Yellowstone - west thumb

This morning we got up early, so that we could get to Yellowstone early, so that we can get a first come first serve spot early. When we entered Yellowstone, we were hilarious! The ranger was calmly handing papers to us through the car window and we were all 6 swatting toward the windows trying to keep the mosquitos out. It was a funny moment - us all freaking out while the ranger calmly waited for us to take his brochures. 

Where I found Ky outside visitor center!

Once we were in, we stopped at the first visitor center to inquire about camping. There's only one campground with full hookups in Yellowstone and I could try to get a spot by calling. If I didn't get one, another 3 campgrounds were already full for the night - so we knew where not to go. And we knew we should start moving. Well somehow it was the only 5 minutes of the entire day that I had cell service - thank you, Lord. And even though the ranger couldn't give me a phone number, google got me to the right number. I called and got the last available spot. (: hooray!

The Abyss

Now on to the fun...

We visited the south eastern parts of the park today. We visited the west basin (not sure why it's called "west"), we saw our first geysers and thermal pools. We were introduced to the idea of all the geo-thermal activity in the region at a ranger presentation.

Old photo (above) and present day (below)

This was a "fishing hole" spot in the early 1900s. There was a dock built around it and men would fish in the lake off the dock, then reel in he fish and dip them in the thermal pool to immediately cook them! Fast forward to now: too dangerous. (Apparently one man really was killed when it geysered so that's probably a good call.)