Go West! Day 4, part 3: night in the park

As we approached Shoshone National Forest, which was adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, the sun was getting low on the horizon. Our goal was to set up in daylight so we didn’t stop much for photos.

The road followed a river with mountains on both sides.

We finally arrived at the east entrance to the park. It was past 9 p.m. and the entrance was unguarded. There was a note from the rangers stating that we could pay the entrance fee when we leave the park. I loved the honor system.

After about 20 minutes we could see a vast lake appearing behind the trees.

The full moon was out on the eastern sky while the orange glow of the sunset still dominated the western horizon. The vast, tranquil lake forced us to stop cold in our track. We couldn’t care less about setting camp in daylight; we had to stop to take some photos, which did not do justice to the scenery of the lake in twilight.

We arrived at Bridge Bay campsite around 10 p.m. The camp ground, which consisted of about 400 sites, was full! Fortunately we had reserved a spot earlier in the day. The staff was extremely friendly and showed us a map of the large camp ground. We bought some firewood, kindling. Tai, Qui, and I set up the two tents while Anh-Hoa started the fire. Being inexperienced campers, we didn’t have all the necessary equipment, especially padding for our sleeping bags.

This is how our camp site looked the following morning.

Notice the frost on the car roof? The temperature dropped down to the 30s overnight. In the evening, the camp fire kept us warm.

It was our first night outdoors of the trip, and we couldn’t pick a more beautiful place to camp, the bright full moon ahead, Yellowstone lake nearby, and tall evergreens surrounding us. The camp ground was full of vehicles with out-of-state license plates. But ours from Massachusetts was probably the farthest.

That night, however, our excitement was subdued by the hard, rocky, damp ground and the freezing temperature. I tossed and turned and managed only about one hour of sleep. Qui slept sitting up in the other tent to avoid the hard ground. We newbie campers couldn’t wait for the night to be over.