billinghamn

Thanks Iamnotlost - first day in the park today so likely aiming to do Mammoth Host Springs area to start with (being based at the North of the park), then heading round to Tower-Roosevelt area and down into Canyon Village. Will then need to decide whether to carry on round the lower circle or stick to the top circle for today.

Will provide some picks of us posing next to the Sonic later!

wrp96

I knew you were a smart woman. Hope your back is feeling better.

wrp96

I wonder if you called Hertz if they might be able to get you back in a better car somewhere along your trip.

I love my Sonic but I'm used to it and for a road trip I'd want something more...

billinghamn

You need to stop encouraging the woman! Yesterday her back was fine, so looks like we are back to full fitness. At least it will stop her whinging!

I've emailed to make sure there's no confusion about the status of the rental agreement etc, and I'm going to try ringing later today to see what they can do for me. In the meantime it's into the park for us!

billinghamn

Quick update. It's lunchtime in Yellowstone and it's an absolutely amazing place. We've done the Mammoth Hot Springs, and headed clockwise along the north circle and now in Canyon Village at Inspiration Point on the North Rim. Impressed I can get data signal out here! Lots of photos later.

billinghamv

Thanks wrp96! Back is fine now, I think it was tension in my shoulders and neck caused by gripping the steering wheel too tightly on the hairpins in Glacier NP. Not helped, of course, by David Bailey next to me shouting random instructions at critical times!

billinghamn

Fri 15 Aug 2014 – Yellowstone

Drive: 0 miles
Highlights: First official visit to Yellowstone NP; looking for Bison and Grizzly Bears

To start with this is our new motor – welcome to our Chevy Sonis:



I was up super early – just couldn’t sleep beyond about 3:30, so I got planning our attack of Yellowstone. I dug out recommendations about the key attractions to visit and marked them on the map.

billinghamv was up around 6am and we hit breakfast around 7:15am, which was lovely – all home made dishes served at Yellowstone Basin Inn just outside Gardiner. Breakfast comprised typical cereals, home made yoghurt parfait, bison sausages and the like. All very good and highly recommended.

We had a plan for today – start at Mammoth Hot Springs, and then head clockwise around the upper circle of Yellowstone – aim to complete as much of the north circle as we could and then leave the lower circle for tomorrow. If we needed to leave anything to our last day, we needed to leave those aspects on the left side of Yellowstone since we would be heading out of the west entrance.

We got on the road just after 8am and got into the park not long after – we were at Mammoth by 8:30am and spent a fab hour walking around the boardwalks carefully laid out – the colours of the rocks when the warm spring flowed over them was amazing – see selection of photos below.















From Mammoth we headed to Undine Falls – we missed it initially but got caught up in the classic ‘one car stops and looks in a particular direction and all the other cars behind also stop and look in the same direction expecting to see something’. There was an object that vaguely looked like a bison, but we couldn’t tell, so I took a picture of it anyway – as it happens it was still there in the exact same position later in the day, so we consider that to be the ‘fake’ bison!



Undine falls was nice, but nothing desperately exciting – one of those side shows, that is only 50 yards off the road, minimal effort involved but pales into insignificance compared to some of the other attractions Yellowstone has to offer. In the UK it would be the attraction!



Next we were heading towards the Petrified Tree and Roosevelt Lodge. On the way billinghamv suggested we try the Blacktail Plateau Drive, which was 6 miles long and took us away from the main road. Fair enough. Well the first 15 mins we thought we could have been in Epping Forest it was that dull (remember that everything is relative when you get to a place like Yellowstone), we turned a corner and Vick screamed BISON! – well I am not sure who was more shocked – the bison or me! Anyway, we both looked at each other (the bison and me) and decided that she had lost it, but we could go about our normal business anyway. Consequently the bison carried on eating grass and I grabbed my camera to take some snaps.



We were well chuffed, and billinghamv deserved a lot of praise for recommending we turned off the main road and tried this dusty one way, single lane track. Next up was the Petrified Tree, which was another white elephant to be honest, although you have to take a photo once you are there, don’t you!



We popped along to Roosevelt Lodge to pop to the loo and grab a coffee. We also started on our packed lunch, which we had ordered from the Yellowstone Basin Inn – the raisin cookies came out, which were gorgeous. That gave us a sugar hit and spurred us on to the Tower Falls and then the Canyon Village. The traffic was starting to build now, so it was slow progress to the Canyon. We briefly stopped off at a view point and took some further piccies. A thunderstorm was on its way in – we could see the lighting in the distance and hear the thunder.



Once we reached the Canyon Village we turned off on to the North Rim Drive and drove all the way to Inspiration Point. Wow – another amazing picture postcard of a view. We turned our attention to our packed lunch, which included a salad and a home made sandwich, packet of crisps and water. All amazingly well prepared and very much appreciated at this stage.







We took a walk down North Rim Trail and the Grand View. Vick was a bit worried about seeing me eaten alive by a grizzly, so she sang and talked loudly all the way. We headed back and decided we had done our walking for the day. At this point, we almost ran into another bison (wow – how lucky are we?) and managed to grab a few photos of it as well. So two bison in one day, we were even more impressed!



We walked down Brink of Lower Falls and got soaked when a downpour and hailstorm hit us. However the views at the bottom were unbelievable. They look like paintings, but they’re really real!





There were roadworks on the Norris to Mammoth road with delays so we decided to head back the same way we came (up to Tower and across to Mammoth), and it was deadly slow going. When the speed limit is 45mph I don’t understand why people drive at 20mph. Anyway I appreciate I am impatient at times, but a bit of hassling encouraged them to move over (as they are advised to do I might add), and we were able to make reasonable progress on the way back to Gardiner.

Popped into the market at Gardiner to pick up some cheese, crackers/bread and a bottle of wine to enjoy on our balcony instead of hacking out to a restaurant and taking our chances.
Then had a dip in the ‘chav pot’ (as Sam calls them) with a French lady and her American daughter. Totes exhausted.

We’ve both concluded that Yellowstone offers far more variety than the Grand Canyon, but is just as stunning, if not more, and therefore wins the ‘battle of the major national parks’.

wrp96

If you are ever near me in Arkansas I'll buy you a drink - and some duct tape to go over the driving instructor's mouth.

billinghamn

Sat 16 Aug 2014 – Yellowstone

Drive: 0 miles
Highlights: First visit to Old Faithful

Another delicious home-made breakfast was eaten early and we were out by 7:45am. Hit the road straight after to make a quick start to get down to the lower loop. We briefly stopped at the park entrance to take some piccies.





On the way to Norris we came across a bison in the road - it crossed in front of the car and headed up the passenger side - I suggested to Vick that she should put her window down so I could take a photo, but I think the translation of her response was "No". We reached Madison having whizzed through the roadworks in an hour - the workmen clearly don't work on a Saturday!

Reached Old Faithful at 9:30am – just in time for the next showing of the geyser, which was due around 9:45am. Managed to grab some video which I will try to post later, and some photos. The showing lasted about 90 secs, and when you compare it to the other things we have seen in the park, is way over hyped - but you have got to see it haven't you?





We then doubled back on ourselves and visited Lower Geyser Basin and the Fountain Paintpot. There was a strategy behind our tactics here - the only thing that was time constrained was Old Faithful - it erupts every 96 mins, so we wanted to optimise our visit here and then fit the other geyser related attractions around it.





We then visited Midway Geyser Basin and the Grand Prismatic Spring. We were overwhelmed with these two attractions - the colours in the salts were just incredible.





We then headed east to West Thumb and on to Gull Point Drive where we sat and ate our picnic lunch. It was in the shade and a touch on the cold side, but it was nice to sit back and eat a delicious salad, sandwich and crisps. We went for a quick walk along the shoreline





We then headed back towards Canyon Village through Hayden Valley where we saw a shed load of bison. To be honest by this stage we were both fairly bored with bison. We were overjoyed by seeing two yesterday, but now they are two-a-penny!







At Canyon Village we did the South Rim Drive, stopping off at Uncle Tom’s Trail and Artist’s Point.







At this point we decided we had then had enough and headed back to the hotel via Norris, Mammoth and Gardiner. On the way we saw some elk in Mammoth. Amazing how they just wander around wherever they fancy.

thejohn

Loving the TR yet again.... BUT mrs thejohn is getting more and more interested in doing a road trip which is good but the bad she can't drive.
John

billinghamn

Might a few driving lessons be in order then?

Iamnotlost

Loving your pics.

The Sonic is so cute. So cute, in fact, that I have just rented one for a trip next month. Might not cut quite the dash of the convertible but less risk of sunburn.

Sad that Old Faithful not a favourite. I eavesdropped on someone having a private photography lesson and got some good pics as a result with my little pocket camera. This involved being stood in a position where the plume from the geyser would block out the sun and being able to get the light as a halo. OK, it would have been more helpful to have told you that yesterday but maybe someone else will find it useful.

I seem to have a pic in the exact same spot at Uncle Tom's trail - even the same branch off to the right.

Glad you saw the elk. I reckon they are smart and come to eat the nice green grass the people water for them instead of that scruffy brown stuff up hill!

Sorry to go on. Your report is really bringing it all back - for which I am very, very grateful.

billinghamn

Thanks Iamnotlost - these trip reports really do bring back nice memories don't they? We've now left Yellowstone and have reached Idaho Falls catching up with Starbucks which we have missed for the past few days - normal coffee just doesn't cut it.

Iamnotlost

I remember looking for the falls in Idaho Falls - bit underwhelmed.

Where next after your Starbucks fix? Are you going to Craters of the Moon National Monument?

billinghamn

It's Twin Falls next on the way back to the coast. Then Pendleton. Aiming to get to Yachats in a few days.