Yellowstone

North America » United States » Wyoming » Yellowstone National Park » Old Faithful
September 29th 2011

Published: October 9th 2011

[youtube=3Y_cek2ZWis][youtube=Zl3yYs6Muf0][youtube=g08uPbG3S2g][youtube=_CwM-g8xGWw][youtube=DtzoH07Ksm8][youtube=qrp3gV3kbbQ]

Lpaw

Somewhere in the midwest. Iowa, I guess.

I know it was a road trip, but really we didn't feel that excited about pseudomountains in the east. A gazillion acres of golden corn fields in the midwest, though can be quite attractive in the morning and late afternoon sun, just didn't have enough grip to draw us. Why bother taking pictures then, so we didn't. All you'll see in this entry is Yellowstone. Yes, there were a lot to see there and we didn't even have time to do some real hiking. The greatest extent of hiking we did was hiking down to lower Yellowstone Falls. Distance wasn't an issue, but boy! steepness was a whole different story. One third of the way down, the trail was made of metal staircase leading way down to the canyon. When I got jello legs and knees and my fear of height was about to conquer me, I looked down, held on to the rail, though loosely, and kept going. Approaching the overlook of the falls, a band of rainbow welcomed me through an opening of pines. The next steps revealed awe-inspiring views of the falls. It was breathtaking and definitely worth having my blood pressure raised. Looking up, I could see

Grand Teton, Jackson, WY

Grand Teton in the background.

pin-sized people taking in majestic views from up top.

Yellowstone is a geyser land. They're pretty much everywhere. Doug lost an interest in them after the sun got stronger. Understood, it was not exactly pleasant to walk through steam in the hot sun. We didn't a complete upper ring of the route and hope that we could come back and finish the rest plus get some real hiking done.

I was quite impressed with how convenient it was to find restrooms. About every 15-20 min drive, you'll find restrooms. Some of them the whole structure was the restroom and nothing else attached to or near it. Same doesn't go with food. We couldn't find even a snack stand in what appeared to be semi-major stops, so keep food/snacks handy with you.

The park hotel where we stayed at for a night sucked. Apart from having a shelter to cover our heads, the quality was far from the quality of a $170/night resort. The restaurant was on the same par. It's amazing how a $50 dinner provided you with what feels like a dorm food quality. I wish the park has a better way to get their quality

Grand Teton

someone was enjoying the views in the field.

up to par with privately run resorts. I usually am willing to drive into national parks and stay outside of the parks just to keep costs down, but in this case the park was very big that it'd take an hour just to drive in to see major attractions.

Additional photos below

Photos: 33, Displayed: 23