As a last hurrah to the summer, Jen and I embarked on our longest Bean camping trip yet – a loop through Steamboat to see Connor and then up through western Wyoming, Idaho and Montana to the west entrance into Yellowstone National Park.
First stop was in Steamboat to meet up with Connor and spend the night on Buffalo Pass. It was good catching up with Con and enjoying a batch, or 2 – after I dumped the 1st batch on top of my bluetooth speaker. Luckily had plenty of “waterbuck” chili for all. Never had Waterbuck before, it was really good. I couldn’t tell the difference, really, between this and good beef.
Con and Jen sitting in front of the mighty Bean trailer, soaking up some late summer sun and prior to my Waterbuck chili spilling indecent.
After witnessing a stunning both a spectacular sunset and sunrise from Buffalo Pass, Connor had to dust off early for work. Jen and I tested the off road capabilities of the Bean trailer, bouncing down the steep, rutted road from the camp site to the BLM access road. Glad we got that articulating hitch for the Bean!
| Sunset on Buffalo Pass |  |
Steamboat to Yellowstone was about an eight hour drive, so it was good we got an early start. We arrived at the Madison Campground (about 15 miles inside the west side entrance into Yellowstone Park) early evening. I received some good-natured ribbing from both the Ranger at the entrance to the park and the Ranger at the campground for being old, but not old enough to receive the senior discounts for the park… “look at your birthday, you are soooooooooooo close, but not close enough. You’ll have to come back next year.”
The Madison campground was fairly full of people, but nice. We stayed in loop D, site #149. Our only real complaint was that this site was close to the communal restroom and most of the foreigners in the campground didn’t seem to understand the etiquette of not walking through other people’s camp area to get to the hopper. I had to shoot some glares at the fools bouncing by me as I sat at the picnic table.
Speaking of foreigners… we camped next to a very nice Swiss couple that were taking a grand tour of the United States in a rented overland truck. They were ok. In the rest of the park, I felt like the foreigner in a foreign land. I’d guess the split between US native visitors to foreign visitor to be 25% / 75%.
These signs always cracked me up. Evidence of the foreign volumes through the park. Guess poop instructions are necessary.
I’m sure there is an origin story for the need for these 😉
Despite my quibbles with camp etiquette and pooping instructions, the overall visit and experience was awesome. What spectacular natural beauty. Mountains, waterfalls, geysers or all kinds, and all kinds of animals roaming around. We saw marmots, a bald eagle, hawks, elk, pronghorn, and lots and lots of Buffalo.
Jenna had never been to Yellowstone and my last visit was when I was maybe 13 or 14 years old. There are some Mahoney lore stories from the late 70’s trip in a borrowed camper from one of Pappy’s legal clients. Pappy trying to change a flat tire on the thing with the requisite cursing, Bo falling into lake before he knew how to swim and Pappy running from said camper, mid nap, in his tighty whities, to pull him out by one leg. And, Pappy’s ghost story to the four boys of the infamous Yellowstone “Blood Geyser”.
| I always thought the Blood Geyser was made up, so I think it may have been providence that we ran across the actual Yellowstone Blood Geyser early into the park visit. |  |
Here are a couple of video montages of our Yellowstone experience.
Here are some of the best still shots we got in the park
