DAY 9

Flagg Ranch, Wyoming to Grant Village, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

YES!!! The number one destination on both our lists, Yellowstone. We'd made it. At least to the gateway, not far from all the cool stuff, but at least we were inside park boundaries. Tomorrow was going to be the day of our life. Or so we thought...

Our campsite, along with a big metal bear safe box, where you have to store everything from water bottles and eating utensils to deodorant and toothpaste. Because as all the rangers would say, a fed bear is a dead bear.  If a bear becomes aggressive, there is no alternative but to 'destroy' it. :(

Welcome to the night from hell. A) It was freezing. B) All night there were the sounds of elk mating (a very scary sound when you don't know what the hell it is, kind of like a horsey high-pitched screech with subsequent male grunt) and a pack of coyotes howling, their voices echoing around our tent.  In my sleepy/scared state I likened this sound to a bus full of crazy people and chickens. And C) Luke got violently ill overnight with some horrible God-forsaken tummy bug, keeping him up from 3am onwards in the freeze with the elk and coyotees for company. 

So we spent a rest day here, some of it spent watching said elk roam around the campground, including a huge bull with enormous antlers. 

The real Yellowstone would have to wait a bit longer.

Sidenote: Luke is now mentally scarred from the following vomitted goods: dehydrated beans, cuscous, sultanas.