Ryan & Jenn's Ultimate Adventure: Yellowstone is not for me

So Jenn got her chance to rip on a stop that every trip MUST include, now it's my turn. We just left Yellowstone and I have to say that I am not impressed. I guess it would have been better if we had specific things we wanted to see besides old faithful, but it was a long two days in that park! I think one of the biggest problems I have with it is the fact that it takes at least 30 minutes to drive anywhere. It is extremely spread out, and obviously there isn't anything they can do about that, but once you throw in tourists who have never seen a buffalo before, it gets infuriating. Everywhere we went, there was at least one time where there would be a 20 minute traffic jam because people were stopped in the middle of the road to take pictures of the buffalo. At first I was excited to see these majestic beasts no more than a few feet away too, but after the third or fourth traffic jam, enough was enough. It was exhausting trying to get anywhere, especially when we had reservations to horseback ride (more to come on that subject). If people would have pulled off then it would have been OK, but it was terrible.

So about that horseback ride.

We thought it would be fun to try horseback riding at the park, so we went and made reservations for the 5:45 PM ride on our first day. No big deal, it was pretty well priced and everything, so we decided that we would go and get groceries before hand because we had plenty of time. After we got groceries we headed back and got stuck in 2 40-minute buffalo traffic jams. We made it to the stable 5 minutes late while they were still loading up the horses, which was great. Until the lady told us that our tickets were for 2 DAYS from then! The guy who gave us the tickets messed that up, so we went back and got them changed for the next day at the same time (plus a 20% discount which rocked!). So we go do our thing the next day, rushing through, making sure we have enough time to get to horseback riding early this time. We get there early.... and it's canceled because of lightning storms! We reschedule for 9:15 the next morning just before we are set to leave. We go the next day, after a hail storm the night before, only to find out that the rides for the entire day have been canceled because the hail hasn't melted. Three different tries at horseback riding, three different reasons for failure... Plus all the gas we wasted driving hours there and back.

So Yellowstone, not the best.

The Badlands are still my favorite by far, here are some pictures to offset this rant.