One Day In Yellowstone

After the weddings in Wyoming and Idaho I decided to make a quick trip up to Yellowstone. I had been to Jackson Hole and seen the Grand Tetons but I had never had the chance to see Yellowstone, even though it is only a few hours north. I couldn't stand being so close and not seeing Yellowstone so I made the trip up and spent about 24 hours in the park.

The animal life in Yellowstone is impressive. There is an abundance and the animals are quite accessible. You can see a lot from the car without having to head into the backcountry.



Of course, having large animals around also means that there is the potential for displays of human stupidity, of which I witnessed an abundance. First, most of the roads are two lanes. Whenever there was an animal near the road, cars on both sides would come to a complete stop, completely blocking traffic. Now, if it was something truly spectacular then I could understand the inconvenience, but most of the time people were simply looking at one of dozens of elk along the road. Second, there are hundreds of warnings in the park to avoid getting close to large animals. They are unpredictable wild things, even though they look nice and friendly while they lazily nibble the grass. At least half a dozen times I saw people getting within 10' of large animals, like elk and bison. If the animals got nervous those people could be very seriously hurt. It is surprising to me that more people aren't killed in Yellowstone.

One thing I didn't realize about Yellowstone is that it is one of the world's largest active volcanos. There are hot springs and geysers all over the place in the park.



Old Faithful was a bit of a disappointment. You wait around with some 2000-3000 other people and wait for the water to shoot up. It feels more like a tourist trap and less like a spectacle of nature. I imagine that it is much more impressive to see some of the geysers go off in less crowded environs.



One highlight was that I took the time to climb to the top of Mt. Washburn so I could get a good look at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was about 6 miles round trip and took a few hours, but the views were great.







And I took one self portrait to prove that I was really there.



I left Yellowstone to the south so that I could pass through Jackson Hole. I love Jackson Hole and the surrounding area. Driving away from Yellowstone I was suddenly presented with a number of enormous granite peaks. The Grand Tetons are simply amazing.




Here is the full album of my photos from Yellowstone:

Yellowstonee