Reaction shot: On my way to Lone Star I took a selfie by a river and almost fell in when a bird squawked and scared me.
On my last full day in Yellowstone I woke up thinking about dinner. I was psyched to start a campfire, cook the fixings for some burritos, and have a great big meal on my last night camping. However, I wasn’t going to spend my last full day in Yellowstone sitting around my campsite. There were still things to see. The night before I’d run into a gentleman that had done pretty much every hike there was to be done in the US. I asked him where he would recommend going in Yellowstone. He recommended going to the geyser Lone Star and then told me the best geyser story I’ve ever heard. Part of why Lone Star is a cool geyser to see is because it isn’t as built up as Old Faithful. You are pretty much right next to it and it goes off for about ten minutes. He had decided to hike out to it and fell in with a group of people. Right as they came out of the woods and saw the geyser, it started going off. They all started to walk a little closer when suddenly a man that wasn’t with any of them rushes forward completely naked and dances around the geyser. Now, I wasn’t expecting to see a naked man dancing around a geyser but I was absolutely going to go see the geyser he danced around.
Even though it was getting hot during the day at night it was just about freezing, so when I started the hike towards Lone Star I was bundled up and, to be honest, a tiny bit cranky. I’d been spoiled the entire trip with fantastic weather and the chill in the air was making me feel a little pouty. Just when I was about to start an all out pity party I ran into two ladies that made my walk so much better. They were sisters and one told me that Yellowstone was her retirement plan. For about half the year she rented an apartment in West Yellowstone and explored the park. The other lived in Florida but was visiting Yellowstone for a few weeks. They were a hoot and a half and the one that lived in Yellowstone was as good as a park ranger as far as knowledge of the park goes. When we finally reached Lone Star she knew about how long we’d have to wait before it went off again. There were about fifteen other people there and we were waiting just long enough to get to know each other pretty well. Lone Star did not disappoint but I was even happier for the interesting people I met while we all waited to watch it.
After Lone Star I did consider continuing on to check out more of the park, but I knew I was heading back to the midwest the next day and I wanted to be well rested for the drive. My only worry was that the frozen meat I’d bought the night before might go bad when the day got hot. I had it stored in a little cooler but there is only so much a little cooler can do when the hot sun rises. Before I went to back to camp I stopped in at a grocery store and bought myself a pint of ice-cream. I ate some then stuck the rest in the cooler with the thawing ground turkey (I know ground beef is better, it’s just all the store had), sealed the cooler, put a blanket over the top of it, and hoped for the best.
I was so hungry when the food was done I didn’t take a picture but here it in the process of being cooked
I went back to my camp and started collecting wood for a fire. I’ve been starting campfires pretty much my whole life, but I think the one in Yellowstone is the quickest I’ve ever lit up. It was honestly a little scary and helped me to understand exactly how dry it is and how the forest fires get started. (I should note that in Yellowstone campfires were allowed…although after I lit it I kind of thought maybe they shouldn’t be) I was fortunate enough to run in to campsite neighbors while I was collecting wood and getting the food prepared and invited them to eat with as I had way more than I could possibly finish on my own. As luck would have it Asher had a pepper to contribute (which was nice given the grocery store only had onions) and Jorgen brought some beer to share. There was so much food that even though we all had seconds there were leftovers for me to munch on on the drive home. There really is nothing nicer than chatting with new friends over a campfire while eating dinner and I felt lucky to do so on my last evening out West.
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