At home with Yogi - Yellowstone National Park, WY
Yellowstone National Park, WY
We were unsure what to expect crossing the border; it could have taken minutes or hours. We arrived early and after a few serious questions, fingerprints, photo and a form filled in, we were issued with a 90-day visa to explore the USA all in the space of 10 minutes.
The next 8 hours was spent driving to Yellowstone National Park – pretty much through the entire state of Montana. That evening we stayed in a small town right outside the park and set off early the next morning for our first day in Yellowstone.
Lamar Valley was renowned for it’s wildlife and from the comfort of Lola we weren’t disappointed. Within the first few minutes we saw our first Bison, then as we continued we saw many more Bison herds, Pronghorns, an Osprey Nest with 3 babies and a Fox.
We then went to check our some waterfalls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, our drive continued slowly as there was a lot of cars as well as wildlife walking on the road holding up the traffic - as we were sitting in traffic a Bison casually walked past Lola – 2m away. It was a terrific experience seeing one up so close albeit a little scary given the sheer size of it. The drive continued and we then saw our first of many Geysers – what Yellowstone is primarily known for.
Early the next morning we decided to visit/swim in what is called the boiling river – where the boiling hot spring water meets the ice-cold river. The boiling river was a lovely, refreshing and very relaxing way to start our second day. We then spent the rest of the day visiting the parks many geysers, mud pools and colourful geo-thermal springs – we were even fortunate enough to see a few erupt in the late afternoon which was quite spectacular.
As dusk started to set, the local wildlife came out to play and the bison were EVERYWHERE. We pulled into a little picnic area and sheepishly got out of Lola to get a better view. To our surprise within 30 seconds a huge herd of bison came stomping past us about 10m away, so we very quickly returned to the safety of Lola and thought we best get out of the area. However, as we were leaving Lola got caught between a mother bison and a baby bison - ekkk. We didn't want to be on the receiving end of a mother bison, and after a bit of “you go-I go” dancing we let the baby cross the road.
Grand Teton National Park
We didn't plan to spend much time in this neighbouring National park but we wanted to check it out and it was also known for its moose sightings - a animal we hadn't yet spotted. It was a very scenic drive throughout the park and we were lucky enough to come across a moose - after getting some good photos we continued on our way.
The next morning we planned to do a relatively short walk in Grand Teton and were recommended one with a giant rock you can jump off into a glacier fed-lake. As we were walking around Phelps Lake, we came across a moose having a munch on some bushes not to far from us, after quietly observing it for a few minutes we then carried on to the rock jump. Matt had a ball running and jumping off the 7m high rock; however me and my dislike of jumping decided to just swim in the lake much to the disappointed of Matt.
We left the park mid afternoon for a long two days of driving in the desert and heat of the Nevada sun.