Yellowstone

I had planned to go to Yellowstone from Jackson via the south entrance, which would have been a short trip. Once again I'd forgotten that some of the American parks are closed or have particular accesses closed in winter! 

Instead we drove through the Teton Pass into Idaho and up the western side of the Teton Range, which seemed even more impressive from this side. 

Idaho was beautiful - rolling hills of rich brown earth, tilled for potato crops, great older roads of bleached Tarmac, snow capped mountains all around. 

It was a 2.5 hour drive into Montana where the park entrance is at West Yellowstone. The park itself is in Wyoming, so we were only in Montana for a short while. 

We'd booked two nights at the Best Western Desert Inn in West Yellowstone and they graciously let us into our room early. We changed into walking gear and headed into the park. 

I had no idea how enormous or how diverse the park is. Only the western roads were open, meaning we could get to Old Faithful and the geyser area, Mammoth Hot Springs and the terraces, and the canyon area.

As we first entered the park we saw a herd of bison across the river and stopped to admire the view, not realizing that very shortly we'd be nose to nose with them! Despite warnings from the Rangers, people stopped their cars in the middle of the road to watch animals. There are plenty of pull outs to stop in - the park is very well organized and maintained. 

Parking at Old Faithful but having just missed an eruption, we took a trail map and set off along the boardwalk to view the other geysers. I was impressed by the number and variety of springs and geysers. I enjoyed learning about the different colors and that scientists discovered DNA from studying the microbes in the water here. It was quite warm walking through the steam, and occasionally quite sulphurous in odour. 

We chose to walk to the Bicuit Basin for a little exercise, the second half of the walk leaving the geyser field and entering thick pine bush land. It was very peaceful. Too peaceful, really. We made lots of noise in the hope that bears would shy away from us. 

We saw a wolf padding along at Biscuit Basin, completely disinterested in us. 

As we entered the forest again on the way back, we saw a sign regarding recent bear sightings! We could have used that information at the other end of the trail! We walked back a little faster and noisier but less surprised that we were the only ones on the trail. 

As we reached Old Faithful people were gathering so we stopped and waited. The Rangers predict the eruptions daily. 

During our walk and drive into the park we saw an osprey, a yellow bellied marmot, bison and their orange calves, frolicking on the river flats. We saw coyote, mountain blue birds, lesser squirrels and moose. 

I'm glad that we were here in spring. I think that in summer the crowds would be oppressive. We sustained two door dings in one day, when there was plenty of room to park. 

The park is in repair mode with new growth everywhere following large forest fires in 1988. There are lots of logs and fallen trees in the undergrowth. 

The next day we drove back into the park to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and around to the south rim with the intent of walking the south rim trail to the waterfalls. The view from Artist Point was spectacular. The upper falls drop 33m over a lip of volcanic rock and the lower falls drop 93m, with up to 220,000 litres of water passing every second! 

We walked a short distance up the trail that wasn't marked closed, but was impassable due to snow. Knowing now that bears are defintely up and about, walking a lonely trail by ourselves didn't seem sensible. 

The drive into the brink of the lower falls was also closed, but we decided to park and walk in. Again, we were the only ones there but the view was incredible. Being that close to the power of so much water was brilliant. 

Sadly a couple of the other walks to the falls viewing platforms were still closed after winter, but we enjoyed the view from the roadside lookouts. It would be ideal to have been here just a couple of weeks later, when the park was fully open, but before the summer crowds descended. 

In the afternoon we drove the 50km to Mammoth Hot Springs to see the terraces of travertine and trees over 500 years old - rock solid from ingesting the travertine! 

I really enjoyed my time at Yellowstone and will probably come back again to see the sections that were closed.