Yellowstone National Park

It was snowing heavily as we ground slowly up the high pass that would lead us out of the Yellowstone Caldera into Montana. We had spent a fantastic week in Yellowstone National Park and were at last heading for warmer weather.

On our last day at Grand Teton NP we had gone riding (we have become fond of trail riding!) through the lodgepole pine forests around Jackson Lake. We were the only ones wearing riding helmets. We have noticed a very lackadaisical attitude to horse and especially motorbike helmets in the States. The majority of states do not make it compulsory to wear a helmet so no-one does. Coming off a bike at 6o mph without a helmet is going to leave you pretty much brain dead. Why States don't make it compulsory to save your self and wear a helmet is beyond us esp. as most states have compulsory seat belt wearing laws. Possibly the motorbike lobby is very strong?

Yellowstone NP is a very big park, about 50 miles by 50 miles and situated on a plateau of the High Rockies, surrounded by mountains and with a huge caldera in the middle, a remain of an ancient eruption. It is a haven for wildlife esp. bison and bears. Bison were everywhere and at times we had to stop to let them cross the roads.

The weather was perfect but well below freezing at night. On our first day we drove to the Old Faithful Geyser Area. There were hundreds of tourists all sitting on the benches awaiting the next eruption. It was fantastic to see it erupt almost on time.

Then all the tourists bundled into their buses and cars and we went on a five mile walk almost by ourselves along the valley past even more spectacular geysers. We were very lucky. All the geysers have different cycles - some 90 minutes and some only once a day. We were lucky to see Grand Geyser erupt, followed by Riverside Geyser (below). There are so many geysers it was almost beyond comprehension.

Yellowstone has many different thermal areas with Old Faithful being the most famous. Certainly Rotorua in NZ more than rivals it for mud pools, terraces, fumaroles but Yellowstone has with out a doubt the world's best array of geysers.

In our seven days in Yellowstone we saw all the thermal areas and some lovely hot pools. The yellowy colour in the pools below is a cyanobacteria that lives there quite happily breaking down Hydrogen Sulfide and turning it into sulphuric acid.

The other main highlight of the Yellowstone area is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River which plunges through the caldera in two magnificent falls then carves it wave through a deep narrow canyon as it fights it way North to join the Missouri River.

The Norris Geyser Basin is another fabulous area in the park home to the world's highest geyser that alas blows very seldom these days.

On the days we weren't geyser watching we went wildlife watching. Saw lots of bears.

As the snow eased on the high pass into Montana, we were at last back in our home state where in 2011 we had bought the Chevy Silverado and started our long trek around the USA and Canada. After the high desert of Utah a couple of weeks ago, we were now in a green and pleasant land with flowing rivers and cattle ranches. We arrived at our lovely campsite in Big Timber, Montana where we setup alongside the fast flowing Boulder River, a tributary of the Yellowstone River. Idyllic!

We shall enjoy all that Montana has to offer over the next two weeks before we head into Canada.

Arches and Temples

Moab, Utah is billed as the outdoors activity centre for Western USA and it sure has lots of things to do. Our campground was filled with Jeeps that were taken off road into the amazing red canyons that surround Moab. There are extensive mountain bike trails, walking trails and the most fabulous scenery to top it all off.

It was a nice campground but filled as all the campgrounds are with dogs. I would say 90% of campers have dogs and of those 50% have more than one dog, sometimes three. And at times they can be a real nuisance especially when our site is next to a yappy dog. Americans seem to have an obsession with dogs unlike other countries. Yesterday we saw a medium sized dog in a pushchair being taken into a restaurant where apparently that was OK for it to be at the table in the pushchair being given the odd snack while mama and papa ate their meal. 

The first day in Moab we drove into Canyonlands NP and visited a small part of it called Island in the Sky, a huge mesa cut off by the Colorado River and its tributary the Green River. It was a very clear day and we could see hundreds of miles.

We hiked to an arch called Mesa Arch but unfortunately I was too busy looking down to make sure I didn't trip that I didn't notice a sharp branch above me and when I straightened up it gouged my scalp very badly. Luckily there was a nurse nearby and she had some paper towels to mop up the blood and said that she thought it wouldn't need stitches so we drove home for more considered repairs.

After a day at rest we returned to sightseeing and went to Arches NP where there are over 2500 arches. We only saw a few. We hiked up to see Window Arches

Then we saw one of the most famous  - Delicate Arch

and then did a long hike to see the longest arch in the world, Landscape Arch.

Arches NP is a true wonder of the world. Not just the arches but the lovely smooth rounded red rock called slick rock that is everywhere.  We got into the park early as even out of the main season it was very crowded by lunchtime and parking spaces were difficult to find by the main sights.


Then alas it was time to move North to Salt Lake City. Not a lot to see there but time to relax and stop up for the next sate of our journey./ We visited downtown SLC and saw the amazing State Capitol modelled after the one in Washington DC. SLC is bounded on one side by the snow capped Wasatch Mountains the most westerly range of the Rockies and on the other side by hundreds of miles of desert.

We went into the Mormon temple square but were not allowed to visit the temple as we were not Mormons. 

We caught up on the history of the Mormons and the great trek from persecution in the eastern USA until Brigham Young the leader arrived at the spot below and proclaimed 'This is the right place" and so they settled.  There is a State park at the spot called "This is the The Right Place" with lots of statues and a view out over the Great Salt Lake.

Not a must see place SLC but a convenient stopover on the way North where were heading.

After a long long drive from SLC we arrived at the Grand Teton NP just south of Yellowstone NP in Wyoming. And what a place. The warm weather we had been enjoying for the past month has gone. It gets down to freezing at night and high sixties during the day. But the scenery is majestic. We are camped right on Jackson lake and this is the view from the edge of the lake.

The Teton range rise straight from a bowl in the mountains (called a hole in these here parts). We are surrounded on all sides by high mountains but the Tetons are the biggest and most majestic with Grand Teton rising over 13000 ft. Snowed capped with glaciers flowing down their sides they rise above the hole for some 50 miles. The continental divide is just  few miles away. The Grand Teton NP drains via the Snake River to the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean while over the hill in Yellowstone  NP the waters drain via the Yellowstone River to the Missouri River and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.

Yellowstone NP is next.