Road Trip – Omaha to Seattle – Day 20 – Jackson, WY to Yellowstone NP – September 30, 2010

Woke up in my motel 6 in Jackson and took my time enjoying the handicapped room I got. Checkout wasn't until noon, so I watched some tv, browsed the net, fb'd, and enjoyed the handicapped shower. I didn't sit in the chair, but I kinda wish I would've now. Also, this Motel 6 had a flat screen and a microwave and a fridge, and it was only like 10 bucks more than usual. Headed out right about noon and had a 2 hour drive ahead of me. Jackson is one of the biggest little mountain towns I've been to and it looked pretty awesome. I didn't stop, though, I was anxious to get to YSNP. The drive was gorgeous, winding mountain roads, this time in the daylight, a bit of traffic, but that was to be expected. Got up to Grand Teton NP and everything was yellow. It was awesome. I have some pictures of a mountain with yellow and orange trees in front that looks so fake if I didn't take it myself I wouldn't believe it. I was pretty excited for Yellowstone to be the same. It wasn't. Come to find out that YS is higher in altitude and much more deciduous trees, meaning they are green year round and don't lose their leaves. Oh well, I am much more interested in the geological atmosphere of YS than anything else really. Went into the park, went through the campsite fees and registration and set up my tent and decided to go to Old Faithful area for the rest of the daylight.
Drove the 23 miles from camp to Old Faithful and bought some provisions from the general store there. I should have geared up in Jackson. I spent like 27 bucks for bacon, eggs, brats, bread, and buffalo jerky. Old Faithful was due to erupt in about 20-30 minutes. It goes off about every 95 minutes on average, so they guesstimate. It can be anywhere from 50-120 minutes. Old Faithful is not quite as faithful as she always was. 140 years ago, it was approximately every 65 minutes. There were about 100 people there waiting with me. It was glorious when it happened. Supposedly a pretty good one, it went for about 7 minutes and got up to 155 feet. There were about another 30 geysers in the area, along with hot springs, sulfur pools, and other geological phenomena. I took my time and got a lot of great pics. Made it pretty much to the end of the area and my stomach started growling at me hard core. I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but I have never had such painful gas, never came that close to pooping my pants without actually doing it. I had to walk about 3.5 miles in this manner and seriously stopped about 4 times to regroup from pain. Luckily, I was in a semi low traffic area. Then, of course, some awesome bison had to be right on the trail and I had to stop and change lenses and take pictures. I basically ran after that. Whew! Relief. Sat in the stall for over a half hour, and still had cramps. I feared acute appendicitis at one point, but I think it was either because I had kept it in so long, or I'm getting old. I hope this is not what I have to look forward to. Glad I didn't go into detail with that!
Not much else after that. When I got out, it was dark, so I headed to camp. It is starting to get chilly and the low is 30 tonight, so I started a fire and got my bed ready. Put on some long johns, gloves, stocking cap, hoodie, and wool socks. With my 20 degree rated sleeping bag also, I should be fine. Looking forward to early light tomorrow, so I'm gonna crash early. Its about 10 now, I've had a beer and half while blogging, I think I'll have the other half, let the fire go out, stare at the stars and pass out.