1:04pm Thursday 17th September 2009
By David Mason
We drove into Yellowstone over the Beartooth High-way.
The road, regarded as one of the most scenic in North America, winds for 50-or-so miles higher and higher, switchbacking up into the Rocky Mountains, gorgeous valleys falling away in all directions, snow piling up ten feet and more on the roadsides. I know because I fell in it.
Finally, heading out of Montana and into Wyoming, we got over the pass’s summit at nearly 11,000 feet and started downhill past frozen lakes and signs saying watch out for bears. The road, lashed over the mountains in the 1930s, is an amazing feat of engineering.
Through the snow and drizzle, we finally got to Yellowstone National Park itself, the natural wonderland of North America.
It’s an unstable volcanic plateau in the Rocky Mountains the size of the northern half of England. We paid our $25 National Park fee (good for a week-long visit) and headed into the forests, mountains, rivers, lakes and waterfalls which make up this beloved landscape.
A couple of miles in, cars were parked on the grassy roadside, cameras pointing into the trees. Lying contentedly in the grass was a female moose with a calf. It was a beautiful sight. This was what we had come for.
We watched for a few minutes, then drove slowly on. Everyone drives slowly in Yellowstone – you don’t know what you might spot round the next bend. You don’t know what might be blocking the road round the next bend.
“Bald eagle,” a couple of us shouted in unison. Driver Derek pulled over carefully. America’s national symbol perched majestically on a branch in a tree near the road. It was watching us, unruffled and magnificent.
After a few minutes, people began parking around us. The eagle calmly spread its huge wings and took off towards the distant Lamar River.
Round the next bend, cars were parked, photographers in fold-up chairs looking serious, lenses pointing into the grass and trees. I got out and stood with my binoculars, not liking to ask what was going on.
Then I heard an American ask a photographer. “Badgers,” came a whispered reply. Sure enough, 40 feet away, a pair of badgers and several young were poking around in the scrub, striped faces visible. They were beautiful.
As we headed on the river valley opened up, grassy plains stretching towards thick forest and jagged mountains.
There were bison everywhere. Re-introduced since they were almost wiped out in the frantic settlement of the American West, they thrive in Yellowstone.
Carefully guarding their young, these enormous beasts – commonly called buffalo – graze by the road, walk along the road and generally let you know they are tolerating your presence.
The wildlife was exhilarating, and we had only been in Yellowstone an hour. More cars were parked on a bend. A bighorn sheep, its horns resplendant, was eating by the roadside. We watched it amble around, another animal you rarely see – but here they are common.
We headed into the heart of the park. More cars, and a park ranger standing by the road trying to keep vehicles moving.
A black bear was ambling up the hillside. Seeing a bear in the wild was a thrill for all of us, and there are lots of bears – blacks and grizzlies – in Yellowstone.
We drove on, over murky Dunraven Pass, to our lodge for three nights at Canyon, a crossroads of lodge, shop, restaurant, campsite and visitor centre.
In the evening we drove to the famous Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, a 900ft deep gorge carved dramatically by the mighty Yellowstone River. There are two huge waterfalls here – the Lower and Upper Falls.
We walked down the half-mile switchbacked path to the brink of the spectacular Lower Falls, mesmerised by the torrent crashing over the lip.
We were tired and thrilled with what the park had offered up on our first day.
DAY 2
About 7am I looked out of the window and saw something I didn’t expect. Snow. Piles of it. Covering the cars, the road, the trees, and filling the air.
From the visitor centre we learned the park was virtually shut down, roads closed, with ten inches predicted for the day – in June!
We spent the morning playing cards in the lodge until, by mid-afternoon, the snow had eased slightly and one or two roads had been opened.
We drove gingerly a few miles across the plateau, to Norris hot springs. Yellowstone, made the world’s first national park on March 1, 1872, is famous for its geysers and boiling springs.
It was a surreal sight. Among the thick snow, puddles of water and mud burbled and gargled. Steamboat Geyser was shooting boiling water 30 feet into the air in a hissing cloud of steam.
Pools of yellow, aquamarine and red flowed among the rocks and trees, crazy chemicals emerging from a subterranean swamp.
It was a reminder of Yellowstone’s deeply buried secret. Under this land is one of the world’s biggest active volcanoes. It will erupt again one day. For now, the geysers, springs and mud pots merely hint at the tremendous volcanic power.
From Norris we drove carefully to beautiful Yellowstone Lake, one of North America’s biggest. Through the expansive Hayden Valley bison wandered around and grazed on road verges. Blue heron and Canada geese stood around the Yellowstone River feeding.
DAY 3
A wet start. We were itching to tackle one of Yellowstone’s countless hikes.
We tried a couple of trails – the Grizzly Lake trail (no prizes for guessing how that got its name) and Cascade Lake. Derek and Jan tried to ignore the water under their shoes and plough on anyway, but the ground was just too wet.
So we headed to Mammoth, a towering set of terraces remarkable for their formations of white calcium carbonate and marble-like rock. Chemical run-offs from the springs turned the land every colour under the sun.
Elk stood on the hill overlooking the strange landscape as we walked round the boardwalks.
We moved on, back into the Lamar Valley.
There was a dash of movement in the road. A wet red fox was hurrying along the verge, clambering up the bank into the foliage. We watched him forage a while before leaving him to his business.
As we drove on, a beautiful rainbow appeared over the snow-covered mountains to the north. It framed the mystical landscape in an explosion of colour.
On the way back to the lodge we were held up by another roadblock – this time a deer jam. Several adults were herding one jelly-legged youngster along. They got safely off the road and we headed over Dunraven Pass back to our lodge.
DAY 4
Moving day. We packed our cases into the rented silver Subaru Tribeca and headed south. We drove along the Hayden Valley, bison everywhere, before taking a three-mile hike around Storm Point on the Yellowstone Lake shore.
Bear tracks in the dirt heralded recent passers-by. On a rocky outcrop near the path a group of yellow-bellied marmots played.
After our hike we drove on – to the Old Faithful Inn.
The inn is a jewel in the crown of the US National Park service.
Built in 1904, it’s a massive structure hewn of thick stone and logs, with a huge 85ft lobby fireplace attracting gasps from visitors who wander in.
Outside is one of the most famous sights in America – the Old Faithful geyser. As its name suggests, it erupts roughly every 90 minutes to heights of up to 180 feet for two to five minutes.
Visitors sit and watch it go, coach-loads on a whizz-through tour of Yellowstone making the area packed during the day.
We watched it erupt a couple of times, right on cue, then had a drink or two in the inn, a great place for people-watching.
DAY 5
Yellowstone is world famous for its hiking. So we set off on one of the best – the eight-mile round trip to Fairy Falls.
On the way is one of the park’s most interesting sights – Grand Prismatic Spring, a big circular pool of concentric rings of colour, from turquoise to yellow to green to deep blue.
A hazy mist swirled over the spring. We scrambled up a rocky hillside for a better view.
The gorgeous back-country Fairy Falls attracts few visitors so we enjoyed the tranquility.
A golden-mantled ground squirrel begged us, successfully, for some food by the falls, while a marmot nosed around the rocks and fallen trees nearby.
Beyond the falls we came upon a couple of spectacular remote hot springs – Imperial Geyser and Spray Geyser.
Boiling water hurtled out of the ground 20 feet into the air virtually non-stop, and pools of brightly-coloured mud churned and bubbled around our feet.
Back at the inn we did some more drinking and people-watching.
DAY 6
In the morning we headed out on another hike – a short and snappy three-miler to Mystic Falls, another Yellowstone landmark. The park is full of hikes like these. Visitors return year after year.
Back at the inn we strolled round the six miles of boardwalks which meander through the Old Faithful Geyser Basin. It’s a strange landscape of swirling mist, burbling pools, steaming geysers and huge eruptions blasting into the bright blue sky. Bison wander around, grazing by the river.
At the far end of the basin is Morning Glory Pool, a stunning vision of various shades of blue-green, where water bubbles up from the park’s volcanic under-belly.
DAY 7
We headed off south, out of the park and into the neighbouring Grand Teton National Park where we would continue our journey. Yellowstone had truly mesmerised us with its wonders.
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