GTV First Loop: Wyoming

Mel here. We started the day realizing we had housekeeping to do, and by housekeeping we mean find somewhere to dump our (literal) crap. That’s one of the interesting things we’re discovering about this sort of trip. Yes, we’re on vacation and no, we don’t have to go to work. But we do have to do all the other parts of everyday living—like make up the bed every morning and night, grocery shop every few days, cook our meals, clean our tiny house of dust, dog hair and pine needles every few hours, do laundry—along with some other stuff (like dumping our literal crap). Anyway, to some extent that probably explains why we’re posting about Day 18 on Day 25 or so. Between the VACATIONING and the DOING and the LIVING, it’s not easy to keep up with the DOCUMENTING of it all in real time. That and, it turns out, most of the really pretty places in the West don’t have cell service, much less come equipped with wifi.

At any rate, this day started with such mundane errands—first locating Mary’s Laundry where we could empty and fill the tanks, followed by restocking of the pantry in Bozeman. Then, on to Yellowstone National Park.

We entered the park in the early afternoon via the Mammoth Hot Springs entrance and stopped at the Albright Visitor’s Center for some intel. It took us both a few minutes to figure out why we had gone from super chill mode to “aaaaaaaaaaaaa!” in a matter of minutes, and then it hit us—in our 10 minute stop at the visitor’s center, we had come into contact with about 10 times the number of people we’d encountered in the previous two weeks. Also, we were told the campgrounds were filling fast.

Based on both these factors, we decided to grab a site in the Tower-Roosevelt area, rumored to be the “quieter” part of the park. And yet, when we arrived there around 2pm, both Slough and Pebble Creek campgrounds were full. Rather than backtracking to another corner of the park, we took it as a sign to keep moving; Beartooth Pass beckoned.

It was getting late-ish in the afternoon, so a few miles shy of the actual pass we pulled into Snowgrass Flats campground at Island Lake. It was lovely and perfect save for one small detail—technically, closed. Ignoring the “campground closed” sign was relatively easy (“Did you see that sign?” “Nope. You?” “Nope.”) Ignoring the gates that blocked all of the campsite loops, somewhat less so. Two sites, though, were outside the gates and therefore accessible—campsite #1, and the host site (which was vacant). Figuring it was ever so slightly less illegal to take site #1, we went for it. Obvs.

As we strolled up the lake on a pre-dinner wander, we crossed paths with a guy headed our direction who had the look of knowing the area. How could I possibly know that? Well, I didn’t. But if you hang out on Wyoming trails long enough, you start to see the signs.

Signs of a non-tourist on Wyoming trails:  Male hiking alone; age range 45-70; well-worn jeans, not “action pants;” no hiking poles; small, not overly-full packpack; often sporting a sidearm. Oh, also, a USFS belt buckle is a pretty good tip-off.

Dan Tyers, it turns out, is the Grizzly Bear Management Coordinator for the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. And oh boy does he love his “backyard.” All it took was a “this area is amazing—we had no idea!” and Dan was offering up great hiking advice. Unfortunately, he said, he had given his map to some friends in from out of town. However, he offered to draw us a map and leave it on our windshield. We gratefully accepted his kind offer.

Upon returning to the van, we found an actual map with Dan’s name, title and the following note:

“You are in luck! – I had an extra map in the truck. I marked 4 options for routes in pen. All are good with their respective merits. Hope you have a great time! If you ever need help trip planning in this area in the future contact me at xxx@fs.fed.us.”

Dan Tyers—our angel of the Beartooths—as you’ll see from tomorrow’s many, many photos.

Oh, and we had bacon for dinner. #winning!