Yellowstone

Reasons for being tourists instead of backpackers in Yellowstone:

Tons of wildlife all over the place, easily viewed from the road.

yellowstone black bear, doing his thing

Participating in “bear jams” is kind of exciting (when one car spots a bear and pulls over, and then every other car thereafter pulls over to figure out what the first car is looking at, rinse and repeat).

WHAT ARE THEY LOOKING AT

Weather was mediocre. (“There is no bad weather, only bad clothing” - Norwegian proverb – yeah yeah, whatever, I said mediocre not bad.)

grand prismatic spring from under my umbrella

Cross-country travel is complicated by geothermal activity, and it would suck to break through a soil crust into boiling water.

that's a geyser

Buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.
(The English language's longest grammatically correct sentence made of a single word. Translates as “Ticked off bison from Upstate NY anger other irate bison from Upstate NY.”)