Yellowstone Park – we knew it for a similarity to cartoon bears. We were in for an education.
We started by entering the park through the north entrance at Gardiner.
The best way to describe Gardiner is a bit ‘Disneylike’. It is very nice but feels a bit faux quaint. It is very geared to tourists and we went into the Tourist Information centre to get a map of the park. They were really nice and showed us the main sights to see.
Yellowstone is like a figure of 8 with two circuits. We decided to do the top circuit today and then the lower circuit the following day. Good decision as there is lots to see.
At the moment the US government seems to have shut down, so the map below may disappear. Not sure why that means shutting the website down, but maybe there is man powering it using a giant hamster wheel somewhere, who has stayed at home.
Once we entered the park through the big arch, and drove around 500m, we were halted by a traffic ‘freeze’. After looking around, we realised that everyone was watching a mountain goat climb a hill in awe.
There is a lot of this traffic ‘freezing’ across all the national parks so be prepared for this. Eventually, if the traffic doesn’t move, the Rangers come along and tell people to move their cars off the main highway.
Tip 16 – People are fascinated by all and any wildlife. Traffic may freeze for a simple mountain goat. But – the best way to find wildlife is always to look for a traffic jam and join in.
The top of the eight
The north circuit we did, has Mammoth Hot Springs, the Petrified Tree, Sheepeater Cliff, Indian Creek, Roaring Mountain, the Obsidian Cliff, Norris Geyser Basin, and finally Canyon Village with the amazing Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. That should be enough for anyone with the remainder of day 3.
I won’t ruin the excitement of seeing these fantastic things by pasting loads of pictures, but trust me, you are in for a real eye opener. It’s like mixing Mars and Venus on Earth.
Once we finished the north circuit, it was going dark so we drove out of the park to the west of Madison. The sunset was truly amazing and by the time we arrived in West Yellowstone it was dark.
Tip 17 – If staying near Yellowstone make sure you book in advance, even if it on the day, otherwise you may end up sleeping in the car.
The bottom of the eight
Starting early in the morning, we left the hotel and headed back to Madison.
The lower circuit contains, the Fountain Paint Pot, Great Fountain Geyser, Lower, Midway and Upper Geyser Basins, and our main destination – Old Faithful.
Old Faithful is so named because it is regular as clockwork. It goes off every 91 minutes. If therefore you arrive 2 minutes after it goes off, as we did, you need to get busy for the next hour and a half. We went to the gift shop and bought some ice cream – obviously.
Rather thoughtfully, they provide free water top ups in the cafe and shop. You are welcome to fill up all of your water bottles and this is great if you have a few kids.
Tip 18 – Take your water bottles and fill them up at the water dispenser in the cafe.
We got chatting to a few other people while waiting at Old Faithful. They were Aussie bikers and equally jovial, particularly at our shared fascination at Americans.
The allotted time for eruption came and went and less than 5 minutes later, some tourists were leaving disappointed. Human patience shows no bounds and even less logic. Surely if it fails to go off, there is a problem with the Earth which would be of much greater significance than a missing water spout.
After 7 minutes it finally went off, to surprise of many onlookers…
Tip 19 – It will go off. It isn’t triggered using a timer switch.
After OF, we carried on round to West Thumb and Grant Village, beofre heading south out of the south entrance into Grand Teton Park. We basically drove through this, stopping at various points to admire the view and the landscape.
I won’t elucidate about the journeys themselves as we covered 5,000 miles in total and it would get very boring. Wait until you see it for yourself!
Suffice to say Grand Teton has lots of trees.
That evening we were heading for Coalville which is east of Salt Lake City.