Day 29: Yellowstone Part 1

We got to Yellowstone all excited.  And for good reason.  It's a magnificent park.....and HUGE.  You kinda have to drive everywhere.  Most people reserve a campsite and set up camp, then drive to a hike or whatever.  Since we have no schedule, we had trouble finding an opening, but were lucky enough to find a FREE place for our first night!!!  (Of course, the campground was flooded and there was, literally, a fog of mosquitos and there was no drinking water and only port-o-potties....but HEY!!!  It was free!!)

Anyhoo, as usual, I'm gonna let the pictures do the talking.

 Proof we were actually there!

 Whatever you do, DO NOT step on the steaming geysers!!  Your hat might pop off. 

 Of course we knew about Old Faithful, but there are hot springs and geysers EVERYWHERE.   

 I am very happy to be standing next to a steaming pool of stinky water....

 .....that looks so inviting!!  Check out that blue blue blue water.  It looks so good you just want to jump the little fence and go swimming.  Or take a drink.  But then you remember that it comes from the depths of the planet and is a billion degrees and smells like rotten eggs.  And then you're OK on the boardwalk.

 See what I mean?  Don't you want to take a dip??

 Sometimes the hot springs are "mud volcanoes."  That's actually what this one is called.  So it's stinky, gurgley mud.  And it's freaking cool (or rather, "hot," as the case may be!)

This herd just calmly walked across the boardwalk.  They are HUGE and can be scary and the ranger warned everyone to "stay away!!"  Apparently, bison have been known to ram and kill tourists....especially the ones stupid enough to get close for the perfect photo.

 And, at last, Old Faithful.  Every 90 minutes, give or take about 10!  We watched this eruption with about 500 other people.  It is a POPULAR feature....

 ....and for good reason.  It's pretty impressive.

 Did you know that Yellowstone had a Grand Canyon?  We didn't.  But it makes sense.  The park has everything else.

 It's not as big as the other Grand Canyon, but I think it's a little prettier.  It's greener and you can get closer to it with less effort....

 ...and that makes us happy for our obligatory self photo!!  (mmmmm, bbq & beer)

It sure is grand!!!

So, off to find another campsite.  But the whole park is booked!!!  What do we do?????????