Ok we’re at the point in the trip where days of the week and days of the month are hard to keep track of. Signs of a good vacation. Before heading out, we stopped at 2 different supermarkets in search of varied fare. We did upgrade our mobile rig with a $4 styrofoam cooler, which meant cold drinks on the road.
I also upgraded my fishing stash. After seeing so many fishing stores, I had to stop into one to check out their goods.
Got recommended a few flies and so our arsenal grew.
Many of the shops are outfitted to fish for trout. There was a section of premade lures, labeled to match as many insects and larvae that the areas ecosystem supported. Outside this store was a white board saying what lures (therefore what insects are popular) to use at which rivers and on which type of leader line.
Mine came from this section. The 4 flys cost me around 14 bucks. Originally we threw them with a water bobber. After I bolo-headed one of them, I realized I could toss a wet one across the small rivers by itself on my 4# test line. Beauty in simplicity.
This store had a section where you could tie your own lures using actual bug models.
After boring the wife by looking at fishing stuff for an hour, we headed to visit the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We did one geocache before hitting the Sunday noontime traffic entering the park.
But first we should make sure the lures are working ok.
Who cares if nothing bites
Aaah traffic at the canyon! Many of the most popular spots had lots of visitors, but really the rest of the park was mostly wide open. There was usually overflow parking just outside each main attraction.
This very next view is one of the reasons we even have a national park system. In 1871 a painter named Thomas Moran was commissioned to paint this waterfall, which became one of the reasons President Ulysses S. Grant started the national parks system we now can enjoy.
After seeing the falls and canyon from different angles and viewpoints, we went in search of wildlife! The nearest spot to where we were was Hayden Valley, one of two areas known for its roaming animals.
*A note on this and seeing wildlife in the park in general-keep your expectations low. Don’t expect to see animals and maybe you might. We did most of our spotting in the evenings around 7-9 p.m. The other good time supposedly is in the morning but that would require us to wake up early. At first our pics of bison looked mostly like this:
We were patient and luckily got a little more than we expected.
This was the most exciting event for me up to this point in our trip
It’s funny how people feel comfortable enough on the roads to get this close but not down on the grasslands just a few feet away.
I looked around at others around me and wondered 1) If the color red would anger a bison/bull like in the movies and 2) who nearby woiuld I be able to outrun while being scared shitless. Those animals are big. And muscular. And big and muscular. This particular guy appeared to be in the middle of a date, ready to prove his dominance. Soon enough amongst the chatter I heard people making emergency plans, talking about climbing into each other’s vehicles or on top car roofs in the event that things went bad. Another visitor mentioned that if a bison’s tail goes straight up, it’s time to book it. I was glad I had on my running shoes. Not that I could outrun a bison, but more importantly I probably could have outrun a few other bystanders. Survival of the fitter.
Eventually the crowd thinned out, and everyone went back to their cars. Not me, somehow I ended up getting separated from my family by that bison who were waiting for me at the next lookout over. In the pic they are past that tree on the right. Oof, as they say.
Even that guy in the pic above made it back to his family. He ended up walking alongside a moving car like a soldier running alongside a tank mid-world war. Except instead of jogging with a rifle and bayonet, he hobbled and had a DSLR camera.
Not me. I’ll just wait and back up if needed. I don’t want to be in the Yellowstone evening news. Besides, I was in no hurry.
“Sir, go back to your car,” I heard in a stern voice. I ignored it until I heard it again because I was carefully monitoring two thousand something pounds of death and then realized it was a park ranger addressing me, the lone idiot at the side of the road. I said, “Uh, I’d like to, but my car is over there on the other side past the bison. Got any suggestions?”
He ended up shooing the bison enough so that cars could start to move so I could casually run for my life back to my family while looking over my shoulder. He said this kind of thing happens all day long. Certain areas are known to be animal crossings.
I was glad to get back to my family but not so much when after telling them my amazing tale, they started teasing me, chanting “Scolded by a ranger! Scolded by a ranger!” over and over. Hey, I could have gotten gored by that thing.
That night for dinner we went to a place called Bullwinkle’s. It was a combination bar, casino (gaming machines), restaurant, and liquor store, whew. I chose bison meat loaf with mash and a side salad with Bleu cheese dressing and a Pig’s Ass Porter to wash it down. Also pictured is the trout Paxton ordered, though not as interesting as one with the head and tail still on it from Jackson. What an exciting day!
One last note for the travel diary for today: On our continuing quest for finding a pinball machine (hopefully with two working flipper buttons), we asked our Bullwinkle’s server if he knew of any arcades or game rooms that might have one. He thought for awhile and said, “No I can’t think of any except for the two I’ve got in my basement.” Hmm OK, what does that mean? “They’re Bullwinkle and Rocky themed.” Either this guy likes work so much that he lives it in his off time or he lives in the restaurant basement. Maybe he’s the owner. Turns out he lives in the basement of the restaurant with two pinball machines as roommates. They’re probably decommissioned or too expensive for the owner to upkeep. I was tempted to ask what time he got off work but then I realized that nobody likes to work after work, even if they live at their workplace. Good night!
The WOO family page 
The Buffalo looked Deli6
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