Yellowstone
Categories: holidays
Date: 18 January 2009 04:43:28
There are some places you go to with massive expectations -- and then experiencing that place you are disappointed. Yellowstone National Park was not such a place. What I saw and experienced was far beyond my even wildest expectations.
All I knew of Yellowstone was, excluding Yogi Bear [whom I never saw btw -- perhaps there was some disappointment :)], Old Faithful -- the geyser that erupts every 90 minutes or so. And, except in the dim light of dawn, I did not even see it! My time was taken with other activities that the thing I went for, the only thing I knew about Yellowstone, I only heard one night and "saw" [barely] the next morning. Oh well. An excuse to go back. I will say, though; standing in the freezing darkness on your own and hearing a geyser erupt is a most wondrous experience. Yes, many people, many millions, have seen and heard it; but being on your own, or with two others as happened the next morning when I willed the sun to rise earlier so I could see it, is something special.
And it was rather chilly. As I waited to board the bombadier to take me to the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, the temperature was hovering around 0. Oh, thought I; not as bad as I thought. Until I saw it was 0 Fahrenheit [-18 Celcius]. I was to see temperatures around this mark quite frequently; and it gave me a laugh, resident of a sun-soaked country as I am, to see that -7C to -18C was merely Moderate.
These are cold temperatures, and they were rather chilly for me -- not only as I do not experience them, but as I have written previously, my luggage [wherein my thermals were] got lost and I had to make do with jeans, a shirt, a jumper and a coat -- thankfully I had my gloves and beanie. I still went out and about though; no use stopping a holiday. I did, however, cancel a "Stars and Steam Tour" -- being out in the day was one thing; at night, another. Far nicer to be in my room or in the lodge by a fire.
But when I was out, even the view from the bombardier of the road was superb. Snow does make all look new.
The accommodation, the Old Faithful Lodge, was superb. The food: large again, but delicious. And a great variety of food and a great atmosphere in the dining room. The staff were exceptionally friendly, and I got talking to people beside me including two couples from the Netherlands and a woman originally from Brisbane who was here with her Californian partner. On a tour I saw other accommodation [closed in winter though], Lake Village on the shores of Lake Yellowstone being one of them.
I also had my first ever massage after getting over initial fears and the dislike of being touched [being part of an Arabic church helps with that somewhat too -- rather tactile people as a rule!] And I am glad I did. A wonderful relaxant and I felt as though I was floating on air for several hours afterwards before I hit the sack.
But back to the park. I had heard tell there was the possibility of seeing some animals. I did not expect to see as many as I did -- and of such great variety. At a distance I saw elk, a coyote, a bald eagle and some beavers fishing and enjoying their catch -- the latter through a scope which I wasn't quite able to catch properly but have showed my effort anyway.
Closer-up, as well as trumpeter geese [well named! they were rather noisy] and ducks, we saw bison. Truly majestic creatures, and great movers of snow with those large heads of theirs as they seek vegetation.
Though this close-up view of the bison paled somewhat the next day when, on our way out to West Yellowstone, we had to stop due to a rather large number of bison on the road in front of us. The bombardiers have two hatches on the roof you can open so we took turns popping our heads up and having a look [probably not a good idea to get out with them!]
As I said above, beyond my wildest imagings. What a blessing indeed.
And then there were the natural wonders: cliffs, canyons, waterfalls, geysers, hot springs and more. In my ignorance I only knew of Old Faithful, and as marvellous as it may be, there are many more wonders to see in Yellowstone. And with many places inaccessible due to the snow, and my limited time there, there was far more I did not see. Yellowstone is definitely a place I will be trying to get back to in the future: it is truly a most wondrous and amazing place in its beauty and diversity.
Yellowstone has its own canyon; nowhere near the size of the Grand Canyon, but just as amazing to me. And beautiful partially covered in snow, with the yellow rocks sticking out and shining in the sunlight, and a waterfall, freezing over in the winter temperatures, in the background.
There is a surprising amount of water still running; parts of it are frozen over, but there are a number of rivers, not all thermal, and ducks and geese can still be found in some of them.
Yellowstone sits atop an active volcano, and parts of the crater were pointed out to me while I was on tours. This active movement is what produces the wonderful geysers, hot springs, fumaroles [steam vents] and mudpots. The geysers may be spectacular, but I found the hot springs fascinating -- different microorganisms live at different temperatures and due to their large numbers we see them as masses of colours, so there are an array of different coloured hot springs depending on what microorganisms live there. And based on the colour you can determine the temperature of the hot spring. And, yes, some of these thermal features do smell, stink even. But that is well worth seeing the likes of these.
The walk around the geysers at West Thumb was particularly nice as we walked along Yellowstone Lake, and then escape the cold in one of Yellowstone's many Warming Huts -- and more interesting vending machines like the one I saw at the Grand Canyon. You can also see how quickly the fog and clouds can part to show a blue sky, and then grey over again in a seeming instant.
God's Creation is truly awe-some, fascinating and wondrous in its diversity.
As well as the geothermal features, the surround of Yellowstone itself were extremely picturesque. Yellowstone suffered some severe fires in 1998 and while regeneration is a slow progress, and many of the burnt trees can still be seen standing [due to the low temperatures and low humidity, decay is slow], a number of new trees, particularly the Lodgepole Pines, are making a comeback.
As you can tell by this extraordinarily long entry, and I hope you can tell by my simple photographs, I did have the most wondrous time at Yellowstone: and do want to head back one day -- perhaps at a different time of year to see how different it looks, and to get to some places I may not have been able to get to. And, of course, to see Old Faithful in the daylight! Yellowstone, the world's first National Park [1872], is indeed a treasure and thanks be to God that it is a National Park. Being situated atop an active volcano, who knows its future, and how it may change? But that, I suppose, is part of the allure and mystery of this most wonderful place.