Yellowstone National Park - Wyoming

Leaving South Dakota, headed for Yellowstone, we had our longest drive to date… finally stopping in Greybull Wyoming - after Morrow threw a strop, Tucker sorted the situation by sponsoring a $80 lodge - our 1st non tenting night since May (forever grateful Tatanka!)

After a proper nights sleep, a non-communal shower and a meal cooked on a proper stove, we hit the road and arrived at Yellowstone mid afternoon. We knew the next week was going to be a good one because after 5mins of arriving, we spotted our first Black bear! 4 000 photo's later and high 5's all round, with so much excitement we cracked open a roadie each to celebrate. Our good fortune continued with us snagging one of the last 3 remaining campsites at Tower Fall - a primitive campground along Tower Creek in the North East of the park. Our good luck continued as we bumped into the 3 wonderful people we met at the Badlands - Caelen, Jeff & Kevin. The 6 of us ignored campsite etiquette that night, the party ended after midnight sadly, after an old codger shat on us for making so much noise! We were taught some US drinking games, which I'm sure Tucker will spread across the UK - we will never look at a 5l wine "pap sak" in the same way again - our good fortune finally ended with Tucker thinking it was better to sleep in the car to sort out her room/tent spin issue, and kindly left us a little present down the side of the car….. Suffice to say the next day was a write off, not even a greasy fry up or a swim in the cold creek could sort out the babalas….

Sumpalitis & Ranger Bob - it seemed bad luck was here to stay….after thinking the great white was actually a 4 x 4, the smooth dirt road proved she wasn't! We stopped the car after the clanging noises from under the car got a bit too loud…3 chicks got out to assess the damage - diagnosis…sumpalitis! The quick fix….MacGyver style rope job to hold up the exhaust and 5 miles an hour got us back to camp! We hailed down Ranger Bob who kindly gave us some wire, after telling us about his tazer gun stories (fact: never used on animals, only on out of hand campers...) As punishment for leaving a present on our car, Tucker was the chosen one to get under the vehicle, after driving it up on a rock as a jack…to further secure the dragging undercarriage! The mechanic the next day even commented on good workmanship….

Our week in Yellowstone was simply awesome. It's natural beauty and wildlife has to be up there as some of the best in the world. Phenomena's like Old Faithful and the bubbling sulphur smelling pools will never be forgotten. Early morning game drives allowed Tux and Boo to see wolves, grizzly bear and her 2 cubs. Bison and deer a plenty! We will always remember the roaring fires at night with stars illuminating the night's sky. Somewhere we will most definitely be returning to.