Something I learned on my first morning at Yellowstone: No matter how badly you need to get to the bathroom upon waking, you can hold it when you hear snuffling directly outside your tent, zip up the rain fly and go eye-to-eye with a 1,400-pound bison. You can see a couple more across the road if you look closely.
Actually, there were no fewer than 20 of the animals – some with frolicking calves – within 90 feet of my tent this morning, and I heard them before I saw them. I'm telling you, some of them were so c-l-o-s-e I could hear them breathing and they were in no hurry to move on.
There were a bunch of elk visiting the site before I called it a night and crawled into my sleeping bag – parka and hooded sweatshirt still on ;-)
The mercury got down to the low 20s last night and I awoke to snow on the tent. Brrr.
In case you were wondering, we left State College, Pa., early Saturday morning and got to Mammoth Hot Springs by 1 p.m. Monday. I don't know if That Certain '14-turned-ranger actually shed a tear when she first saw the mountains but I'm here to tell you she was seriously excited after a winter spent in the Everglades.
Here until Thursday, then to Colorado to visit That Certain Sister and then the train back home from Denver. More when I can . . .
