Sunday, August 9, 2009

Yellowstone or an East Texas Walmart?

So I know I haven't written about Yellowstone yet, but I've been trying to figure out what to write. So I guess I'll just jump right in and give you my impressions as a native Texan/current Coloradoan/former Beijinger:

1. It's really big. So big, in fact, that there was tons more driving than I thought there'd be. We'd drive to see "this" then get back in the car and drive to see "that". As a current Coloradoan I couldn't believe we were out in nature having to drive around, as a native Texan it seemed totally normal.
2. Yellowstone is not the place to go be Grizzly Adams. People here in Colorado just go out in the National Forests and camp, hike, raft, ski, snowshoe, ect. There's none of that allowed at Yellowstone (and the stuff that is allowed is highly monitored...the hardly let you fish). They definitely don't want you off the marked paths. The whole place is almost like a zoo for nature. You can look, but don't get too close, and definitely don't touch!
3. Continuing along those lines, I was thinking our camp site would be this beautiful, natural, picturesque spot. I imagined the kids just running around free and wild...Um, not so much. Our camp site was a big parking lot, a parking lot surrounded by pine trees. We were laughing that we might as well be camping at any Walmart parking lot in East Texas.


4. Of course the campsite wasn't all parking lot. We did have our own little patch of dirt right in front on our RV. It seems the babies love picking up rocks and sticks to chew on, and that their food tastes much better after it's been dropped in the dirt. Our RV was actually very nice, and as a former Beijinger, I'm quite used to sandstorms, so the dirt patch wasn't an issue at all. The kids hosed off nicely in the RV bathtub each night.

5. Yellowstone is not a drive-thru safari. There certainly weren't any animals sticking their heads in our car windows! We saw lots of chipmunks and squirrels, 2 bison, and a coyote. But no bears (grizzly, black, or ones wearing a hat and green bow tie). We did get up close and personal with tons and tons of mosquitoes. The Coloradoan in me couldn't believe we had to endure such a nuisance as swarming mosquitoes, but the native Texan and former Beijinger in me could swat those things like nobody's business!
(That's a bison.)


In actuality, we really did enjoy ourselves, I just had to make fun of the few things I wasn't expecting. I'll be back with a Yellowstone checklist of sites and JR highlights soon.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was in a cabin w/o a phone. I thought I would die there and nobody would ever know or find me. Margaret

Anonymous said...

Too bad your first RV camping experience had to be in a parking lot. I know you and all the boys would have enjoyed camping in the wilderness(with full hook-up of course). Looks like fun was had by all.
Lu