Aug 24 & 25 2011 Yellowstone National Park
I have looked forward to this part of the journey for some time. My dad had wanted to take us kids to Yellowstone, however not one of those things that got done before us kids got older. I don’t believe he ever seen this part of North America, so I had him closer than normal to my heart while we visited and seen the natural beauty of the area.
Yellowstone must be to geologists as Disneyland/Disneyworld is to kids! Even though we are not geologists or have much interest in it other than taking what little we had in school, this park is inspiring and makes a person re-kindle interest in volcanos and all things underground.
The park is sectioned off into areas where visitors stay called villages, and they have interpretive centers and info centers at each of these areas. The park is basically divided into 2 loops - the north and the south loop.
As we only have 1 and 1/2 day to explore we begin at the north entrance of the park and do the top loop and then go straight south to our first night which is at Grants Village-basically doing the whole east side. The second day we will go back up north on the west side to old faithful, cut across the park and head out towards Wyoming at the east side exit.
Midway through Wednesday afternoon, we begin the park sights beginning at Mamoth Hot Springs. This was cool - did the walk (raised sidewalk over very hot, fragile earth.) There are warning signs all over for people not to step off the walk. We got our first whiff, feel and force of the steaming water coming from miles below the surface.
Tower Falls, which we took the 3/8 of the steep hike down to the falls brink and watched the tons of water plummet over the edge. Then on to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which was beautiful in color, and size. A beautiful turquoise river is at the bottom of the canyon.
Mud volcano was next, which was is really muddy, steaming, bubbly water/mud mixture, bubbling like oatmeal in a pot. The steam is really hot, and smells like a mixture of sulfur and ...we are not sure, however it reminded me of the smell of an over cooked roast. In a weird way it made me hungry! Go figure! LOL
We then found ourselves crossing a large flat prairie area, and the traffic stopped. We stay parked or only go about 50 ft in an hour. What we find out is the bison have decided to go from one eating range to another, and the highway is in the middle. The stoppage in traffic was due to the small groups of bison crossing the road, plus all the tourists taking pictures, running back and forth from their cars.
This delay enabled us to watch a lone Bison make his way from his area in the shade, down to a small river, swim across, and come up the other side - towards our car! This was a wonderful moment! We (Lucas) took a string of pictures as he made his journey within 30 feet of our vehicle. The traffic then began to move, and the bison crossed the road about 10 cars back from us to the other grazing area. These are tremendously big, furry animals so it was exciting to see it so close.
We continue to make our way to our hotel, stopping at Fishing Bridge and eating at the Lake Hotel restaurant. We are told it is an hour wait, however we did not mind, they had a large lounge area filled with patio furniture, and windows all around to take in the view of the lake. After a great supper, we arrive at our hotel and drop in our beds.
Thursday is the day we see all the famous sights of the Yellowstone Park. This included West Thumb geyser area, with the “paint pots” and then on to the Midway geyser basin area which had the Prismatic spring. This was my favorite place - so colourful. We again do the walks, and overhear a park guide tell a group of tourists traveling with Disney Tours, that the best view of the Prismatic spring is to take the Fairy Falls hike trail for 15 minutes and then climb the bald mountain. We decide to quickly backtrack, do the hike to get a view from a higher elevation. What a spectacular view! It was worth the steep dirty climb. This is alone made our trip worth it.
Old Faithful was faithful, and our timing was perfect. It was predicted to erupt at 11:47 and we arrived at 11:45 and saw the whole thing from beginning to end. Was spectacular and noisy, the force of the steam just does not compare to what comes out of your kettle at home!
We then continue our trek through the various basin geysers and paint pots and head out of the park towards Cody, Wyoming.
This drive out of the park - we expected to hit the plains, however we went through the Shoshone National Forest and Wapiti county. This was a most wonderful surprise. It reminded me of the Bryce Canyon. Orange colored towering rocks and pinnacles. The views were spectacular!
We make it to Cody Wyoming just at dusk, and wait 1/2 hour to get into the Wyoming’s Rib and Chop house. It was awesome food, and if you are ever in Wyoming, you must eat at this place. The service and people we encountered in Cody Wyoming were a cut above the rest.
They have a “right to work” policy which means in this state, min wage ($2.50) and that is all an employer has to pay. Our server made $2.50 per hour, however with her tips she is able to work 4 days a week and support herself and a child (single mom).
Our hotel staff in Cody were the same, they could not do enough for us. Hmm...there are a lot of places in Canada and the US where service staff could learn something from the people in Cody, Wyoming. I would love to come back to this area again.
Well, tomorrow is another day and we look forward to our trip continuing further east...
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