Up and up and up we went, 10,000 feet up the sides of Mt. Crumpit with our Bambi all loaded and hopes not to tump it.
Yeah, all I could think of was that scene in How the Grinch Stole Christmas where he's got that little dog Max hauling that loaded sleigh up the mountain with the little bits of snow falling off the edges.
Our saving grace was that we left really early so there was not much traffic lining up behind us urging us to move faster than the 10 miles per hour that we were going. If you plan on hauling a trailer up this road, and really why shouldn't you 'cause it's so entertaining, go at the crack of dawn.
Once at the summit we were treated to some highly complex geological phenomenon I like to call icy patches.
These are just as fascinating as they sound unless you are pulling over onto one while hauling a trailer and it just happens to be on a crumbly ledge over a 10,000 ft. drop. So naturally we did what any experienced long-haul truck driver would do. We got out and took a picture of the Bambi.
Then we rode the brakes all the way down and got stuck in a construction traffic jam at the bottom. Fortunately, this was the view out the window while we waited for the crew to basically construct a new road.
Beautiful but the water temperature is slightly above that of liquid nitrogen.
It took us a couple hours to go over Beartooth pass so we hightailed it through the north entrance of Yellowstone and went straight to Pebble Creek Campground because it was first come, first served. Lucky for us we got the last spot.
This is the view out the front window.
This is our third visit to Yellowstone so by this time we have seen every belching mud pot and gurgling geyser in the park so we opted not to drive to Old Faithful or tour Mammoth Hot Springs (mammoth refers to the crowd sizes). It was over 60 miles from our camping spot to Old Faithful and even though the park is over 2 million acres the thing is it only has that one road. A road filled with Winnebagos, bears, buffalo, and wildlife paparazzi so it takes forever to get anywhere.
We opted instead to focus on the Lamar Valley and do some hikes near the campsite. Lamar Valley has lots and lots of these majestic buffalo creatures that also happen to be rather dumb. And by lots, I mean way too many.
Surprisingly, they do not smell bad but they are very snotty and snorty.
Unfortunately, they don't have the common courtesy to realize that you are higher up on the evolutionary scale and will take their ever lovin' time getting off the road. Also, those nit picky park rangers frown on you honking your horn or ever so gently nudging them with your bumper. So, no, do not give me a home where the buffalo roam you'd never get anywhere.
We took a little hike around Pebble Creek to do some birdwatching.
and looky who happened to be slurpin' up some yummy termites from a rotten log next to the trail.
Fred and I prefer our current unmauled condition so we managed to employ a sophisticated anti-bear technique to scare him off. Fred coughed and he freaked out and ran away.
We had hoped to see the re-introduced wolves here but they were busy dodging the local ranchers who apparently are really keen on their second amendment rights. So, we had to entertain ourselves looking for tourists getting way too close to dangerous, unpredictable large mammals or pushing each other off the boardwalk in the geyser area onto the thin crust covering boiling hot water. You don't have to look for long in Yellowstone since the average tourist has the IQ of a russet potato.
You know what's between these people and a large buffalo herd. Um, nothing.
A few years ago a woman got gored in the butt because she grabbed a buffalo by the horns to try to turn his head for a better shot. I bet park rangers get together at the end of each season and have a few beers and just laugh and laugh.
Ok, one last "Oh beautiful for spacious skies" shot and then we gotta hook up the Bambi and hightail it all the way to Devils Tower.
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