I've done so much traveling outside the United States and yet there is so much in the US that I have yet to see that I sometimes feel guilty. That feeling, combined with a need to get some of that fresh air that is sadly lacking in Delhi sent me on a two and a half week road trip this summer that encompassed four national parks. A week after leaving Austin mom and I made it to Yellowstone where we ended up spending three nights in the park (pretty good for only one night reserved ahead of time). I'm not really sure what I expected from the park. I finally decided that all of my preconceptions came from when I used to watch Yogi Bear cartoons as a child. Needless to say that is not exactly a realistic view of the park, although the pine trees were definitely out in abundance!
My Yellowstone experience can be divided into three main parts in my mind: the animals, geothermal activity and beautiful scenery. I have to admit that I probably got most excited about the first. Just the potential to see bears carries a sense of anticipation, regardless of the fact that we didn't see any. Bison were difficult to miss, wandering across the road at times, grazing in fields along the way and becoming the point of much traffic congestion in the evenings. One of them even decided to stroll by our cabin the last night. Driving around one of the hotel we came across a here of female elk. They don't seem quite so exciting as they are without antlers of any type. A day later there was some traffic congestion so I jumped out of the car to see what had everyone's attention. Down by the stream resting under a tree were two male elk sporting quite the racks. The last day a single male decided to stroll across the road in front of our car providing us with an up
close and personal look at one of these beasts simply stepping over the wooden fence I had been leaning against earlier. That was about it for the big animals we saw in the park, a deer, rabbits, birds, and some lizards rounding out the count.
Who doesn't think of Old Faithful when they hear the name Yellowstone? I certainly do! So of course a stop to see the most reliable geyser in the park was in the plans. We had to wait around an hour for the next anticipated eruption; which just gave us plenty of time to stake out a good seat along the edge of the geyser field. While the geyser itself was pretty impressive I might have had more fun watching the reaction of the kids that were sitting around us. The ohs and ahhs were a good reminder that I needed to appreciate the magical experience this really was. So I settled I to shoot photos of the initial steam stream, the spurts of water, the arch of the eruption and the gradual subsidence back to a bubbling water pot. Afterwards we had to stroll through the geyser basin and take in some of the other spouts. Old Faithful is just one of the many locations where you can appreciate the beauty of geothermal activity. My other favorites included the spitting mud pots at the Artist's Paintpots and my sunrise trip out to the Norris Geyser Basin where I was
overwhelmed by the steamy/smoky landscape which made me feel as if I had emerged onto a set for some otherworldly fantasy until the time that the sun began to highlight steam trails as it peaked over the mountains (totally worth dealing with the 40 degree temperatures). There were also the colored terraces by Mammoth Hot Springs (bringing to mind the white travertines of Pamukale inTurkey). I can't help but imagine what it would have been like to be an early explorer venturing through this mystical, unexpected and dangerous landscape.
As for the landscape...well there were sections of towering pine trees. Views over a few powerful waterfalls, my favorite being a smaller one that I passed on a slight hike between the upper and lower falls. Also tower falls was a simple meander off the road. The northern section had more open and sweeping vistas, sprinkled with the random glacier boulders that had tumbled to a final stop. There were, of course mountain fields, ravines with rapids and steam capped views. The two images that stand out the most in my mind though are the moment of watching a bison carefully pick a path through a geothermal area and later the white crusted, dead wood image of a land that has been rendered lifeless by the heat and minerals of the underlying geothermal activity. Both highlighted the very delicate balance that exists in this unusual place.
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