Day 16: Boise, ID to Yellowstone National Park, WY

We were in three different states today - Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. It’s hard to explain what we saw when we were leaving Boise, and Chad made the comment: “Leaving Boise, you can see forever.” The landscape was a continuation of the bad lands we left in Oregon, only more vast and with more plateaus. The road was straight and disappeared into the horizon. Pictures just couldn’t capture it.

Our first stop of the day was Twin Falls, Idaho. As we drove into the city, we crossed the Snake River at the Perrine Bridge (480 feet above the river). As we approached the bridge from the Visitors Center, we saw a man jump. Turns out, this is THE spot for base jumping. Within 20 minutes, we saw another guy jump. After watching them scale the cliffs to climb back up out of the ravine (in the rain), we realized that jumping was not the craziest thing they did that day. From there, we headed to Shoshone Falls and ate lunch near the river.

One nice thing about having a vehicle is that we can carry a few meals without worrying about the weight. Another nice thing is that we can talk and listen to podcasts the whole way. For most of Idaho, we were wrapped up in the podcast Serial which made time fly by. Around 5:30, we got to the West Yellowstone entrance of Yellowstone National Park and made our way to the campground. We’ve heard that traffic will often back up when wildlife is spotted. This is absolutely true - we saw an elk and a wolf on our way in, and traffic was at a dead stop.

Our spot for the night was Madison campground, at nearly 6700 feet elevation. The camp was full, and when we registered, Chelsea got the obligatory bear safety talk. People approaching and feeding the wildlife here has been a big problem, and you are supposed to keep all food/toiletries in your car. The lady told Chelsea that if your window is cracked even just a little, bears will figure out how to get in (often breaking your window and/or ripping off the door).

At dusk, we went for a walk along the Madison river, enjoying the serenity of the park. Every evening at 9:30, the rangers put on a program in the ampitheater, so we went to check it out. We learned a lot about the geography of the park, and its hydrothermal-ness. One of the coldest nights we’ve experienced camping so far (down to mid-30s), we were eager to snuggle up in our tent and get warm.