Continuing on from way back in December of 2009 to hopefully complete the story of our trip to Yellowstone-Glacier and Grand Tetons NPs.
Given that this trip of ours is more than a year old, I think of this as probably a futile exercise but nevertheless, I shall try to take it past the finish line, with whatever I can remember from the trip. I guess sometimes its just the matter of finishing, not finishing first!! (Does this qualify as digression btw?? especially if one has not yet started!! Additionally, maybe this is after all relevant for acknowledging the current situation)
So there we were finally in Yellowstone. The grand daddy of em all, as far as Volcanoes are concerned. So much so it is called a Super Volcano!! The entire park of Yellowstone is a large caldera, which explains the fuming mudpots and steaming geysers found in the only region in the North American Continent!!
So there we were up and about bright and early from the most expensive hotel of our entire trip (not to mention the most useless of the entire list) to catch wildlife action early on. Stopped over at the nearest shop and obtained the bug/mosquito spray.
Whats that?? Mosquitos in USA u ask?? Oh hell yeah! Tons of them in this forest, not to mention each the size of (or probably greater than) a pea. But then equally slow, so if you set your mind, you can most certainly blast a few of them with your hands. Although they are far too great in number for you to even make an impact and not get bitten! Well anyway...
Off we went and no sooner had we started, we came to a screeching halt! Great big Bull Elk, along with a couple of she-elks with lustrous brown coat and majestic antlers. Awe struck, it took us quite some time after many happy clicks before we proceeded any further!
We decided to spend the first two days sight seeing the geysers, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Mammoth Springs before devoting the last three days purely to spot wildlife. Best strategy we ever took, you will know soon enough why in forthcoming posts.
The Geyser basin was pretty awesome, Old Faithful was indeed old faithful, exploding right on time. FYI it is really not the widest or the tallest geyser in this entire NP. However this is the one that is perfectly predictable and hence its fame. One more thing to be added regarding Old Faithful is that it is slowly losing time. It used to be around 60mins in the first half of 1900s but now it has extended to 90mins. But still very predictable (OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER). Crowd slowly fills in and gathers itself around the geyser and watches it erupt slowly but spectacularly. If you are lucky and you are in right direction to the sun, you may catch a glimpse of rainbow.
The rest of the day was spent check out the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and the beautiful artistic point. Hiking some more Geyser basins. Seeing the Grand Prismatic Spring and then finally the Morning Glory. Along the way we saw soo many bisons that it ceased to be a thrill anymore, except one decided to play traffic cop and stop traffic in both directions, till a Park ranger came and made it move off the road. A big salute to the rangers for being bold enough to tackle these 1 ton beasts. I doubt, I would even make a move towards them.
We drove off towards West Yellowstone in the evening and again spotting a Elk herd near Madison river and a Bald Eagle Nesting along the way, where we were not allowed to halt, so as to not disturb the bird.
The room in West Yellowstone was nice and peaceful. We had our usual fare of Indian food of Readymade paratas, some frozen sabji and some rice and hit the sack early once again.
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