The Arnold's are Searching for Serendipity: Yellowstone Circumambulation about 125 miles 2013

Friday 6/14/2013 I’ve been awaiting for my mail as some much needed drugs are in it. The mail was delivered to the Yellowstone Post Office. The satellite post office at Bridge Bay had no communications with the postal service, they referred me to Old Faithful which was about 40 miles, that’s about 1 1/2 hours in the mountains.

Did I mention it’s COLD here? High 30’s at night up to 70° during the afternoon. Ever present 40 mph wind doesn’t help. The road to Old Faithful took us over Craig’s Pass (8398’) where we had snow on the ground. WE than stopped at our 1st exposure to a Hot Spring and walk about for awhile.

We will see more of these later in detail. The signs give an explicit warning that these grounds if abused can and will be fatal. We are on a board walk surrounded by boiling water which is flowing over the surface. On the left you see a vent that is actually a few inches under the surface of the lake.

Old Faithful is a major attraction as you can imagine. It is surrounded with various service such as $4.41/gal diesel and $9.95 hot dogs. The chili hot dog we split was very good. Their Post Office was able to confirm that our mail was in Mammoth Springs about 90 minutes away on the Montana border.

That would be 90 Minutes if there are no complications, like critters on the road.

Than of course, that’s why we come here. They stop traffic and everyone has a double dip of Serendipity! Bison are not harmless. That being said, they are not aggressive and have no fear of little creatures with only two legs and no horns. We occasional see them lurking in the brush on the side of the road. This is a bother, if a 2,000 critter jumps in front of you when driving, it will not end well for either of the parties.

I prefer to see them roaming in the fields or taking a nap at 2:00pm. Could it be they are retired?

We arrived at Mammoth Springs for good news and bad news. The good = our mail was there. The bad = You guessed it, my meds were not. We drove into Gardner, Montana (5 miles) an went to the one drugstore which sold fishing gear, ice-cream and camping supplies. I called CVS Mail Department and explained that I need them to fax a copy of my prescription to the pharmacy. That wasn’t going to happen, they wanted the druggist to ‘go on line’ and make a request. He was not affiliated and after a few minutes agreed to sell me a 10 day supply as what I needed was not a controlled drug. Names are withheld to protect the innocent.

Back to Mammoth Springs to tour the fantastic display to truly mammoth proportions. While driving through town we of course had to stop for more critters crossing the road. These were Elk, the first we have seen up close, much prettier that Bison IMHO.

Now to the Hot Springs.

It’s getting to be late afternoon, we would like to travel back while there is still light. We have to drive past several locations that we will want to visit in the coming days. Shown is a water feature for the Yellowstone River.