Trippy Yellowstone

Being on holidays makes it really hard to remember what day it is! We normally try to do the more touristy things during the week so that we don’t have to deal with massive crowds, but it doesn’t always work out. We headed up to Yellowstone on a Sunday, which was mistake number 1. J and I both woke up on the wrong side of the bed, so by the time we’d driven for 2 hours we both majorly had our grump on! In hindsight we should have stayed in the park (or at least West Yellowstone) for a night, instead of being based in Jackson the whole time (mistake number 2). We didn’t realize quite how far it was between the major attractions in both parks.

Once we got to Old Faithful we grabbed a hiking map, went back to the car to change shoes, and then went for a walk. Neither of us was very excited by it all to start with! We went to Castle Geyser first. The major geysers can be fairly predictable, and Castle generally erupts every 14 hours, and they normally predict the next eruption to within 2 hours or so. We were within a 2 hour window, and were discussing whether we should hang around and wait when it started! After the morning we’d had I wasn’t expecting much, but it went from this:

To this!

There’s nothing like an explosion of steam and water to really lift the mood! We walked the whole trail around the geysers and hot springs, and took about a thousand photos. The colours at the springs are insane, because of heat loving bacteria. It was all incredibly beautiful.

After walking the whole trail (which wasn’t really a trail), we went back to the lodge to eat lunch. I can’t get over the facilities in American National Parks; in Australia you’re lucky to get a long drop toilet, and maybe an information centre! We definitely don’t have restaurants or accommodation in our parks. The parks in the US are very accessible, but I sometimes get less of a sense of accomplishment when you can drive up and practically take the photograph from your car.

We checked out most of the geothermal features near Old Faithful, but we didn’t watch the most famous geyser in the world. There was a little bit of a wait, and it was super crowded so we decided to keep going, and headed up to Prismatic Spring. So pretty! The wind and steam made it really hard to get a good photo…

My favourite features were probably the paint pots. It’s like watching a hypnotic horror movie, watching them bubble away. Boiling mud: very bizarre.

When we were planning our trip, J spent a lot of time researching grizzlies. He was convinced we were going to get eaten, which meant he was NOT keen on doing much hiking.

The most abundant wildlife that we saw were the Bison. We saw a few individual beasts, and a couple small herds. When we were getting close to Mammoth Hot Springs we came upon a line of stopped traffic near a bridge, and there was an RV in front of us so we couldnt see what was going on. The cars eventually started moving forward very slowly, and then we saw it – a buffalo leading a cavalcade of cars soming toward us! The buffalo obviously thinks it owns the road (and it’s probably right).

The northern end of the park wasn’t all that interesting. The highlight was buying some pretzels and Gatorade. I guess the Terraces are cool – they’re mainly grey/white, with occasional vibrant splashes of colour.

We managed to see a black bear further along on our loop around the park, but the traffic jam that it caused was ridiculous so we kept going. It was pretty cute, and not very scary from a distance. I’m sure someone else in the crowd would run slower than me and get eaten first if the bear got angry!

My advice to anyone visiting Yellowstone is to spend at least 2 days there, to stay in the park and get up early. Everything’s nice and peaceful in the mornings. We left the hotel at 7am, and didn’t get back until 8pm. It was an epic day! The pizza that we ate for dinner was demolished in about 3 seconds flat. I don’t know if it was delicious, or if we were just ravenous.

And now, here’s a photo of a moose.

Tetons – aka my favourite mountains

When my in-laws drove past the Tetons at this time last year, the mountains we hidden behind rain and clouds. We were just a little bit concerned that we’d have the same experience, especially when our view driving in looked like this:

Luckily the weather gradually improved over the course of the day. It is an incredible mountain range, they rise dramatically from the valley floor, and their silhouette against the sky is harsh and beautiful.

Lunchtime:

Later in the afternoon:

After we checked in to our hotel I managed to convince J to go to Bubba’s BBQ for dinner, because it had been recommended to us by a Lander local. I normally wouldn’t suggest going somewhere that primarily serves meat, but if there is a novelty factor I will likely be interested!

The food was ok, better than our last experience of American BBQ in Kanab last year. We probably could have shared a meal, and still had food left over! After dinner we went out for a couple drinks, and ended up at the tackiest place in the world! The entire place is covered in kitschy cowboy paraphernalia – they even go as far as having saddles to sit on at the bar instead of stools.

We headed to Yellowstone the following day. I’ll write about it separately otherwise this post is going to be epic!

Monday was our final day in Jackson, and we decided to spend it back at the Tetons again. We didnt really do any hiking in the Tetons, because of signs like this:

I wanted to take a photo at every single nice viewing spot, but my camera had different ideas – it ran out of battery! J’s got a better camera than me, but we usually end up with slightly different photos so I normally like seeing both. I managed to snap a few pics before it died completely – and I actually had to think about what I was taking, rather than taking a million photos to choose between later!

We ate late lunch at a hippy cafe back in Jackson. It’s hard to eat enough veggies when you’re on holidays, and I start craving them pretty quickly! A huge bowl of salad and a gigantic smoothie was exactly what I needed. J paid me out he whole time we were there, because he knew I’d be in love with the place!

When we were at the cafe I noticed a place next door called The Kitchen. It looked really cool, so after checking reviews on Tripadvisor and Yelp we decided to try it out. It was the best meal of the entire trip! They were offering tasting plates for May/June for $11 each, and they suggested 3-4 plates between the 2 of us. The menu varies from raw fish to slow cooked red meat, with really good quality ingredients. We started with a zucchini and seaweed raw salad, followed by pan seared tuna and then red deer. After 3 plates we could have stopped eating, but the food was so good we couldn’t help but try something else! We finished off with grilled calamari. My only regret was not leaving room for dessert…

Next up: Yellowstone!

We’re now back from our trip – I’ll catch up on the rest of the trip ASAP!

Wild West Wyoming: Estes Park to Lander

Friday was a big day of driving, and it was time for a brief change in scenery. Wyoming is a state of wide open plains, and big blue sky, and lots of cows.

Instead of driving the whole way on the interstate, we decided to take a scenic detour via the Snowy Range Scenic Byway. I’m not sure where I read about it, but it was worth the extra miles. Like the Trail Ridge Road, it goes close to 12000 feet, and still had fairly deep snow drifts on the sides of the road. Unlike the Trail Ridge Road, it was very isolated! We saw maybe 4 other cars the whole way.

Once we got back on the main highway, we decided to stop at Rawlins for lunch. For some reason Navigon decided to send us on another scenic detour – this time through Sinclair. All that’s at Sinclair is an oil refinery, really not very exciting to look at… Thanks Navigon!

When we got to Lander it was early in the afternoon, so we decided to check out the local sights.

 

We headed a couple miles out of town to Sinks Canyon State Park, where the Popo Agie river flows underground for 1/4 mile through sandstone. It was a relaxing afternoon, and it was good to get out of the car for a while.

We went out for dinner at Cowfish, which (big surprise) serves mainly beef and seafood. The story behind the name is that the cowboys used to tell stories about ‘the cow that got away’ – they’d be chasing after a cow and it would jump into the river and disappear! Whatever the story is, they serve pretty good food. Plus great margaritas!

Next up: Grand Teton and Yellowstone