Mammoth, Lamar, 5000 Bison and a Lost Cousin

I'm not sure what day it was, possibly the middle of last week, when we realized we were headed to Yellowstone with no real plan.

Some people would applaud us for that.

But it felt a little unsettling that we had traveled all this distance with no actual agenda to see the park.

Were we getting BACK IN THE TRUCK and driving some more?

Were we willing to pay someone else to drive us?

The thing about Yellowstone is that it has to be driven. You don't just pop in and take a quick stroll.

If you don't want to drive yourself around the park, there are plenty of companies that offer tours. And you can spend a decent amount of money being chaperoned around.

But we found very few options for private or guided tours that didn't last 10–12 hours.

And that just seems like a lot, considering we've already spent two weeks in the truck.

So on Saturday, we decided to do our own exploring in the morning.

And for the evening, we booked a private wildlife tour for four hours.

That’s doable.

Mammoth

From the north entrance of Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs is only about 20 minutes into the park.

Saturday morning, we drove ourselves to Mammoth hoping to see some sights and get some exercise.

It did not disappoint.

The walk there and back from the parking lot, along a series of wooden ramps and stairs called the Boardwalk, clocked in at around 4,000 steps.

Nice.

With Labor Day weekend in full swing, the park was busy, and we weaved our way through crowds of tourists toward the higher parts of the boardwalk to get the best pictures.

The hot springs are just wild.

Strange geology. Rounded terraces. Pools of water. Aqua and amber colors. Steam rolling off the surface.

There isn't really anything I can compare it to.

Also, it stinks.

Pure sulfur.

You can smell the springs long before you arrive.

Worth it for the view, though.

There was a second reason we decided to check out Mammoth.

The drive into the park and through Mammoth Hot Springs, with only the truck, was also a bit of recon.

One of the unknowns of this trip was whether or not we could haul this big ol' camper through unfamiliar national park roads.

Because that was an option.

Going directly through the park would be a shorter route to our next destination.

But what do these roads actually look like?

Could we do it without Jason having a stroke?

The answer is no.

Now, everyone claims tractor trailers and big rigs travel the north entrance pass up to and through Mammoth. I'm sure that happens.

But it's considered one of the trickier roads to drive.

One park ranger told us there are 52 hairpin turns from the north gate through Mammoth and down the other side.

We saw it.

We did it.

We did it four times on Saturday—back and forth from Mammoth ourselves, and then later taking the same path with the wildlife guide.

Yea.

It's a hard no.

And so we will go around.

Lamar Valley

Our private tour guide, Dayne, picked us up in Gardiner, and we traveled back through Mammoth to where the road splits and goes south toward Yellowstone Lake or east into Lamar Valley.

Lamar Valley is wildlife central, and it's one of two valleys in the park that locals recommended for the best chance at seeing everything from bison to wolf packs to grizzly bears.

That's where we went.

Dayne was amazing and had so much knowledge about the history of the park and the animals that live there.

We saw pronghorn, which happen to be the fastest land animal in North America.

We saw an osprey nest with two adult birds who have cohabitated in the same nest for three years.

And we saw bison.

They are everywhere.

You can't miss them.

And they're cool to see.

But they're also kind of annoying.

They cross the roads and block the roads, and the tourists stop in the middle of the roads to take pictures of them.

It's officially known as a Bison Jam.

Dayne told us the correct way to handle this is to attempt to go around. Cars aren't supposed to stop in the middle of the road unless there's a safety reason to do so.

And he did.

He got us around many a Bison Jam.

Bison may not be the main attraction for most visitors, but their deaths apparently are.

Because dead bison bring in the predators everyone really wants to see.

The wolf packs.

The grizzlies.

A bison carcass becomes a big event in the park, and news spreads quickly.

We did not get to witness any of that.

But we learned something crazy about bison.

Bison have been known to gather around dead members of their herd, sometimes circling or touching, nudging, or standing near the carcass. Some wildlife observers describe this behavior as a kind of funeral ritual.

We didn't get to see that either.

But for all of you 30 years of age or under, it's on TikTok.

For everyone else, try YouTube.

We also learned that the fact that bison exist at all in Yellowstone is somewhat miraculous.

The roughly 5,000 bison living in Yellowstone today are descendants of a tiny surviving population after bison were intentionally slaughtered across North America in the 1800s.

And that's some political history I'm not getting into here.

But the ones I saw on Saturday were alive and well.

And had absolutely no interest in us.

A Lost Cousin!

As an added bonus to the trip, we had the unexpected pleasure of reuniting with Jason's cousin, who lives in Montana.

They aren't sure exactly how old they were the last time they saw each other, but the math says it's been about 35 years.

Speaking of math.

We met up in Livingston, MT for dinner, and I listened to the two of them reminisce about family and nerd out on calculus or trigonometry or whatever math they were talking about.

And it was like they'd never been apart.

That was a pretty great way to end our three days in northern Yellowstone.

Onward

Monday morning, we move from the north gate of Yellowstone to Cody, WY, near the east entrance.

Jason said earlier that he's ready to move on.

And so am I.

I got a call today that reminded me of home, and for the first time on this trip, I missed my home base.

My people.

My family.

My friends.

We're officially halfway through our five-week trek.

And for the first time, our path turns.

We're headed east.