The second pearl of the USA, was (or is) Yellowstone National Park. The ticking timebomb of the earth. That is, if the supervolcano would erupt. But the park is such a beauty. It really is a wonder of nature. When you think of Yellowstone, you think of the vibrant colors of the prismatic pools and so on. The colors come from bacteria. Each different color comes from a different bacteria. Each bacteria needs its own temperature of the water, if the temperature varies, the bacteria vary. That’s why there are different colors.
We stayed in the Canyon Lodge & Cabins in Yellowstone. I liked the hotel room actually, it was really nice decorated. We stayed here for three nights and had two full days in Yellowstone National Park.
When we arrived on day 0 (:p) we already did a part of the Lower Loop of the Yellowstone:
- West Thumb Geyser Basin: there are several geysers, hot springs and mud pools located around the West Thumb. There’s a walk that you can do around some of them: Lone Pine Geyser, Big Cone, Blue Funnel Springs, Hillside Geyser, lakeshore Geyser, … The proximity of Yellowstone Lake makes this a very nice area. Some geysers/ hot springs are even just below the water surface of the lake.
- Fishing Bridge: this bridge was built in 1937, but the original one dates from 1902. They used to go here for fishing, hence the name. Not worth the time if you don’t have a lot of it.
- LeHardy’s Rapids: this is a part of the Yellowstone River, where the water gets pushed against giant rocks. The water is very turbulent and colors white.
- Mud Volcano: This one got discoverd in the 19th At that time people could hear the volcanoes rumbling from a distance of 0.5 mile. The ground shook and the mud could fly against the tree tops.
- Hayden Valley: The place to spot some bison. And there are a lot of them… although the Lamar Valley is WAY better to spot them, but that requires a detour. It still is a beautiful open area.
On our first complete day in Yellowstone, we completed the Lower Loop. I’m glad we already did a few stops the day before. It’s really crowded inside the park (really crowded) and it’s one of the few parks were the parking lots aren’t sufficient for all the visitors. So sometimes you have to be lucky to find a spot, our park outside the parking lot – sometimes way further than where you have to be. You lose a lot of time this way. Our stops:
- Norris Geyser Basin: this is the hottest, eldest and most dynamic area. You have two areas here: the Porcelain Basin and the Back Basin. We arrived early here and got the first part to ourselves. We did saw a few small geysers erupt, so it really is very dynamic!
- Artist’s Paint Pots Trail: this is one of the most memorable stops along the route (or so they say). The sceneries lie on a hill, so they have less water hence mud pools are formed.
- Lower Geyser Basin: this is the biggest geyser area. There are different areas to visit here, but the easiest ones are the Fountain Paint Pots. There’s also the possibility to take a small ‘detour’ on a side road. Here you can find a lot of Geysers like the Great Fountain Geyser. This is de only predictable geyser (and the only one you can drive to). The moment we arrived the ranger just came by and stated that the next eruption would occur between 45 – 60 minutes. So after a quick discussion we decided to wait, not knowing what to expect. Boy, did we got a surprise. It was magnificent. Period.
- Midway Geyser Basin: this is the place to find the enormous Grand Prismatic Spring and the Excelsior Geyser.
- Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: this is the first big canyon of the Yellowstone River. We only did the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. It’s a short hike down, but it’s a longer and very steep hike back up to the parking lot. When we got back to our car, there was a lot of commotion around the parking lot. Someone spotted a bear! So we got out of the car again, I started to push people away and tried to get a good shot of the black bear. They weren’t going to cross me again! 😉
On our final day in Yellowstone, we did the Upper Loop of the Yellowstone. We saw:
- Lamar Valley: this is the place to be if you’re here to spot wildlife, including wolves. I’m not saying that you’ll definitely see one, but you have the best possibility here. We went here in the morning and in the evening and didn’t see one… but in the morning we kind of thought we did. There was a gigantic herd of bison suddenly on the move. We didn’t had a pair of binoculars or a good lens, so we just followed the others around. In the end it turned out to be two coyotes (and they are on camera, but they are too small to find if you don’t know where to look)! So yay for that! We also saw some pronghorns here. And of course, a lot of bison :-).
- Mammoth Hot Springs: another hot spot in Yellowstone are these hot springs. It’s the biggest area of hot springs and the warm water that feeds these sources comes from the Norris Geyser Basin.
- Old Faitful: this is also one of the most predictable geysers in the park. Normally it erupts every hour/ hour and a half. We didn’t want to wait because we heard people say that the Great Fointain Geyser was ‘way more spectacular’ than this one. But in the end, as we were passing by to start our walk to the Upper Geyser Basin, the geyser started to erupt and we were mesmerized as well. They are incomparable, but equally astonishing.
- Upper Geyser Basin: this is the place to be for the Morning Glory Pool, the Black Sand Basin, Emerald Pool, Cliff Geyser and Castle Geyser. It’s quite walk, without any shade. We did it in the worst possible time :-), and really needed our water.
Sometimes we switched a bit in-between routes, according to the time left. The first day was a rather busy one, that’s why we skipped a few the first time, but visited them the second day. We saw a few stops more as well, but I mentioned the more important ones.
The next morning we went straight from Canyon Village to West Yellowstone (Yay, Montana) and then back to Salt Lake City again.
You got to love Wyoming :-).
Around the world in a lifetime 