Today, we bid farewell to the “Three Breasts” (if that’s what the French think breasts look like, well, they need to spend some time on the internet). Also, I got a decent night’s sleep. We’re getting much better at packing up camp now so, progress!

We had planned to do Cascade Canyon, but our legs complained this morning. I have mixed feelings about skipping Cascade Canyon. It would have taken a lot of time (that we didn’t have) and my legs are still sore from the trek up Garnet, so I’m happy we skipped it. BUT, we read about it at a view point, and it sounds like a great hike, so, boo. But so is life.

The drive through Tetons up to Yellowstone is super pretty. SO.MANY.PICTURES. The quick jaunt through Rockefeller Memorial Parkway is a beautiful forest drive. This journey, though, was marred by the Berry Fire (still burning). We did read that John Rockefeller, Jr. saw that development around Teton was bad so he bought a bunch of land and then donated 33,000 acres to the government for preservation (he did similar things for Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, and a few other parks); this makes me really respect the man.

Then we got to Yellowstone. This is a massive park. It has 10,000+ thermal features (half of the known thermal features in the world). And they are awesome. It also is well known, meaning so many tourists – and they all seem miserable (well, most anyway). They are definitely tourists. This means huge delays as people stop to take pictures of the wildlife near the road (and tons of signs needing to be posted about how wild animals, like bison, can be dangerous and possible kill you), and sour people gathered together taking pictures. So many people.

So, is it worth the visit?

Yes. This was my fourth time here. I’ve seen the main geyser basins on the West loop, and they are great (but too popular). Today, we stuck to the East side. We saw the Mud Pots, which were cool (and smelled like rotten hard boiled eggs).

We saw herds of bison, some swans, elk (my god are they big), rams, and pronghorn (FYI, any picture with a herd of bison in it looks like a typically Western image). And… the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This is beautiful.

The hike down Uncle Tom’s trail is steep, but worth it. 368 stair steps, on sore legs… but the view…

And the view from Artist’s point is awesome. It’s packed with tourists oblivious to people not in view of their camera lens, but it’s worth it.

Yellowstone always leaves me exhausted even though I’m not doing any hiking. A full day of fantastic scenery is just tiring, I guess. When we planned this trip, we looked at hiking options; we saw a bunch in Teton, but none really advertised in Yellowstone. Driving around, we saw a ton of trailheads – we’ll have to come back and hike around.

Anyway, we stopped in Helena, MT (pronounced Hell-en-ah, like, to Helena hell in a hand basket) for tonight. Tomorrow we will be off to Glacier to try some back country camping and hiking.

Updated trip stats: 3 National Parks, 2 National Recreation Areas, 1 Memorial Parkway, 4 states, 4 days.