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| Bison in Hayden Valley |
Our trip to Yellowstone didn´t start
easily; first of all, 10 days before departure our dog ate my passport, so the
next 10 days were spent rushing to embassies and police offices to get
documents and re-issue my passport. As the Hungarian Embassy would issue a
biometric passport in 20 days, I got a temporary passport for which I also had
to apply a visa to the US. Fortunately, everything went well and I got my visa
a day before departure.
When I thought everything was in order,
just 2 days before our trip, my husband didn´t feel well – in the hospital it
turned out he had kidney stone. Surgery immediately… he could leave the
hospital next day (one day before leaving), but it was a close call. Not to
mention that despite of going to an immense national park, due to his surgery
the doctor prohibited him to do any exercises (including long walks). But after
a series of bad luck, we arrived luckily to the airport and although the plane
left over an hour late from Mexico City, it didn´t break or fell down, so we
arrived to Jackson Hole (the south entrance of Yellowstone (actually of Grand Teton
National Park)) without any problem.
Jackson Hole is about 1 hour drive from the
entrance of the Grand Teton National Park, which continues in Yellowstone
National Park. Although there are many entrances to Yellowstone, I think we
chose right going to Jackson Hole. Not only because the spectacular view of the
Grand Teton mountain towering over the airport, but also because Jackson Hole
is such a charming little town that worth a day or two. Located on the foot of
huge mountains it seems to flourish all year: in summer with tourists going
hiking to the national parks and skiers in winter. The downtown is made up of
log and wooden houses that perfectly fit to the mountainous landscape. The
rich, luxurious feeling of the shops and the flowers in every corner just
increases the feeling that this is not a rotten little country town, but an
escape and resort for many tourists that bring here a lot of money.
The next day after arriving to Jackson Hole
in the evening, we headed straight to Yellowstone. Comfortably, the entrance
fee is the same for Grand Teton and Yellowstone. (25USD for 1 week) Grand Teton
National Park is dominated by the huge, over 4000m mountain-chain which shows
us different angles all the way over the park.
As my husband just had his surgery and we
had to ditch our plans for trekking and hiking, we changed our plans to drive
around peacefully and without hurry. This is what we have done from the first
day, where we were heading to our first lodging at the Canyon Area, making
stops to take pictures or even go for detours where we sensed something
interesting.
So, it was obvious to make a stop at our
first animal sightings – first we came by with 3 female elks grazing along the
road or when we saw our first bison.
Later is turned out that they are
extremely fond of the asphalt, we were astonished watching a 1-ton animal
peacefully walk toward us. Of course, in these cases the traffic stops and
everybody starts taking pictures. We also pulled out and got out of the car
watching the 20m rule. (All animals should be 20ms in distance not to disturb
their natural behavior, except for wolves and bears for which the distance is
100ms.) However, the bison didn´t know this rule, as it walked pass us about 5
meters, but it seems these animals are get used to cars and Harleys and people
as it didn´t even take a notice of all the people around. Just walked off the
road slowly to reach a small glade among the trees and start wallowing. In that
time, I thought it was something rare I see, but then it turned out, wallowing
(rolling into shallow depressions to cover themselves with dust) is quite
common in the bison society. Turns out, it may be for interaction of the
members of the herd, cleansing etc, but I only could think of this latter
reason. I´ve seen dogs and cats, even chicken do the same in summer at home and
my grandmother always explained it as a “bath” for the animals. That it would
clean them from parasites and also cool them down in the hot weather. (We even
saw a chipmunk doing the same wallowing some days later.)
After bison no.1, we saw a herd later,
occupying a picnic area. It was quite funny, seeing about 20 bison and ….(kids)
resting (cud chewing) at a picnic area.
Moving further, we reached Hayden
Valley which is one of the many paradise spots for animal watchers. Here can be
found the biggest herds of the bison in Yellowstone National Park. The road
crosses the valley so it is not rare that pairs or groups of bison cross the
road stopping the traffic to the delight of the tourists. When we arrived, we
had a smaller traffic jam in the Hayden Valley everybody stopping the cars
without pulling over. We as well took photos and headed further to Canyon
Valley, our place to stay for the first night.
Just before the Canyon village, there is a place called "mud volcano", which let us to peek inside the unique feature of the world`s first national park and which can be mainly seen in the western part of the park at Mammoth and Old Faithful areas, the hot springs. As over half of the whole Yellowstone is a crater of a supervolcano, smaller or bigger hot springs, geysers or mud volcanos can be seen all over the park. Here, at mud volcano we saw several ponds bubbling and steaming and some mud volcano (as the name of the area says). The mud volcano is a bubbling pond of dirt, and is created where the hot water can`t surface so it melts the rock or soil above it creating a hot, steamy dirt-pond. There was even a cave, called "dragon mouth" as the water due to the hot steam was coming out from the cave as waves, resembling to the tongue of a dragon. The resemblance was even closer with the steam coming out of the upper side of the cave like steam from the nose of the dragon.
As these areas are full with hot, sometimes acid water just below the surface, there are boardwalks showing the route. It is very convenient as they are flat and easy to walk on.
As we still had some time until check-in,
we drove to the main attraction there, the Great Canyon of Yellowstone. This
place is often mentioned as one of the top 5 favorite places among the tourists
visiting Yellowstone. Indeed, the steep walls of the canyon with the yellowish
rocks and the 2 waterfalls (90 and 30 meters) are impressive. Also, there are
two nice driveways (on the north and south side of the canyon) where those who
doesn´t want (or can´t like in our case) hike the trails on the rims of the
canyon still can enjoy the beautiful view.
Even here, we discovered some new animals:
the first was a chipmunk (which, in the next one week we saw every day) and the
other a nest of an osprey, a typical bird of the Yellowstone. The nest was on
the top of a cliff standing out of the middle of the canyon…maybe 30-50 meters
high? Anyway, a beautiful view for the birds! Although it was far away, by the
camera zoom we could see two osprey chicks and their mother in the nest.
After driving through the south and north
rim, we headed to the Canyon Lodge for check-in. These lodges are quite comfortable,
have heating, bathroom, toilet and comfortable bed inside. Everything
surrounded by pine woods. The lodges are located a bit further from the
“center” of the Canyon Area, so it is quite peaceful and silent. In the
“center” you can find souvenir shops, general store, restaurants and even a
visitor center.
For more pictures, click on this link! → Yellowstone (part 1)
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