Monday, June 4, 2012


My wife and I just returned from our visit to Yellowstone National Park (and surrounding area).  I've heard about Yellowstone all of my life but never been there.  The place is truly spectacular, but we even enjoyed the scenery just inside Wyoming.  It's a beautiful place.
The park is huge.  There's no way to go there in a day and see it all.  You really need a minimum of three days to see the place, and four days would probably be better, especially with children.

Although you can see some natural elements similar to what you find in Yellowstone, Yellowstone is truly unique with the combination of so much in one place, and then there's the wildlife.
Most of the park is situated over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super-volcano in North America.  The caldera is considered to be active, but there hasn't been an eruption in thousands of years.  Half of the geothermal features in the world, are situated at Yellowstone.  Besides "Old Faithful", there are many geyers in the park that bubble up with beautiful blue water and orange, yellow, and rust colored minerals lining each pool.  They are very photogenic.

18th century French trappers called the place Roche Jaune.  The are said to have translated from the Minnetaree people who named it "Mi tsi a da zi", which means "Rock Yellow River".  Later, the French translated it to English as "Yellow Stone".  However, once you see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, you have little doubt how the area got its name.

My wife and I visited during the last week of May, which is right before the official tourist season for Yellowstone begins.  As a result, some of the seasonal activities at Yellowstone (and Cody) were not open yet.  However, prices are right during that time and the crowds are a little better.  The downside is that our first day there, the park was closed because of snow the night before. However, the next three days were open and we managed to travel a "loop" a day within the park, and managed to see the major (and many minor) sites.

First of all, I want to mention that the price at the gate is $15 for a car.  However, if you get a seven-day pass, it's only $25, and since we were going to visit for three days, that's what we chose.  It's was a bargain.  You get a map of the park when entering, and this is helpful in determining which "loop" you will take for that day.   On our first day, we took the loop where the geysers were the featured attraction.  Of course we visited "Old Faithful".  My wife took video of the eruption and we watched it shoot water 150 feet into the area.  It was quite dramatic, having smaller eruptions at first, and then slowly building to the bigger eruptions, which lasted over a minute.
We were told that Old Faithful erupts approximately every hour and a half, although that time might vary so it's good to ask a park ranger when you are there and find out when the last was so you have an idea when to be watching.

My favorite geysers though, were not Old Faithful.  That's one to visit because it's famous and we were at the park; so we felt compelled to go; but my favorite geyers were the smaller ones that merely bubbled and steamed a little.  The minerals in the water gave off a pretty blue hue, with yellow and rust colors along the edges of each pool.  They were gorgeous; definitely photogenic and photos don't do justice to how beautiful they were.

The loop we took on our second day in the park, was in and around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  Wow.  That was amazing.  There are different locations along both sides of the canyon which provide great overlooks at the falls, and the river at different points (and elevations).

I should mention that Yellowstone Lake was awesome in itself.  It's beautiful.  That blue water was so pretty and we were just amazed at how large this lake was, and we'd barely heard of it prior to our visit.  I should also mention that whether you are at the lake, along the geyers, or around the canyon area, you will see wildlife.  We mostly saw bison and geese in prolific numbers.  I was amazed at how many we saw, and there are no fences or restrictions of these animals.  You will encounter them on your visits, photograph them, but not approach them.  They are wild animals.  They are used to seeing people, but they are not used to people approaching them too closely.

I got a laugh when I saw signs in the park saying that there's a $5000 fine for feeding the bears.  I kept thinking that death was a bigger penality than a $5000 fine.  I guess they fine you $5000 if you live through feeding the bears.

For the record, we never saw black bears while we were there, but we saw people looking into a wood area as we arrived at one place, and they said that there'd been a black bear there just a minute or two before.  We did see some grizzly bears about 150 yards from the road on our last day in the park.  That was great.  I wish they'd been closer, but I'm glad they weren't too close.  They were minding their own business and we were watching from afar.  I'm sure the bears knew we were there though.

Our last day in the park was in the northern loop, which took us up to the Mammoth area.  We saw the springs there, and then stopped for lunch.  After lunch, we saw deer in the middle of town, not far from our parked car, eating dandelions and grass.   And then not far from people eating lunch at a picnic table, there were three bison munching on the grass.  Two locked horns and appeared to be fighting, but then one rolled over on his back, and it was clear that they were playing.

After seeing this place, I am really awestruck at how beautiful a place it is, and also how important a resource it is.  I think it is a shame that so many Americans have neither taken the time to visit, or just don't have the money to travel that far (as was the case for my family for most of my time growing up).  As an adult, I now realize that I should've visited Yellowstone much sooner.  I can't say that I'm without words (obviously), but it is difficult for me to describe the depth of my feelings about experiences during my visit.  My descriptions are at a high level, but the words really can't capture the feelings I had even afterwards.  Maybe in a few months, reflection will give me some words.  Right now, I can only tell you that I highly recommend visiting Yellowstone National Park, and I have already told my wife that we have to return in a year or two.

Below are links to the photos I took on each day of our trip: