Day 55 - Yellowstone National Park

North America » United States » Montana » West Yellowstone
November 26th 2011

Published: November 26th 2011

I woke up and headed to the toilet where Steve soon joined me. He looked a little pissed as he was desperately trying to dry his trainers with the hand blower. Turns out that whilst the rest of us took cover from the rain the previous night, Steve and the rest of Group C still had the washing up to do. The small room on the block that could be used for washing up could only take one person in it, and there was no hot water.

Basically the four of them had to take it in turns standing in the room washing up whilst the rest stood out in the rain getting drenched and trying to dry up.

Steve was really pissed, and was slowly calming down as Todd and I apologised for their predicament.

Another early start as we headed further into Yellowstone. We parked up in an open car park with a toilet block, with the start of the hike on the other side of the road. As soon as we crossed the road and started the hike, there was a report of a bear in the immediate vicinity. The trail straightaway cuts in between two large bushes and trees, and it turned out that as we made our way through, the bear had wandered around the other side of the bush and onto the road, so we had missed it by seconds.

As the trail dissects a large open meadow, we were soon caught up by Kylie and Scott who were now running. They had fallen behind straightaway as Scott needed to tie his laces or something. Because of this, they were actually 20 yards from the bear, and were able to get some photos. Their mistake was to then run away from the bear as it got closer, which we had been told you should never do. They got lucky this time!

Whilst we made our way across the meadow, Mark went way off trail and headed way out to our right to try and track where the bear had come from and to see if he can see any more. Disappointingly he trapes back to join the group as we carried on. Pretty soon we headed through a small wooded area and came out at Clear Lake, which given its name was perfectly clear. Sadly there was a slight smell of sulphur, and as we carried on, we came out into an opening of sulphur pits like the ones we saw the previous day. This time there was no wooden track for us to follow, and we had to navigate through the white parts of the pits. The smell was so rotten that I held my breath towards the end of the course as I couldn’t stand anymore.

Soon after the pits, and through another wooded area, we suddenly came out to the Yellowstone “Grand Canyon” and what a sight it is. Glorious yellow sand and earth cover the other side of the canyon, with pine trees at the top, and some growing further down into the canyon.

At the bottom of the canyon, you can see, and hear, the water of Yellowstone River zigzagging through the canyon and through the valley beyond. Whilst we had stopped for some photos, Mark had made his way further along the ridge, and we soon followed to get a better view of the canyon and river flowing at the bottom of it. It really was a tremendous sight. Pulling myself, eventually, away from the view and to catch up with the others, we soon wind through more trails in the trees until we reached another landmark of the park.

There was a small viewpoint that looks out at Yellowstone Falls, and as soon as it’s visible it just takes your breath away. There was a better isolated viewpoint a few steps to our right, but the view from either place was wonderfully amazing. It really captured what this place is about.

We eventually moved on from the viewpoint and made our down and up through the woodland before finally reaching the car park once again, having just completed one impressive loop!

Norris Geyser Basin was next on the route, a large area of a dozen or so geysers and springs which were all bubbling a lot as we walked around. Sadly there were all unpredictable, with no idea of when any were likely to go off. The Group was split up on this walk, and I found myself walking around slowly on my own. I even passed 2 Asian tourists with one doing his impression of Yogi Bear! I laughed because we’d all been doing it for the past few days as we reached Yellowstone. The geysers and springs were pretty cool to look at, but it soon got to a point when you’re pretty much looking at the same thing over and over.

Next was the Grand Prismatic Spring, another one of Yellowstone’s main attractions. The colours were varied and vivid, and the obvious signs all around the walkway pointing out not to step off the boards was ignored as some dick of a dad tried to show off to his son and stand on the fragile crust right by the walkway. He was barraged with abuse by many other tourists berating him for recklessly showing off.

Finally we headed to the pièce de résistance of the day – Old Faithful. Todd said that this place was unlike the rest of the Park, with the tourist side of the venue really built up over the years, so much so that it was likened to Disneyland. When we arrived we saw why. Rows and rows off hundreds of RVs parked up with many shops and stores to the left. As we walked through the car park to our right, we came up to the centre which provided the important information of Old Faithful’s times of the day. Only 200 yards further ahead was the edge of the site of the geyser and the circus that comes with it. As we sat on the low wall that surrounds the centre, we waited for Todd to return with maps and guides and the important information of when Old Faithful would next erupt. Turned out we just missed the last explosion, and knowing that there is around 90 minutes or so before the next one, we made our plans of where we would witness it from. Right in front of us was the small grandstands erected for the crowds, which had already gathered its next lot of spectators. Even in the now blazing sun, they were getting their seats 90 minutes in advance – crazy fools!

We could either hang around there and try and get a seat right at the geyser, or there was another viewpoint up to the right that looks down on it all, which Kylie, Mark, Sumi, Steve, Kristina, Joanna and I made our way up the mile or so climb to get to. Kylie had been here before and told us that it really is more impressive right down at the base of it, but we wanted to take in the experience up here.

As we walked up, my phone suddenly burst into life with a voice message. It was Frances, my sister, just checking on me having just heard about the bear attack that occurred outside Yellowstone the other night. I don’t know when the message was left as signal there had been nonexistent. She wanted me to text asap before Mum saw the report herself in the paper and perhaps cause panic. So straight away I send a text, whether or not it was before Mum had read the report, I don’t know.

I also received a similar message from Andi on the journal just making sure I was OK. It was nice to know that people were keeping an eye on my travels and were concerned about reports like that one. Of course, I am of the mindset that nothing terrible like a bear attack, or some sort of disaster, will ever happen to me.

We were waiting around for 20 minutes or so, which enabled us to get comfortable and test our camera’s burst shots.

Eventually the time ticked down to the expected time, and pretty soon the blank sight of the earth far below was soon filled slowly as steam started appearing from the geyser. The expectation had picked up, but the small bellow of steam didn’t increase after a few minutes, before finally Old Faithful finally lived up to its name, as steam and water spewed up and out into the open, reaching higher and higher. The excitement also got higher and higher as the main billing had finally arrived.

Cameras were going off everywhere, and I took 50+ burst shots of Old Faithful in its element. I wondered what the view was like at the bottom, and wondered if it beat this view looking down on it.

Eventually Faithful finished her latest showing, and the crowds quickly dispersed. Kylie, Mark and Sumi then decided to take the small hike from here to our next stop some 3 or 4 miles away, whilst the rest of us headed back down and took in the tourist trap of the place.

Obviously it was heaving as everyone was getting out of the sun, buying their souvenirs and ice creams. Out on the front porch of the shops, we found Zach, Scott and Annabel on rocking chairs just chilling with some ice cream of their own. Turned out they watched the eruption from there.

We soon headed back to the campsite for a shower and chilled evening. Todd had to drive us to the shower and washing machine building a mile or so away.

When we all came out after our 25 cents for 5 minutes of shower, Todd read us a report about the much talked about bear attack the eve of our arrival into the Park.

Turned out the attack happened outside of Yellowstone in Montana, in fact quite a distant from Yellowstone. The bear attacked and killed the fishermen as we all knew, but there was also another bear attack at some RV park, where the bear attacked a 15 year old. I’m pleased to say the boy survived, punching the bear on the nose to get it to run off. We all felt proud and happy for the kid, and joked about what we would do if a bear came near us. I hope that we never experience anything like that though.

Zach finally introduced beer pong to Steve, Scott, Mark and I and we ended up having a few games during the evening.

Anyway I’m pleased to say Steve and I beat Scott and Zach twice, though Zach was not happy at the levels of beer in each of our cups.

Whilst Todd and most of the girls headed to the van to watch some chick flick, Steve, Scott, Zach and I stayed outside on the logs around the fire we started, just talking and drinking a lot of beer. It really was a manly evening as anything and everything was discussed with much banter thrown around.

The girls later commented that we looked so cute out there having our man chat.

Day 55 - Yellowstone National Park

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