- Welcome to Wyoming. (upbeat music) ♪ That's what you are ♪ ♪ In the middle of the night,
when I can't get hold of it ♪ ♪ You make it hard ♪ ♪ Trying not to let it show,
but I just can't let it go ♪ It's about 6:45 am, and I've just pulled up to the parking lot for the Mammoth Hot
Springs in Yellowstone. This is my first time
visiting Yellowstone, I'm so excited, it's always
been on my bucket list, so I was like, "I'm going to get in my car and go drive down there,
and look at some things." (upbeat music) Next we are heading from
Mammoth Hot Springs up here, down to the Norris Geyser Basin. (upbeat music) Well it's about 20 degrees colder here than it was at Mammoth Hot Springs. I got here, walked for about a minute, and turned around and went back to my car and changed into my arctic gear. The Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest thermal
region in Yellowstone, and it legit looks like the floor is lava. There are these areas under the water that are bright turquoise
and it's so beautiful. Yellowstone actually sits
on top of a super volcano which is why it's bubbling
with geothermal activity, and scientists have predicted
that if it erupted again, it could bury Wyoming,
Montana, Idaho, and Colorado in three feet of volcanic ash. However, they aren't certain
it will ever erupt again, and if it did, it's likely
100,000 years away from doing so. The next place you have to
see if you go to Yellowstone, is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Take an afternoon, drive
along the North and South Rim, there are a lot of areas
that you can pull over, take in the view, see all
the colors of the canyon, and if you're up for hike, the Brink of the Lower
Falls Trail is so worth it. You get to stand right over
the top of the waterfall, and it's spectacular. (rushing water) (upbeat music) Getting ready for another
day out in the park, I got my coffee from Mountain
Mama's Bakery and Coffee here in west Yellowstone. I'm also loving the abundance
of huckleberry stuff here. I got a huckleberry scone. So today I am continuing my sight-seeing, I'm going to go look at
a whole bunch of geysers, Old Faithful, the Grand Prismatic Spring. It's another absolutely gorgeous day, I have gotten so lucky with
the weather on this trip. It is literally solid sun
every single day that I'm here, which is so great. ♪ You know every little thing I like ♪ ♪ Don't you ♪ ♪ You're moving at the perfect times ♪ ♪ Aren't you ♪ So I ended up spending
four days in the park, which is definitely a good amount of time to see a lot of things. Yellowstone is enormous, so the more time you have, the better. I wouldn't have minded an extra day to just sit in a valley and
watch wildlife some more. There were some animals I was hoping to see that
I didn't, like wolves. Although this coyote
did come right past me, and hunt one evening which
was really interesting. So if you're on the fence about the number of days you
want to spend in the park, if you like watching wildlife, you definitely won't
regret having extra time. And a really great spot for wildlife watching is Lamar Valley, which is in the northern side of the park. (upbeat music) Something I learned really
quickly on this trip is how quickly wildlife comes and goes. So I've been driving with my giant telephoto lens on my camera, mounted, ready to go. I also have been mounting this smaller vlog camera on my dash, because I don't want to miss that shot, I actually got a great
shot of an elk last night. At sunset, I was driving down the road and it was off to the
side in this clearing and I was able to pull over,
grab this, get a shot of it, and I maybe had 15 to 20 seconds before it headed back into the trees, so I was really lucky to get that. And if any of you are wondering, I'm shooting on the
Sony 100 to 400 GM lens. This is a great lens, however, I will say, I wish I had brought a
tele converter for it just to get a little extra reach because once you get
out here, it's so vast. 400 milometers sounds like a lot reach, but when you're shooting across a valley, it feels like nothing sometimes. ♪ I want it, you got it,
the feeling is closer ♪ ♪ We cannot depart it ♪ I've made it to Yellowstone Lake, I'm at the West Thumb Geyser
Basin, which is beautiful. I didn't realize how nice
it would be out here. There's this boardwalk
all along the water, the water's like this clear
sparkling turquoise color, and it's an active lake, sitting on top of the volcano that's here. And this is my last stop in Yellowstone before I make my way down to
Grand Teton this afternoon. (upbeat music) I love how on road trips, the rules for like the things you eat just completely disappear, or maybe this is just me, but I just stopped at a convenience store, and I saw a bag of Goldfish crackers, I can't remember the last
time I had Goldfish crackers, but I was like, "Yeah,
I'm gonna have that." I can already tell that
it is quieter down here. Even signs for places have like, "Closed for the Season" on them. There's less people. ♪ I break up and break down ♪ ♪ In the middle of the
night, in the middle ♪ ♪ You got it, I want it ♪ ♪ The feeling is closer,
I want it, you got it ♪ ♪ The feeling is closer,
We cannot depart it ♪ ♪ The feeling is closer ♪ So I'm driving down Moose
Wilson Road right now, and the is supposed to be one of the prime spots to see wildlife and there's a whole bunch of cars doing the exact same thing as me. I think this is like a sunset activity. Wildlife is most active
at sunrise and sunset. I will say I think I'm pretty
bad at spotting wildlife because a couple of times
already on this trip there has been something
pretty close to me, like I should be able to see it, and someone has had to point it out to me. So maybe this is not, um, my forte. Oh there's a bunch of cars up here. (upbeat music) It was a bear, I saw my
first bear of the trip. Oh I'm so excited, he was
kind of hiding in the brush, but I got him, he was eating. This is honestly so much fun, I think I am going to do this every single night that I'm here. Also, I just heard someone
pronounce it Tee-ton, instead of Ti-ten, like
Grand Tee-ton National Park. Have I been saying it
wrong this entire time? If I have, and that's been
horribly annoying, I apologize. I need to figure out what the
actual name of this park is. (upbeat music) Good morning, I got up
very early this morning to head into the park and
shoot the mountains at sunrise. They are so beautiful. When the light first
hits them, they turn red, and it's stunning. It's actually been a couple of days since you guys have seen me. I didn't really vlog yesterday. For sunset I met up with
a local photographer to take some photos. But the last place that we
were shooting last night was this little lake, and we were shooting there after sunset so kind of heading into blue hour, and after we were done we headed back to the parking lot, and as soon as he left I realized that I didn't have my glasses, that I had taken my
glasses down to the lake with a blanket that I had taken with me. And I remember setting my
glasses on top of the blanket, and I assumed I just picked it
up and the glasses fell off. So the point of my story
is now it's morning and the sun is up, and I'm
going to take a drive out there, try and find these things. (footsteps) Oh my gosh, here they are. You guys, I honestly did not
think I was going to find them. I thought that this was a lost cause. I'm being quiet because
there are like people around taking in the serenity of this lake. I've never been so happy
to have my glasses. Okay, I'm going to go back into town now and get some coffee and something to eat. (upbeat music) Okay, I've eaten, I've taken a shower, I've actually gotten ready for the day, and now I'm at Mormon Row. This is a road that has a
whole bunch of barns along it and it's really great for photography because you have the
Tetons as the backdrop. (upbeat music) At this spot for sunset,
look how beautiful it is the way the sun dips
between the mountains. (serene music) Well today is the last day of my trip. I'm heading home to Washington, I'm currently driving through
Teton Pass which is beautiful. This trip has been phenomenal. Wyoming is even more
beautiful than I anticipated. As far as what I think of
Wyoming for a solo destination, if you like wide-open space
and solitude, you'll love this. I've had a great time. I'm very introverted, and I like just driving around
in my car and seeing things. I don't get lonely very easily, so this is totally my kind of trip. As far as my advice, if you're
going to do a trip like this, the one thing I didn't bring,
that I really wish I did, is a pair of binoculars. I had assumed that my super telephoto lens would work as my binoculars, but I found very quickly that using your camera as your binoculars drains the battery really fast. I hope you guys enjoyed coming
along with me for this trip. I would highly recommend visiting Wyoming. It's truly a stunning state and I already know I'm going to be back. I'm going to have a vlog
post linked down below with more details about this trip if you're interested in that. And I'm sure I have a bunch of photos up on my Instragram as well, so I will link that down below
if you want to see those. Thanks for watching, I hope
you all are doing well, and I will see you in the next one. Bye. (upbeat music)
