Yellowstone

We ventured to Yellowstone with high hopes of this National Park being one of the best on offer, especially given the fact that is was the first established in the USA. It ended up being a bit of a grey day, and as we drove through the park from the north, we got to see the result of the devastating forest fires that had burnt large parts back in 1988. This made for a rather somber driving experience, despite our understanding that fires are a natural part of the ecosystem lifecycle.

This park was probably the busiest we had been to in terms of tourists, and I have to say, I didn't really enjoy the time spent in the developed parts of the park. In fact we were hankering for a proper hike out into the massive expanse of deserted wilderness, but unfortunately we didn't have time.

Nice to see the Old Faithful Geyser I suppose, but it's difficult to enjoy the remote peace and tranquility of this natural wonder when all manner of couch potato can drive right up to it and drink a gallon of Coke whilst waiting for it to erupt. Not exactly our idea of travel and adventure.

We did make plans for a further day-hike to see some of the many waterfalls in the south west of the park but on arrival at our camp site we were puzzled by the presence of one other couple dressed in near-bee-keepers outfits. We found a camp spot for ourselves but cautiously thought "let's sit for five minutes onsite and see if there is anything sinister going on". After only a couple of minutes we were attacked (and I mean this in the literal violated sense) by a swarm of mosquitos. Realising the issue we jumped in the 4x4 (which had it's windows open) and drove the heck out of the site as fast as we could, me driving and Gill furiously swatting 10s if not 100s of mossies in the car. That was the icing on the cake for our disappointing Yellowstone visit.