In Yellowstone

Well, another day of incredible scenery. One starts to run out of superlatives to describe it.

This morning we did a little shopping and wandered around West Yellowstone. Unlike the last time we were here everything was open. I bought not one but two pouches. They are so useful to use instead of filling pockets.

The plan for today was to end up at Gardiner but take a different route to the one we had done before. The map will show our route.

We went up to Norris and past the superb Norris Geyser Basin - a sight to behold in winter – and on to the Canyon Village. We stopped there for a coffee and went into the visitors centre. The NPS had an exhibition about Yellowstone as a super volcano. There wasn't anything there that we didn't already know but it did have a rather unusual globe of the world. It was a large rock globe, some three feet in diameter, with the land masses etched onto it and the main volcanic areas marked in red. That wasn't the unusual thing about it. It was how they made it rotate. It was totally free to spin any direction as it has was supported and lubricated by water being forced under it so that it sat on a cushion of water. As is the way with such things the little sweet hearts were just making the globe spin faster and faster. I actually wanted to look at. So with one hand I slowed it down and the little oik tried to make it spin. I'm pleased to report that he gave up and disappeared leaving me, tee hee, to look at it properly. It was very easy to manoeuvre and position the right way up and then spend a few minutes actually looking and studying it.

Upstairs they had some very good displays showing where volcanoes and earthquakes had occurred since the 1960s built up on computer screens and a display showing the seismic activity in the area.

On driving out from the Canyon Village we did a tour of the 'Grand Canyon of Yellowstone'. This was an auto-tour, what else in the USA!, and did we encounter slow moving cars and some very odd parking practices. However, the first view we stopped at was at the Virginia Falls. These were magnificent. At some point I will put together a site showing some, not all of the pictures taken as that's the best way to appreciate them. These falls, like the Lewis Falls mark the edge of the Yellowstone caldera. It was like a version of the Grand Canyon in one valley. There were one or two wingey characters of the 'what's so special about these' variety. They wanted to go out on the promontory and do something – like drop off hopefully.

As a side note, some of the areas that we've passed through have been as spectacular as Grand Canyon. Some have been like Death valley with greenery. Quite stunning. What takes one by surprise is the sudden shift in scenery; one minute you're driving through a magnificent, steep sided canyon and then you're out on a plateau and the transition is so sudden.

We didn't stop at all the points as they looked rather crowded and difficult to park sensibly. We got back to the Grand Loop road and towards Dunraven Pass. The roads were steep and twisty but easy enough to drive. We stopped just after the pass for some pictures and as it started to rain decided to head on towards Tower Falls.

Tower Falls was where we had tried to get to last October but failed due to the snow. This time we would make it. Up, down, twisty roads and past Mount Washburn where we stopped and looked out across the main caldera, which is completely covered in trees. Soon we arrived at the Falls and despite it looking busy we stopped and took the requisite pictures. One little thing amused us. We had seen lots of older looking bikers, grey haired, beards, sun glasses, leathers, no helmets, (and that was only the women!) bandanas – basically, the works. Just as we got to the falls there were some bikers putting on white coveralls to keep off the rain! What wimps or didn't they want to get their nice leathers/denims wet?

Again these Falls were fantastic and quite spectacular. As we're going to be heading that way again on the way to Cody we'll probably drop in on them again or at least some of the other viewpoints.

As we swung up towards Mammoth Hot Springs and Gardiner we were travelling on the road that we had planned last October when all the snow stopped us. As we swung around a bend there were the Undine Falls, the furthest that we had got the last time we were here. We pulled off the road and I filmed the falls again but this time we ventured down to the top of the falls and I have gotten some amazing footage of the falls from directly above. They were just as amazing this time as before but easier to get to.

We made our way to Gardiner, stopping off at the same store as last October but the same woman wasn't there. So it was then off to the motel.

Up to Yellowstone from Pinedale

What a day! But before we start on that we've had two injuries. Well, one injury and one assault by a deadly insect. They both occurred two days ago. My partner was bitten on the side of the leg by some dastardly British hating insect! A rather nasty swelling grew but some good British anti-histamine has dealt with that. It just looks a strawberry birth mark at present. The other injury happened just after I had soaked my feet after wearing my new boots. I walked out of the bathroom and someone, who shall remain nameless, had left her bag just outside the bathroom door. The little toe on my left foot made deadly contact with it and I felt the usual sharp pain. I did hop about but refrained from the usual expletives that accompany such acts. It was a few second later that I noticed the little blood splatters on the tiles and then the carpet. On examining my little toe it would seem that not only had I gashed the toe but managed to tear up a piece of the nail. Some additional bathing in water followed by a frantic search for plasters, which were out in the car, an application of the aforementioned plaster and the toe seemed okay. Of course, the only thing now is that i can only wear trainers for a few days.

Back to today. No mistakes in directions today. All we had to do was to follow the route signs for the 191, which we did after breakfast. The tone for breakfast was set when I rescued a lady from the coffee machine when it refused to stop dispensing coffee. To cap that and I had near hysterics over this, everytime the two toasters were used the breakfast room lights went out. It happened not once but twice. At any moment I expected Basil Fawlty to appear muttering about inconsiderate guests and how dare they abuse the toasters. No such thing happened of courseas theduty manager took it all in her stride. Ayway, we set off.

As before the scenery was amazing. Heading out of Pinedale, a town that is trying to make something of itself, the scenery was more varied than entering it. Instead of rather bland, flat land either side, there were cliffs coming down to the road edge and flat land on the other. On our left there were the Tetons looking like a child's drawing of a series of mountains; all sharp peaks and snow on the top, well a bit anyway. Ahead there were more of the same but in the distance. To the right there was flat land and mountains in the distance there too. We managed to keep up a steady speed. The traffic, by UK standards, was quite light. The road was easy to drive and flat.

However, what makes it all so different is the dramatic nature of the scenery. Living in the UK there is no part that hasn't been altered by humans in some way over the last 10,000 years; here it's quite different the scenery has been touched at all in that time and there is little or evidence of human interference despite what one may read elsewhere and even where people have settled, apart from the cities and towns, this is still the big country.

Anyway less of the philosophy and more of what's been happening. We were driving through a canyon, following the course of the Snake River, with sharp cliffs either side and the river below. The towering cliffs were dramatic but softened by the pine tree and then, quite suddenly, we were in the open and there was of greenery, a sure sign of increased population and traffic lights appeared – the first for over 60 miles. We were on the outskirts of Jackson, or Jackson Hole, which ever it is, we were there. Where the traffic came from I've no idea because it certainly wasn't there driving up.

We passed shopping malls and apartments and various turn-offs. Then there appeared a sign to Historic Downtown Jackson. It was amazing from nothing to being in the middle of a hurley-burley of traffic coming at us from all sides; four way junctions; rotund people crossing the roads in strange places; bikers with peculiar walks; it was as if the town was coming to cave in on top of you. Despite a seeming chaos we found a place to park; all very clearly marked and not overly full. We made our way back to the town centre (Historic downtown).

Jackson is a town on 'speed'; every morning it seems that someone injects it with something that makes it go at hyperwarp speed to the ninety nine. The cars, the oversized RV's; the bikers with strangely coloured Harleys (one was pink!); the people of all different shapes, sizes, ages (some very strangely dressed for their age), the different clothes; the stagecoach being hooted at; the hustle and bustle; the shops of over-priced clothes and distinct lack of coffee outlets. The ice cream parlours and distinct lack of What a place! Don't get me wrong; it's not a bad place but it's expensive what with the shops selling overpriced clothes, haute-coutier cowboy clothes is a good one. It's not a cheap town. Anywhere else I think it would have degraded into cheap and tacky but here they've managed to put 5^th Avenue, Oxford Street and Union Square with some elements of the glitz of Las Vegas all into the equivalent of two town squares with the same number of people and it works!

Jackson is not a typical Wyoming town or city by anyone's stretch of imagination but it's wonderful in that way only American can make it.

We left town and headed northwards. We decided to stop about three-quarters of an hour later at Coulter Bay junction where there was somewhere to buy something to eat and drink. Just as I approached the shop a thin little streak of across my path. It was a chipmunk. The man operating the cash till was from Kentucky and we a little chat with him.

We sat outside on a log eating a sandwich, bun and drinking our coffee. It was all very pleasant and cool. After cleaning the windscreen We headed off into the Teton National Park, which had a separate entrance for pass-holders, us – membership has it's privileges. The Tetons were just another point for us before Yellowstone. However, it was a spectacular view and the drive was easy. Through the Teton Pass; not quite the same as other passes we've been over. It was like being in Yellowstone before getting there.

We arrived at the entrance to Yellowstone; had our pass checked and proceeded along through an avenue of pine trees that seem typical of entering this park. Our first stop was going to be Lewis Falls. Nothing spectacular in terms of height, 30 ft, but it marks the edge of the Yellowstone caldera.

As we approached it my partner fell into conversation with a couple from Florida who were doing a year long tour of the USA! What a character the wife was! Very garrulous and interesting with it. We had quite a little talk. She took a picture of us both and we'll probably end up on her blog!

We pulled in at the West Thumb Geyser Basin and had a walk around that. The colours of the water ranged from a startling turquoise blue to reds and oranges. There were little bubbling mud pools and very young geysers. We caught the occasional whiff of a sulphurous air but it was different from last October. There were many more people but it wasn't crowded as I thought it might be and the roads weren't too bad either.

On we headed and stopped next at Old Faithful. The hunt for the webcam was on my mind! Where was it? Anyway, we walked around Old Faithful and found a spot to watch it that was better than the standard view. It was where the expelled water ran into the river. We waited for the next eruption and it was quite as amazing as ever. After a longer delay, after the eruption had subsided, than we imagined the water started to flow and it was quite a little spectacle in itself.

I went into the Visitors Center and actually asked where the cams were and they were quite obvious, once you knew where to look and, I was told, they are hoping to make it a live cam so you can see it happening in real time. Out I went and, much to my partner's embarrassment I paraded up and down in front of the camera; I heard some a family group talking on a cell phone to someone telling them to look at them on the cam!

That kinda ended the day and did the 30 mile drive up to West Yellowstone and found our night's lodging, not quite where the satnav said it would be, hoo-hum.