Sonya, Clara & Lydia: Road Trip

Devils Tower, Wyoming to West Yellowstone, Montana

After almost a whole day of driving, we finally arrived in West Yellowstone in Montana. This is also a small tourist town right outside the west entrance to the Yellowstone National Park. Although we spent two nights in West Yellowstone, we stayed in two different hotels because none of them had a room available for both nights. In fact, we stayed at a different place every single night on the trip :) As I mentioned before, Sonya loved it! She can be grouchy all day but as soon as we got to the hotel, she is full of energy and jumping everywhere!

Map of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming and the route we took on our first day

Early the next morning, after breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Yellowstone National Park. In the map above, you can see the places that we covered on our first day in Yellowstone. There was already a queue to get into the park because there was some construction on the road in front of the entrance. We were surprised that there was a traffic jam even after we got into the park. Initially, we didn't know what was happening but we soon realized that if the cars were jammed up, there was a high possibility that some wild animals had been spotted and everyone was stopping their cars to snap photos of the animals.

Deer

At first I thought the traffic jam was caused by the deer in the above photo.

Bald Eagle's Nest

But no, it was actually the bald eagles' nest in the tree! One of the mummy or daddy eagle was up in a nearby tree while the other parent was in the nest with the babies. Ever since the red-tailed hawk landed on our balcony in Cambridge last year, I have been very excited to see hawks, eagles, condors, falcons, etc. It does not mean that I am not afraid of birds anymore. I just think that they are very stunning birds. I still like to keep my distance though :)

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

I noticed that all that was left of the trees in the surrounding mountains were just the tree trunks. The leaves and a lot of the branches were all gone. The mountains looked rather bare. In fact, it made me a little sad to see them like that. I later read that forest fires were common in Yellowstone and they can destroyed huge areas of vegetation. But, replanting are taking place and in many areas, you can already see the young trees growing.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Then, we spotted some something else... they were bisons!

Bisons

Then, a lady from the car in front of us told me that there is a lone wolf in the field as well. She actually let me use her binoculars but I still could not spot the wolf. I used my camera and snapped a photo and it was only then that I spotted the wolf from the photo. Can you see it? I read from the brochure that it was quite rare to be able to see a wolf. I guess we were lucky!

Lone Wolf

Yellowstone had rivers and creeks running through it. Often, you can see people fishing in them. They do fly fishing where they wear these special suits and stand right in the middle of the river and fish for trout.

Man Fishing

There are quite a number of waterfalls in Yellowstone. Here is one of them.

Waterfall

River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Here is one of the valleys with the stream from the waterfall.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

On our way to the Mammoth Hot Spring, we came across this mini hot spring. Around these hot springs, there were constructed walkways for visitors to get as close to the hot spring as possible without getting hurt. The ground around the hot spring was usually labeled as geothermal and unstable as the crust may be thin. Can you see the water boiling away in the pool?

Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

It took about half an hour to reach the Mammoth Hot Spring, which is in the northern part of Yellowstone, from the west entrance. Along the way, it was quite a relaxing drive through the beautiful landscape.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We finally reached the Mammoth Hot Spring. I had interpreted the "mammoth" as a huge boiling pool. Instead, it was a mammoth area on the slope of the mountain with hot springs scattered throughout. There was a walkway that connected the top of the mountain all the way to the bottom where there was a small "village" where there was food, petrol, shops, toilets, etc.

Mammoth Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Sonya was quite excited to go down the walkway, surprisingly, so we went. I guess she didn't realized that we had to climb all the way back up too :) But she did all the walking and climbing on her own. She was a little out of breathe on the way up and overall she was fine. Look at the video below of her climbing up the stairs. You can also hear her asking if we were going to stay in another hotel :)

Sonya panting her way up the walkway at the Mammoth Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

On our way up, we saw two bighorn sheep going down the mountain. The people nearby said they were mountain goats and Sonya called them billy goats but we checked when we got home that they were actually bighorn sheep.

Big Horn Sheep, Mammoth Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We didn't actually go all the way down. We went halfway, went back up and then drove down to the village to have lunch. Near the parking lot, we saw more elks! Sonya and I went down to take photos while Justin and Clara waited in the car. It turned out to be Sonya's most memorable part of the whole trip. The elk started peeing right in front of us. Sonya thought it was hilarious that the elk pee-pee on the grass and didn't use the bathroom :)

Elk, Mammoth Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

After lunch at the village, it was nap time again for Sonya and Clara. We headed for Tower Fall next.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Tower Fall, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

After Tower Fall, we went drove towards Canyon Village where Yellowstone has its own version of Grand Canyon. There was another traffic held up. It was a black bear sleeping on the tree! I can't understand why it would chose it sleep like that. Maybe it was cooler on the tree or so that other predators cannot get to it. If I had slept like that in the tree, I would have woken up with a terrible back pain and unable to stand up straight! Then again, I am not a bear :)

Black Bear Sleeping in Tree

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

First we stopped at the brink of the Upper Falls.

Brink of Upper Falls, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Sonya was scared of the rushing waters but we soon realized that whenever she was scared of something, as long as she held "mummy's hand", "not daddy's hand", she was fine.

Brink of Upper Falls, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Then we drove over the bridge across the Yellowstone River to Artist Point where we could see more of the waterfall.

Yellowstone River, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Artist Point, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Sonya didn't want to stand at the edge of the viewing area to take photo. She chose this spot on the rock instead.

Artist Point, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

After the Grand Canyon, we drove down to the the fishing bridge. Along the way, there was a Churning Caldron. These were like the hot springs but instead of boiling water, it was boiling mud!

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Dragon's Mouth, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We didn't make it to Yellowstone Lake as it was getting late and it would take at least half an hour to get back to the west entrance and to our hotel. On our way back, there was another traffic held-up. What animal do you think it was?

Grizzly Bears

Can you see the two grizzly bears on the slope of the mountain? It was a mama bear and her baby bear. They were quite far away and these two photos are the best I could manage :( This was to be our only and closest encounter with the grizzly bear :(

Grizzly Bears

Then, further down the road, there were more elks among the trees.

Elks

Elk

We realized that the animals tend to be more visible early in the morning and in the late afternoon when it was cooler. We spotted a whole herd of bisons near the river. There were even baby bisons!

Bisons

That ended our first day at the Yellowstone.

West Yellowstone, Montana

The second hotel that we stayed in at West Yellowstone didn't provide breakfast. We decided to have MacDonald's. It was crowded and we thought we would enjoy an outdoor breakfast in one of Yellowstone's many picnic areas.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Clara was taking her morning nap so she slept in the car while we had our MacDonald's breakfast :)

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

After breakfast, we had another rare treat! Bisons having their morning bath in the river. I went to take photos of them but when they started to come out of the river and running our way, I quickly went back into the car.

Bison taking a bath in the river...

Bison getting out of the water...

Bison coming...

Bison crossing the road!

Bison charging towards our car!

The video below is a compilation of our bison encounters in both Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. Have you ever seen a bison running? You will see in the video :)

Bison Mania!

Our destination today was the Old Faithful Geyser. Before we reached Old Faithful, there were several spots where there were more hot springs and mud pots. I read from Wikipedia that Yellowstone National Park "is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano; it has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years. Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism."

Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Boiling Mud

Mud Pots, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Boiling Mud

Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

It was here where Sonya threw her biggest tantrum of the trip. She said she was tired and wanted to sit in the stroller and cried all the way from the start of the walkway till the end.

Hot Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Finally, it was Old Faithful. It was only when we reached that we realized that the geyser does not constantly spout water into the sky. Here are some facts about the Old Faithful Geyser extracted from the park's newspaper:

Old Faithful's eruption duration, height, and the interval between eruptions varies daily and yearly
As of March 2008, an eruption lasts 1 1/2 to 5 minutes; the average interval between eruptions is 90 minutes.
Old Faithful's height ranges from 106 feet to more than 180 feet, averaging 130 feet.
3700 to 8400 gallons of water are expelled per eruption, depending on the length of eruption.
Just prior to eruption, water temperatures at the vent is 95.6 degrees celcius.

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We had about 20 minutes to wait before the next predicted eruption.

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

A circular viewing platform was built around the geyser and there were benches all around for visitors to sit and wait for the eruptions. It was hard to get Clara to sit still for 20 minutes. Sonya was in the stroller having a minor eruption of her own :)

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

The video below shows the whole eruption. I set up the camera and started the video recording way before the eruption. I had no idea how high and how fast the water was going to spout so I had to be more "kiasu" and had to provide more "airspace" in the video :) The footage in the video below is just one third of what I actually recorded so you can have a rough gauge of how long we waited before the actual eruption took place.

Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

The map below shows the area we covered on our second day in Yellowstone National Park before we head to Grand Teton National Park, which is just 8 miles away from the south entrance of Yellowstone. In fact, there is only one entrance fee to both of these parks.

Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming and the route we took on our second day in Yellowstone

Sonya, Clara & Lydia

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Road Trip - Yellowstone

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