As our holiday draws to a close and the sun sets on our final day in Yellowstone we find ourselves reflecting on where we've been and what we have done and seen during the previous two weeks. We have done everything we came to do and seen everything we planned to see. Therefore, today, we didn't feel that we had to hit the park in a big way, but instead had a more relaxing day since we will be up for at least 24 hours tomorrow for our journey home.
We got up late and began packing for our trip tomorrow. Then we went into West Yellowstone for lunch; Old Town Café and a good, honest American welcome and a great meal. The town was very quiet as everyone was in the national park and we walked up and down the town for a few minutes just taking in that 'being in America' feeling.
Over lunch we had planned to return to Canyon Junction to walk the North Rim of the canyon (we did the South Rim a couple of days ago), as we had really enjoyed that area of the park. But as we drove the now familiar roads on the way to Canyon Junction we realised just how tired we were after two weeks of activity and decided to opt for a nearer destination called Artist's Paint Pots. We just wanted to walk and reflect on the holiday and not do anything too strenuous. So we wandered another alien terrain of thermal activity - this time a thick bubbling caldron of something resembling freshly mixed plaster or cement but wetter. It had a pleasing gloopy sound and spat out globules of white earth that landed with a slopping, splattering slap on the hot, steaming ground.
And so we did reflect on our time in the USA this year and realised just how different and pleasing, in their owns ways, the three national parks were. In Teton we were able to climb the 10,450ft Rendezvous Mountain and experience an exhilarating Alpine setting. Staying in a skiing resort added a wonderful laid back feeling to the place. Our day cycling and rafting will stay with us always and it was here that we saw our very first moose!
In Glacier National Park we loved the sheer scale of the place with its hint of Canada; its stomach churning cliff edges and glaciers (even in the heat of a 90 degree day) provided a dramatic edge and a feeling of space and freedom. The vista of St Mary Lake, with a backdrop of jagged peaks is a must see for anyone visiting this region. Here we saw mountain goats up close and personal!
It would be easy to see Yellowstone as a disappointment if you came looking for towering mountains and dramatic scenery. This is not what Yellowstone is like. It is undoubtedly beautiful, the majestic Yellowstone Lake is a sheer pleasure and its green and pleasant valleys will tug at anyone's heart. But two things set Yellowstone apart from its neighbours: The alien, steaming, thermal features make you believe you are on another planet at times. The smell of sulphur and the hot waft of egg sounds worse than it is. But the colours are amazing. This place is like nothing we have ever seen before. The other thing is the wildlife; Bison, Elk, Bear, Eagle, Coyote, Moose - much more accessible and more common (in our brief experience) than in the other parks.
And there are people we will remember; Bob and Jeanette were real down to earth out-west Americans through and through. There was an honesty about them - the sort of people you could trust - a couple still in love after 66 years of marriage! And there was Dana from Seattle, who Rachel has already played scrabble with online, with many more games to come. Then there is Tracy, our host in Glacier - a bear of a man with a very soft centre who 'does it all for God!'. And the small boy who held a door open for me with a typical American politeness, which we have noticed in many young people here.
We could go on and on but we'll leave it there and just say - Huckleberry Ice Cream - is the best!
Thanks for reading. Until next time....
We were supposed to rise early this morning but, try as we might, we could not drag ourselves out of bed after our walk along the South Rim yesterday. But no matter - looking out of the window we saw that there was dense fog outside and we could see virtually nothing. So we made coffee and stayed in bed.
By the time we were up and ready for the day the fog had lifted and only a small remnant was left - it was going to be another beautiful day:
We had visited Prismatic Spring before but were determined to photograph it from above, as we had seen so many wonderful images in the weeks and months leading up to our visit. We took the Fairy Falls trailhead walk towards the spring and looked for the path up the hillside opposite; not an official path but one we new existed from our research. It was a steep and quite difficult climb but within minutes we knew it would be worth the effort. We reached a vantage point overlooking the spring and here are a few of the photos we took. If only they could do it justice; this was one of the most lovely and unusual scenes we had ever experienced.
We sat for some time watching the colours changing as the sun came in and out between the clouds. We counted all the colours of the rainbow and watched the steam rising eerily above the spring. We dragged ourselves away reluctantly, knowing we would probably never see this scene again, carefully making our way back down to the path and continuing towards Fairy Falls.
The path we took is closed for much of the year due to bear activity so we made our noisy way, clapping occasionally as we went - just in case. The path entered very dense forest; young forest, which is only now recovering after a fire in the eighties:
And within the hour we reached Fairy Falls, a 197ft waterfall - the park's seventh highest. The scene around the waterfall was one of seeming devastation, which must be a result of the fire - blackened trees, some standing and others lying collapsed in all directions on the ground.
After our walk we returned to the Old Faithful Inn - we visited a couple of days ago - to rest. It was obviously all too much for Rachel as she fell asleep as soon as she sat down.
It was still relatively early but we returned to West Yellowstone to wander around the shops and buy Rachel a pair of cowboy boots - a woman can't have too many boots after all! The evening ended with a BBQ while watching the sun set once more over the mountains. We will miss this when we leave.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Yellowstone.
The roads in Yellowstone loosely resemble a figure of 8. The journey to the northern loop, the top half of the 8 starts, for us, at the West Entrance to the park at West Yellowstone. It's 14 miles from here to Madison and then it's north towards Norris Junction to start the clockwise loop. We were heading to Mammoth Hot Springs, which is near the North Entrance, and could see Mount Holmes (10,336ft) on our left for most of the journey.
Today the weather was cool and overcast - the usual early chill was not replaced by the blazing hot sun but this was quite welcome as the heat was oppressive yesterday. This had an added benefit in that it brought out a lot of wildlife that would not come out in the usual heat of the day. The first wildlife we saw was a Bald Eagle, sitting high up in a tree. At first we thought it was a small bear that had climbed the tree - it was so big. A few minutes later we saw Elk, lots of them, at the side of the road grazing:
In fact we kept having to stop to take in the wildlife all along the road so the journey took much longer than expected. But we finally reached Mammoth Hot Springs and it was a similar experience to yesterday although it was disappointing that some of the springs and geysers were not active at this time of year:
At the north eastern end of the park is the Lamar Valley and by now we had driven a long way, so we were relieved that the reports of wildlife in the valley were true. At one point we were surrounded on three sides by Bison, which kept walking across the road in front of traffic. They were coming within ten feet of the car - pretty scary!
Later we moved on via Canyon Junction towards Norris Junction. We were amazed to encounter a young Black Bear in the road; as we rounded a bend the bear was running towards us on our side of the road, heading straight for the car. When it saw us it veered off into the grass at the side of the road and as we passed it Rachel took a quick photo out of the window - it's not great but it all happened so quickly.
We visited the Geyser Basin at Norris, which has some of the most continually active and violent thermal vents in the park. It was like landing on another world:
It's amazing how any of the trees survive this harsh environment and many don't - they are reduced to stumps; their bark stripped completely away resulting in an eerie, alien landscape.
The sun had still not come out by early evening and we continued to see Bison, Elk and even a Coyote on the way back home.
This ended our second full day in Yellowstone.
We've seen some interesting and fascinating places in recent years but today has been one of the most captivating experiences ever. We've spent the whole day exploring Yellowstone's geothermal features and 'Geysers'. Although we researched this area before we came the reality exceeded our expectations by a long way. We are not going to spend lots of time on words in today's blog, but instead just show you some of our photos - they speak for themselves. But to give you a feel for what you are looking at you need to know that these geothermal features are created by water seeping into the earth, being heated by magma beneath the earth, creating increasing pressure and heat and becoming steam, before being ejected through holes or cracks in the ground. Over many years the sulphur (and other elements) deposit on the ground, building up layer upon layer to form weird and wonderful shapes on the landscape. The heat and rich chemical make-up provides an ideal environment for microscopic algae to form, producing amazing colours in the water and around the edges of the geysers. There are many, many geysers and geothermal pools to visit on foot, via an excellent network of boardwalks, allowing access to areas that would otherwise be unreachable. One other thing - some of the main geysers are so regular in their eruptions that they can be timed to within a few minutes or sometimes a few hours, while others have not erupted for years. We sat and waited for a few of these and they were, for the most part, right on time. We hope you enjoy these photos as much as we have enjoyed taking them.
On the way home we stopped to look at this Bison, which came within 20 feet of our car - all on its own, feeding and ignoring everyone who stopped to look:
We ended the day with Chicken and Rib Eye steak on the balcony grill, while watching the sun set:
One of our best days yet.
