End of Yellowstone to The Grandest of Tetons

Saturday July 7th!

I woke up at 7 am literally saying "Okay okay, I'll get up," talking to no one and my tent at the same time. I packed up all of my things, like I do everyday, and headed to the Old faithful/The Teton range. I felt really really dirty. I don't know if it was just the heat, or that I struggled with the charcoal covered fire pit for so long last night, but it was the first time I felt really uncomfortable, and I had just showered yesterday morning. My day was starting off strange, I was still a little grouchy from the night before. I drove the 20 something miles to Old Faithful, and got there 3 minutes after it had erupted. Blerg, of course. So I sat in the sun for an hour feeling grungy and hot until it exploded. I watched kids run around putting their hands in the run off from the previous geyser, feeling more and more irritated with parents. I watched a little two year old jump off the boardwalk and take off for Old Faithful, while her dad filmed it. Are you kidding me?! The highlight of the hour wait was having a little french family sit next to me and listening to them talk. I wished I was in Paris again.
After a while it began to erupt, and that was pretty awesome. It started in little bursts and the crowd oohed and awwwed. Then there was a full blown eruption, and I am glad I got to see it, but then I got the hell out of there. I jumped in my car and spent the next hour and a half driving 36 miles, ugh. There was one point where I pulled over because a heard of Bison were kicking it in the street and in a field.

They were cute, and I sat watching them roll in the dirt and just have a great time, until they got out of the road and then I continued my drive to Grand Teton.

 I got to Lizard Creek campground, and felt relieved. All over the internet people said that Lizard creek was very peaceful, and a quick walk to Jackson Lake, and Although it wasn't as close to the Teton Range as the other campgrounds, you could still see the mountains and it was free! However when I pulled into the campground there was a fee deposit box, and the campground was $20.50, what the hell! I was not having this day! I decided if I was going to have to pay more money than to stay in yellowstone, I might as well camp on the lake! I was pretty pissed off! I thought I was going to have 30 or so extra dollars and I could splurge at a lodge on hot, greasy food! Now I would have less than $10, which in these tourist traps, buys you close to nothing! I continued on the jam packed trafficy road, and gave up on driving when I got to the Colter Bay campground. I was given campsite 306 in the N Loop for 20 bucks. I set up my tent on a bunch of rocks, because thats all there was and I called my mom because luckily I had cell reception. I told her I was having a bad day and vented for a while, and she responded with "Oh, you are fussy!" Then I started crying! My first real cry of the trip. 8 days is a long time for me! so way to go. It was the first time I really really wanted to camp with someone! I was hungry! Although it was only noon, and I had plenty of energy, I didn't want to move. So I drove the couple of blocks to the lake instead of walking. I went into the visitors center and stared at things I couldn't afford to buy. I found this book called "Deaths in Yellowstone"Since I am drawn and fascinated by things like Death, War, Genocide, and shit like that I opened to the book just to see if it was worth reading. The first story was about this guy who was checking out the Norris Geyser Basin and his dog jumped out of his car and lept into a hot spring. When the dog started to yelp the guy took off his shoes preparing to jump into the spring! Everyone was telling him not to do it and he responded with "Like hell I'm not gunna jump in there!" and he dove head first into the 200 degree pool. He swam all the way to the dog and tried to grab him, but gave up and climbed out of the pool. His friend ran to his side and tried to help him back to the car. The guy who jumped in kept saying "That was really stupid, I was really dumb" Yeah NO SHIT!!! What the fuck?! I mean seriously you have to be a god damn moron! Everyone knows those things are boiling! That's why you go to Yellowstone! The guy made it a few steps to the car, before people tried to take off his clothes to cool him down, which literally peeled the skin off with it, and then he died! Ugh! The Author continued to tell stories of moronic deaths like this and said that there are more deaths in yellowstone that occur by people jumping or falling into the hot springs than there are by bear attacks! What Idiots! I know you can't help it if you fall, but if you stay on the boardwalks, it's nearly impossible to fall into the boiling water! I thought off all the kids who were jumping off the boardwalks in yellowstone, with out their parents warning them that it was dangerous, and it made me so sad! As I continued to read I learned that most of the hot spring deaths were adults! Jesus.
All of a sudden a lady that worked in the gift shop came up and tapped me on the shoulder. She asked if I needed help and I realized I had already read about 20 pages of the book. So I pretended to check the price, which I already knew was $16.89, more expensive than I could pay, and then I just bought my $3 in postcards.
For some reason reading those stories made me feel better, maybe because no matter how unprepared I was cooking wise, I wasn't dumb enough to die in a hot spring. I packed up my backpack, which was a whole new routine now that I wasn't hiking in the mountains. I still kept my bear spray, but instead of a rope, extra water, food, and a knife I just took a book and my journal. I headed out for a leisurely 2 mile loop around a little island in the lake. I walked across the land bridge, and it was awesome! As soon as I got to the island this huge gorgeous butterfly led me down the trail. I started going down a trail that veered off of the loop, because I was preoccupied with this butterfly, and it seemed to want to take me in a different direction. It led me straight to a clearing in the woods that overlooked the lake and the tetons! I sat down and decided to play some music and write a bit. I cheesely put on Modest Mouse "Blame it on the Tetons" and it felt great! I listened to the whole Good News For People Who Love Bad News Album.

Not a single person came by and I loved it! I saw a few people on Kayaks on the lake and it looked so peaceful. i read about how you can go inner-tubing down snake river, and I think I would like to do that next time! I hung out on my own little private beach  for quite some time, and then slowly made my way back to the visitors center. On my way back I saw a family swimming in the lake, and I really wanted to ump in. I didn't have my bathing suit on though, and I knew there was a thunderstorm coming tonight, and my shorts wouldn't have time to dry out before tomorrow, and it is way too hot to wear pants. When I got back to the visitors center I didn't go in because I was afraid I would buy that book. I went to the grocery store instead and I was dead set on getting something terrible for me with my remaining money! I walked past donuts, ice cream, cheetos, and so many other umm things. I couldn't decide on one so I settled for cherries, a salad, and raspberry lemonade, what?! Bye $9. I sadly walked out of the grocery regretting my decisions, and headed for Jenny Lake, the drive was gorgeous. The mountains just kept getting closer and closer, until I was right underneath them!

I got to the Jenny lake parking lot and it was so crowded that I couldn't even get in, so I just turned around and headed back. I guess I didn't need to see the lake, the mountains were cool enough. The drive down there had been worth it. 

I got back to my campsite and called a few people, and just hung out on the phone, talking about my trip and complaining about how hungry I was for a cooked meal. All of a sudden this cute little dog named jackson came over to my camp and was running circles around my tent. His owner came over and kept apologizing for walking onto my site. I said it was no problem at all and told her that her dog was really cute. She asked if I was alone, and I said yes. I told her about my trip, and she said I was really brave and that she couldn't do it alone, and she was only camping for 2 days. That made me feel awesome, about that same time my mom texted me and said that her and Alex were proud of me, all at once my day turned great. Jackson's mom must have heard me complaining on the phone, because she came back over and asked if I wanted to join them for dinner. Oh my god! They made Brauts, beans and corn! I was so hungry and hot food sounded so good that I almost wanted to eat all of it, brauts included! I went over and formally met the couple, James and Lynn, from Denver Colorado. I guess Colorado is on fire right now so they decided to come camping in Wyoming. They talked about how they had gone fishing, but didn't catch anything. I was bummed, b/c honestly I would have eaten some fish if they had cooked it. I ate my beans and corn, and told them about my trip. A crazy thunderstorm started and we sat under the canopy that James had gotten from his work for free. The thunder was so loud and the rain only lasted for about 10 minutes, but it was pretty perfect. I really love thunderstorms, you could hear the rumbling start far away for about 30 minutes before it got to us. Once it mellowed down, they gave me an extra piece of corn, some pretzels and some bread, since I told them I ran out of bread and I had bought that huckleberry jam. It was awesome! They were really sweet! I actually felt kind of full, and headed back to my tent. I tried to talk quietly when my mom called and I told her about them, but it didn't really matter, because they got into a fight and started yelling so loud that they wouldn't have heard me anyway! Bummer! For the first time on the trip I wasn't tired at all when the sun went down, so I put on my headlamp on and read for a while, until the batteries died. It was too dark to find my spare batteries without my headlamp, so I just laid there until I fell asleep.