Yellowstone
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The park covers a lot of territory, the size of Connecticut in fact, and breaks down into five sections. There is a main road that makes a figure eight loop through the park, connecting the five areas. We started at the top east corner of the park called Mammoth and then made our way through the other areas of Norris, Canyon, Madison/Old Faithful, and Tower. We also checked out the Grand Tetons just south of Yellowstone. The entire trip took about two weeks.
Mammoth Hot Springs was the first area we explored. The water from the hot springs has left mineral deposits over the years that have collectively formed these beautiful white terraces, which are streaked with various colors, mostly orange, from algae growth. A nearby river had a spot where water from the hot springs flowed into it. This was so rad. This was the first time i had ever been in a natural hot spring. I mean it was sooo cool. As soon as we stepped into the river we were welcomed with a nice warm water around our ankles. We had to watch where we walked because if you walked to far away from where the hot springs were pouring into the water, you'd get a good blast of the icy cold river. So you think we would just hug the rivers edge where the hot water is coming down huh - nope - cuz sometimes the water would be super hot and you would let out a good little hoot. Some people had built a pile of rocks around where the hot water enters the river so as to stop it from flowing all down stream. This created a nice little hot tub right in the river. I was so stoked just to be there. A nice free natural hot tub. The hot springs water alone is scalding hot and people have died here by falling in and boiling to death, but where the hot springs mix with the ice cold river water is a fine place to relax.
Norris Geyser Basin is another section of the park, known for its many geothermal features. The air is filled with the smell of sulphur which has come out of the ground through steaming vents, hot pools, springs, and geysers. It's kind of crazy to know that as you peer down into those pools, you are looking into the gateways of the Earth's inner core. Some of the cool stuff in this area were the Geysers. This was my first time ever seeing an actual Geyser go off, so of course i was just as silly as a kid. We checked out Steamboat Geyser, which suppose to be the largest geyser in the world. It was doing a bunch of little eruptions which were super cool to me, but it wasn't close to doing it's thing. they say it hardly erupts, and when it does, they say it feels like an earthquake. Another geyser in this area is called Echinus. It's like this big pool that starts to fill with water and boil slowly. Eventually it starts this huge rolling boil, and then the whole pool just kinda shoots up in the air. It lasts for about 5 minutes and then just like that the pool returns to normal and then the water begins to drain from the pool, starting it's cycle all over again. This one was so cool we had to go back another day to watch it erupt again.
Canyon area reveals tall waterfalls and yellow limestone cliffs that give Yellowstone its name. This area feels like you've been thrown into the middle of someone's water color painting. I've never seen a prettier pastel landscape. In this area we took a photo walk and learned a few tips about picture composition and back lighting. Since then we've been having fun futzing around with the camera and I think our picture quality is beginning to improve. If nothing else it makes us notice more details and it gives us a reason to get up early. Morning lighting is the best, and as our friend from Kodak put it, lighting is the most important part of photography; subject matter is second. We spent about 3 days in this area just exploring the canyon and checking out the waterfalls. It really is a pretty site. I recommend taking the trails around the rim of the canyon - it really gives you a good feel of the whole canyon area. This is where we showered for the first time since washington. It has been a while, but we did swim in the hot springs near the river a couple of times so that kinda cleaned us a little. We needed a shower though. Let me tell you. That shower felt soooo good. I can't even tell you how good that shower felt. It's amazing. Try not showering for like 8 days (that's how long it had been), Man that hot water feels so good scrubbing all that grime off. Felt good to just simply enjoy the pleasure of a shower. Ahh - life living out of a van :-)
The wildlife is abundant and spread out all over the park, although the main attraction is in the Hayden Valley. The buffalo are roaming and they often hang out in the streets. One of them had me shaking in my boots as he gave me a head fake and started toward the van while stamping his feet. They command my utmost respect. Buffalo are huge animals. They have signs all over the park saying - stay away from the buffalo, Visitors have been gored by them - and then they have this picture of a buffalo flinging this guy in the air with a hole in the guy from the buffalos horn. So were pretty scared of these guys. We new they could take out the van if they wanted to. It was just cool to be so close to them in their environment.
Midway through this trip we drove south a few miles to visit the Grand Tetons ("Teton" is french for breast). The peaks are impressive because they rise almost 7,000 feet straight up. I think to truly appreciate this place, though, you have to climb the Grand Teton. Only then could you truly feel the grandeur of the mountains. We really didn't know what to expect of the place. It's scenery was nice, but we knew the real attraction was the climbing. We got a little excited thinking we were gonna do some climbing, but after checking out the routes in the area (mainly 11's and 12's), we knew we were out of our league. So we just settled on a little hike around Jenny Lake and up the base a little of the Grand Teton. From just the little hike we did - it was impressive. I could only just imagine going up 7000 more feet. Cool place. They even had this rad Indian museum at one of the visitor centers. If your ever in Grand Teton N.P. I highly recommend checking this out. It's this huge collection of Indian artifacts. You could see stuff from clothes to weapons to horse saddles to toys for their children to decorations. All this stuff was made from things they found around them or from different parts of the buffalo. They used that whole animal. They even had some demonstrations going on too. As i slowly discover the country, i'm slowly realizing how much the indians were apart of this country before we were here. They were here for close to 10,000 years before we wiped them away from their lands and put them on reservations and charge admission to their old home lands. Kinda a sad awakening for me. The same time, it's making me see how great the indians were. How they lived in balance with the land for so long.
Back in Yellowstone, we were ready for the main event. We saw Old Faithful erupt five times (once while eating huckleberry ice cream), as well as a handful of other geysers. Old Faithful erupts about every 90 min. and reaches heights of 180ft. There were more hot pools and steam vents in the area, too, and their colors were amazing. In the pools where the water is really hot, around 190 degrees, not much grows, and the water reflects blue from the sky. Where the water overflows out of the pools, the air cools it a bit and algae begins to grow. Yellowish algae grows in hotter temps while orange, brown, and eventually green algae grow in the cooler areas. All of this activity creates a rainbow of colors on the ground unlike anything we've ever seen. We, the newly fanatical photo tourists, found bliss here. We got up early almost every morning to try and catch everything in its best light. There's just so much different stuff to see in Yellowstone. Just the different pools around the park are so amazing - all of them - in their own unique way are just amazing. I don't think i have a favorite, but they all were good. Grand Prismatic Spring was this huge pool of hot water. Almost a football field size. The different colors that formed around this one was spectacular, plus the shear size of it made a beautiful site. Check it out on the left - we got a couple pictures of it.
Our tour of Yellowstone ended in the Tower area of the park, which was really quiet compared to the rest of the park. It did offer a scenic waterfall and one hike to an observation area that gave you an aerial view of the whole park. Sort of a nice way to wrap up the visit. We were done for the time being but we both agreed that we'd like to come back again for another visit in the future. A huge park - and we spent 2 weeks here and haven't even come close to checking everything out. We actually were pretty ready to move on and check out the rest of the country, but Yellowstone is one that you just keep coming back to. Our next stop is the Devils Tower area and Mt. Rushmore. From there we head to the Mississippi and then up it till we get to lake Superior. We gonna see if we can get surf there. Then we go along the top of the country to Niagara falls and then to Maine to see Acadia N.P. and see all the leaves turn color. Though - like a good friend told me - on the road - all your plans should be in pencil, so that if they need to be changed - it's not a hassle. Good advice. We've pretty much been doing things that way. Just like how we rolled with the whole Alaska situation. Right now were in Billings, Montana finishing up this update to the web site and were gonna try and upload it from here. Can't say when the next update is gonna be, but if you want us to email you when we make an update, send me and email at steve@kapali.net That way you don't have to keep coming back to check if we've done any updates. So long for now. Eastward we travel to the Black HIlls of South Dakota.