Day 5: Yep, More Driving and Yellowstone

I woke up around 4:15am and eventually dragged myself to the bathroom around 5am. I saw several bison grazing by the campground with the sky turning pink as the sun came up. I also realized that we were possibly at the most beautiful campsite we had ever booked. I went back to bed and snagged a few more hours of sleep.

We got up, washed dishes from the previous evening, had breakfast, and packed the car yet again. I realized we could have placed a one or more of our packs in our cargo bag on top of the car to give everyone a little more room in the car. John put his pack in the roof bag and I finished packing the car. The change was nominally helpful. 

We took the Iron Mountain Road down to the highway. It is an interesting road that was established in 1933 and offers a variety of novel views of Mt. Rushmore if you travel south and pigtail turns on bridges. Twice Mt. Rushmore is framed in rock tunnels that you drive through. 

We drove uneventfully toward Yellowstone the rest of the day. We listened to Good Omens. Ezi got to try out highway driving in Montana. We stopped by the Billings Costco and got even more food to try and fit in the car.

As we approached Gardiner, MT and the North Entrance of Yellowstone from Billings we encountered snow-capped mountain ranges. By the time we were just about the Yellowstone we were surrounded by picturesque snowy mountains. 

We somehow took 11 hours to make the 8.5 hour drive today and decided to drive past our hotel straight to Mammoth Hot Springs. It was after 8pm when we arrived and it was drizzly. Consequently, we had the place to ourselves. It was amazing and was truly a mammoth hot spring, several in fact. The colors and shapes of the pools and mineral deposits made by the many springs were diverse and beautiful.

We accidentally went on a wrong path and didn’t make it to the Upper Loop before dark. We decided to save it for another day bd headed toward our hotel.

I had only made the hotel reservation reluctantly and late after realizing that camping would be chilly and not fun this time of year. As a result of my tardy planning, we didn’t have too many hotel choices available. So, we ended up with a slightly too expensive, but nice clean 

room at a Travelodge with a full kitchen (at least for the next couple of days). Even though it was after 10pm by the time we dragged all of our stuff to the room, everyone was excited to finally make themselves a hot meal!