We left our spot by the lake to meet the Chen’s for the beginning of our adventures. They had actually driven right by our spot a day earlier but we had coordinated our first night near West Yellowstone. As we were traveling to the meetup we stopped for lunch in Island Park ID and found out they were about 12 miles south of us. From there we drove to our first spot, Lonesomehurst campground. It was a very nice USFS campground with only about 1-2 miles of gravel to get to it after a paved road. It was nice and cool and the forecast called for rain the next few days. We decided to hit Yellowstone the next day.
The forecast was for rain most of the day but we headed out anyway. Since there was no one vehicle that could handle 9 people and 1 dog, we took both vehicles. We had heard that Yellowstone was very busy, very likely due to the time of the season we were there so we had a plan. However, when we got to the gate and didn’t see a line waiting, and due to the inclement weather we changed the plan and headed for Old Faithful:
By the time we were at Old Faithful, it was POURING rain! We couldn’t really get out to see anything so we drove the loop road. We stopped for some lunch at Lake Lodge since we could not picnic anywhere and we were able to dry out a bit. The rain had not let up for about 2 hours.
After lunch, we continued our drive and the weather cleared quite a bit where it was more time without rain that with. We saw a lot of animals, we stopped at Yellowstone falls and even saw a bear with cub along the road on the way back, throwing in a coyote for good measure!
Day 2 we had to do some laundry so the Chen’s did their own thing. We were able to head back into the park in the afternoon. Since it was the middle of June and we were so far north, it didn’t get dark until 10 pm so we had a lot of time.
We went on a few different roads and stops as the first day. This time we saw falls, hot pools, hot pots, other geothermal events and a mother dear with her baby. We think the latter may have been only hours old.
The weather on the second day was wonderful. But it was time to move on to the next destination.
