YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

Day 1 of camping

When I reached Lamar Valley this morning, at about 5:30, the car told me that it was only 33 degrees. Burr.

The sun was beginning to come over the mountains out to the east and patches of fog hung low over the valley. Bison everywhere and one large herd was trying to cross the road. Scratch that – one cow wanted to nurse her calf in the middle of my lane. I saw a few pronghorn also but really not much else.

A number of watchers were at the Trashcan pullout but were backing their cars into the road and heading east. Around the confluence and I could see Doug, tripod slung over shoulder, heading up the hill.

Rick told me that 755 and the black female were out in the valley and that they were seeing pups on the Blacktail.

“I’ve got to go get a campsite,” I told him.

Rick nodded.

I was fourth in line when I arrived at the campground this morning at about 5:45.

Luckily, Ray was kind to us and opened the campground gate well before 8 a.m. and as we drove in Dar asked what campsite we wanted.

“Number 17,” I told her.

Now water at the campground, so no charge. Yippee!

I meandered towards home so that I could finish loading the trailer and preparing for my camping adventure. The closer I became to getting ready the more excited I was to be finally getting into the park for an extended amount of time.

I love having a home but I also love the simple life of not much upkeep and space to care for. More than that I love waking up inside of the park and not having to drive through a town to get there.

Before going home I decided to check on the black bear triplets and am so glad that I did because they finally got a little close. It was going to be a good day!

By late afternoon I was pulling out of the driveway with fingers crossed that we would make it to the campsite. Fully loaded with water made the trailer heavy and going up the hills was slow going. As I enter Little America a big smile crossed my face because we were almost there.

Going through Lamar the smile got bigger and I was nearly as excited as a child at Christmas.

I noticed a large grouping of objects across the Lamar River, south of Picnic, and stopped momentarily to glass the spot. A group of bison were having a funeral for one of their fallen comrades. In the midst of the bison were the tell-tale raven, not showing the least little bit of respect as the vied for a bite of food.

The pullouts were packed with cars and there definitely was not room for mine and a 21′ trailer and so I went on, thinking I would set up the trailer and go back out. Which, I did not do because I was too excited about having my trailer parked, level, looking out on green grass, a small stream and blue flowers. And then there was the solar panel! I can’t plug anything in to the outlets to charge electronics, not unless I decided to get real clever, but there are lights and a water pump.

My excitement made me nearly giddy. Just think, living in Yellowstone for one month and have a kitchen, bathroom and bed. Oh, and that great view, along with the sound of water flowing past me.

Late in the evening a cinnamon black bear came calling at the campground and a crowd gathered to watch. A little bear party.

I ambled off to the trailer, made up the bed, made some kale salad and crawled beneath the quilts and looked out my window at Yellowstone. No internet, no way to plug in the computer – guess I will have to just relax and sleep. And, what a nice long night of sleep it was!