Remember how I didn’t tell you guys I was going out of town and then I went out of town and you guys had no idea and freaked out because you didn’t know where I was and then I came back and everything was okay? ME TOO! Rampaige and I drove from Chicago to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Approximately a 23 hour drive there and 23 hours back. We split that drive into two days each, resulting in four nights of camping. We also stopped at the Badlands National Park on the way out there, and on the way back stopped at Devil’s Tower and Mount Rushmore. HERE ARE THE PICTURES OF WHAT WE SAW.

Is that a Jawa? Nope, just Rampaige being a creep.

There are so many prairie dogs in one part of the Badlands National Park that the section is nicknamed “Prairie Dog Town”. It looked more like a village to me, but I guess that’s just semantics.

Looks pretty comfortable, doesn’t it? It wasn’t until we unpacked the air mattress that we learned the cap wasn’t on it, leaving us with absolutely no way of blowing it up. This means sleeping on the ground. That made us sad, especially since it was only about 40 degrees at night and in the morning when we would wake up.

The first few times you see bison, you’re super excited, because they’re huge and awesome. Then you see them all the time, and just wish they’d get out of your way. SHOW US THE WOLVES, ALREADY!

Oh, THERE are the wolves! This was our second day in the park, and not only did we see these wolves running around, but shortly after that, we also heard them howling. We read that you’re more likely to see wolves in the park than you are to hear them howling, so we felt pretty lucky to have experienced both.

I don’t know about you guys, but this looked like the meeting place of a bear social club to me.

Keep in mind that this picture was taken from at least 200 yards away, hence the blur, but that’s a wolf hanging out with the carcass of a bison. The few days we were there we could regularly stop by the carcass and see a few wolf friends hanging out. Pretty convenient!

The only grizzly bear I managed to get a picture of, because everything was 500 yards away, and unless you have one of those fancy/expensive spotter’s scopes, you might as well be holding up paper towel tubes to your eyes.

This wasn’t my attempt to take an artsy fartsy picture, just an attempt to get A picture and not remembering the setting that my camera was on. Driving through the park around 11 at night with no one else on the road, we had to stop for 10 minutes to let a heard of bison cross the road. Seeing this heard of 100-150 was pretty cool but also made me pretty depressed for when there used to be herds of thousands of bison all just running around, hoping to NOT get killed by people. Bunch of jerks, aren’t we?

SO MANY GOOD JOKES WERE OVERHEARD AT OLD FAITHFUL. Things like, “More like Old Semi-Reliable!” while waiting for it to erupt. Also, lots of people seeing a tiny spittle of water bounce out and start shouting, “HERE IT IS!” only to have to wait another five minutes.

Geothermal pools look pretty and all, but smell awful. TERRIBLE AWFUL, I SAY!

LOOK AT THAT MIDAIR PAW ACTION!

Tee hee.

Rather than be some trendy dorks taking their picture on the way in, we took it on our way out. We go against the grain, clearly.

Rather than paying $10 to drive a LITTLE bit closer, we spent that money on ice cream and that picture of bears. Wise decision, if you ask me. Oh yeah, and we didn’t pay for Mount Rushmore either, suckers!