Yellowstone is a park ruled by bison (Yes, I know that’s a moose in the featured image!)
We’re checked into a nice 1-bedroom apartment located a half mile from Yellowstone National Park’s west entrance, thanks to an excellent Airbnb deal ($82/night, when the cheapest sketchy motels in the area are going for about $120). It’s nice to have a kitchen, laundry, and decent internet access for the next couple nights!
We drove up here from Jackson Hole, WY, which took us through Grand Teton National Park for one last time. On the way, we saw a couple moose (or a moose couple…?) walking through a field, and of course stopped to take too many photos (see below).
We spent the majority of the afternoon touring the southwest section of Yellowstone’s caldera, where most of the geysers and various geothermal features are. It’s quite otherworldly, with steam rising from vents all over the place. I shot some video of the area:
The whole park seems to be overrun with buffalo. They seem to like to walk out into roads and then just stand there, stopping traffic for extended periods of time. I like to think that this is their way of giving humans a big middle finger for constantly parading through their home, but they’re probably just dumb animals. We saw many instances of people treating buffalo like creatures in a petting zoo, too—much to the annoyance of park rangers. Here is a short clip that I shot of bison (clumsily) crossing a boardwalk while a bunch of tourists stand a few feet away, with a park ranger repeatedly shouting “move back!” at them. It’s kinda amazing that people don’t get gored regularly here.
I’m finding it challenging to not watch the train wreck that is the coverage of the 2nd presidential debate, so I’m going to call it a night. Here are a few photos from today (click for larger images):
