Yellowstone National Park

Obviously, if you're going to leave Glacier and continue the adventure, you turn south and head for the open prairie-desert road to Wyoming. We spent all day in the sprawling state of Montana to get there. We spent the night right on the border, just a couple miles from the access to Yellowstone, and Day 19 dawned on another chapter of our adventure.

We saw signs in the park for buffalo crossings. One of these signs was flashing, and we wondered what that meant... until we saw, 200 yards in front of us, a buffalo lumbering down the road at a very chill pace. We were freaking out and Hannah swung the side door open and started snapping pictures, safari-style. The buffalo just looked right at us and kept moving. We figure he drew the short straw that day and the herd sent him out to entertain the tourists. 

Only a couple minutes later, Anna started shrieking and pointing dramatically, and then pulled our car off the road to see a herd of ... something... they might have been deer, but we like to think they were female moose.

We came to Fountain Paint Pot, and decided that yes, while we had 12 hours of driving before us, we had to stop and enjoy the geysers a bit.

And we spent most of the day following the continental divide... 

And of course, if we are in Yellowstone, the one thing that we must see is Old Faithful...

We got there in time to see her spray at 9:45!

We just drove the rest of the way through the park, but it was really a beautiful view...

 After the park we kept heading south, and got to Thermopolis, where apparently there is a hot springs park with the world's largest mineral hot spring.

So we stopped for a quick spa treatment. Sat in the hot spring for about 15 minutes, and were soooo amazingly relaxed, we were really no good for anything the rest of the day. Our bathing suits still stink of sulfur though.

We drove on through Wyoming and landed back in the Badlands late that night. The scenery was still beautiful, and I was still glad to be sharing this adventure with two of my very best friends. But something in me switched on as we left the hot springs, and I suddenly felt very homesick. I didn't care if I saw another blade of grass, winding road, or desert hill... I just wanted to get back to my Hobbit Hole, and my Homestead family. But we still had two days to go...