellowstone and then south on US20 towards Idaho Falls. He told us that we should definitely turn around, because we're going the wrong way, and turning around would be the quickest by far. We were so confused. He continued by telling us that, even if we could continue in the direction we were headed, it would take us at least a extra hour or two. We thanked him and turned around, not knowing what was going on up ahead, or how we got there. As we drove off, we felt bad for a tractor trailer driver who parked in a pullout, too big to turn around. He'd have to sleep in his truck that night, because later we found out that the road was closed for 24 hours! We read in the news that a man had driven into a snowbank (yes, there was still snow in May). That wasn't the main issue, though. When authorities found him, he was with his wife...only his wife was dead. Authorities arrested the man on drug and traffic violation charges, but we all watch crime shows. We know that's just a way to get this dude in jail before charging him with murder.

As for our total disorientation, we had in fact left Old Faithful and gone the wrong way, south towards Yellowstone Lake instead of north towards the west entrance. What's weirder is, we  don't even remember there being a choice of which direction to go. Looking at the map, we can actually see why it was confusing. There is kind of a mess of on and off ramps there. But we don't know how, even using landmarks as clues, we had no idea that we were going the wrong way. If it weren't for that drugged up murderer, who knows how long we would have driven for before realizing the error of our ways? Already, our mishap kept us out well after dark, and it was one long drive back to Rigby Idaho, where we were staying.

We thought that turnaround was a fluke, until we went to Yellowstone a second time. At the end of June, we returned to the park, this time entering from the northwest, through Gardiner, MT. Holy moly, is this drive something else! The road twists and turns through the mountains, offering amazing views of the town below.

We drove into Mammoth Springs, where we walked every boardwalk through the travertine terraces. We saw the most chill elk sitting and watching the visitors go by.

We continued around the northern loop clockwise, taking Grand Loop Road through Tower, Devil's Den, Mt. Washburn, and Canyon Village, to finally reach our coveted destination: The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The drive was phenomenal. We traversed the highest road in the park, reaching elevations close to 9000ft. We saw waterfalls, gorgeous mountain views, and tons of wildlife, including two black bears and several herds of elk and pronghorns.

The drive from Mammoth Springs to Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was an hour and a half, but we knew the lighting would be perfect that time of day to marvel at Artist Point, named for Thomas Moran's paintings of the deep canyon and distant waterfall from this south rim overlook. This view is one of those where, you can see tons of photos, but nothing compares to the real thing. The colorful, mineral-rich layers of rock that make up the canyon frame the turquoise blue waters like a picture. No wonder Thomas Moran chose this spot to capture the beauty of Yellowstone! This overlook is also what inspired the government to make Yellowstone the country's first national park.

The sun was moving behind some storm clouds and would soon be setting, and so we started making the long drive back towards Gardiner. We checked our map  and decided to finish the northern loop on the way out, so we could see areas we hadn't yet. We calculated that the distance was about the same number of miles whether we went back the way we came, or continued clockwise.

When we set our satellite GPS (we didn't have cell service), it kept yelling at us to take a right out of South Rim Drive. I disobeyed the directions, thinking that it was just telling us the slightly faster route, but I knew the extra few minutes would be worth seeing new sights. We took a left out of the road and drove on.

And sights we saw! The sunset that evening was stunning, and we got to watch it set over the river, reflecting pinks and oranges in the water. We didn't get much further before we got stuck in our first official bison jam. We thought it was amazing, especially because we were only the third car and had the herd walking right next to us, at times even crossing the road right in front of us. There's no experience like it. The jam made us lose the remaining sunlight, but it was so hard to care when we were living such a memorable moment.

With the sun now set, we drove in darkness, only knowing when we were passing geothermal features because of the sulfur smell. We remained diligent of wildlife on the side of the road, seeing more bison and elk in our headlights. This whole time, whenever we checked GPS, it continued telling us to turn around. We thought eventually it would catch on that we were going around the other way, but it never did. That's when we started noticing signs for Yellowstone Lake. HUH?! My goodness, we had done it again! Yellowstone Lake was way further south than we wanted to go. We were supposed to continue on the north loop and circle our way back up toward Mammoth Springs! Did Yellowstone Lake have a Clyde magnet or something? Because both times we've visited the park, we accidentally started heading toward this very lake. We're sure it's beautiful, but we couldn't see anything in the darkness. We turned around and I dove into the map, wondering what on earth we had done this time. I quickly saw my mistake. See, Artist Point is at the very southeast corner of the northern loop, but technically it's already at the start of the southern loop. If we had wanted to complete the north loop, we would have had to take a right out of South Rim Drive, and then a left shortly thereafter. We missed the memo on the first right...you know, the one GPS was screaming at us to take, and I, like a rebellious teenager, thought I knew better. Turns out, if we had gone the way we wanted and circled the north loop clockwise, it would have been the fastest way out, and we would have seen all the new sights. But then we wouldn't have had that bison jam experience. Hmm. Tricky.

We found our way back to the intersection where we were supposed to turn left, took it, and drove the rest of the north loop, not being able to see anything. There were guardrails with drops next to us for much of the drive, and it was too dark to see how far those drops went. Not at all how we wanted to end our visit to the park, but we took our time and carefully drove the rest of the loop, past Mammoth Springs, and back out the twisting, turning roads that brought us there.

A few days later, our RV GPS calculated the fastest way to get from Gardiner over to West Yellowstone, and it was on these same roads. We did a poll on Instagram, asking if people would tow their travel trailer through the park, or add an hour to go around. The vast majority of people opted for going through the park. We opted to go around. At that point, could you blame us?!

Despite Yellowstone being a vortex that sucks every last ounce of directional intellect out of our brains, we were mesmerized by this park. We had a chance to visit a third time later on, which we'll discuss in an upcoming post, but we're happy to report that third time's a charm, and we didn't get lost that time!

Let's just leave off on that little victorious note, shall we?