01/11/2019 to 03/11/2019 - Spokane → Yellowstone National Park → Billings / USA (1,321 kilometers)

After some thought, extensive internet research, and phone calls to the German and American embassies, we are no wiser. The statement "the official on-site decides whether you get a new entry stamp or whether you are allowed to enter the country at all" did not improve the situation. We will spend New Year's Eve in New York, leave the country again on January 1, 2020 towards Canada, and hope that they will allow us to return to the USA before January 11, so that we can fly back to Germany from New York. Fingers crossed!

We had about 500 miles ahead of us from Spokane to Yellowstone National Park. After we had made it, we stayed 2 nights in a comfortable hotel right in the national park. Yellowstone National Park was established on March 1, 1872 and is the world's first national park. With an area of ​​8,987 km², it is one of the largest national parks in the USA. It is part of the Rocky Mountains and is located on average at 2,440 meters above sea level. The special thing about Yellowstone National Park is the volcanic landscape with geysers, fumaroles, mud pots, and hot springs. The terrain is largely located in the crater of the Yellowstone Volcano, the largest supervolcano on the American continent. It was steaming and bubbling everywhere. We took a close look at the geyser "Old Faithful". As the name suggests, a very reliable geyser. Because every 90 minutes he throws his hot water up to 50 meters high. We walked on wooden walkways to the hot springs "Mammoth Hot Springs" and "Midway Geyser Basin". Partly very icy, but using them was the better option. The area around the springs can be so hot that entire soles of shoes have been burned and there have been serious accidents. The springs have created great landscapes and the water in them shimmers turquoise in some places. Three major rivers originate in the mountains of the park, including the Yellowstone River, which gave Yellowstone National Park its name. The park even has its own Grand Canyon with a length of 32 kilometers. From some, still accessible, viewpoints we could look into the gorge and also discover some of the total of 290 waterfalls. In the park there are incredibly many different species of animals. We set off before sunrise to be able to discover as many animals as possible. We were able to discover a lot of bison, elks, and Canadian geese, but unfortunately no bears. Black bears and grizzly bears live here. However, they were probably already in hibernation, as it has become very cold quite early this year. We had a great time exploring the diverse national park in temperatures of -7 degrees Celsius, cloudy and sunny skies, and very few tourists. Since the park closes on November 4th, we spent the last possible night here and drove on to Billings in the state of Montana for one night.