Journey's End: Exploring Grand Canyon, Death Valley & Yosemite National Parks
Join us on the final leg of our big US road-trip, hiking the breath-taking north rim in Grand Canyon NP and getting soaked on the Glacier Point trail in Yosemite NP
October 2015
The final leg of our road trip had us leaving behind the Mars landscape of Utah and heading into the flat plains and meadows of northern Arizona. Given that there was a rock the size of a small truck blocking the tunnel out of Zion National Park, we had to take a slight detour to get to the Grand Canyon North Rim.
Rather than visiting the touristy South Rim of the Grand Canyon we opted for the North Rim. Not sure why, but the Canyon was not high on our priority list so we only allocated one full day in the park. We found an uninspiring campground at Jacob’s Lake 40 minutes north where the only highlight was the yummy treacle thick milkshake served up at the local store.
Smokey looks constipated
Canyon day, we were up early and had the road to ourselves. Mule deer peeked out of the woods and a herd of bison emerged from the fog blanketed meadows. The first stop was Point Imperial the highest spot of the North Rim. One lucky couple were having a romantic breakfast with the most dramatic back drop. From there we made our obligatory visitors centre stop to figure out how we would spend our day.
Instead of heading down into the canyon, we chose the Widforss Trail. This 10-mile round trip starts at the rim. The first mile hugs the canyon lip offering up stunning views of layers of time captured in the canyon walls. Then you descend through the spookily quiet forest, all the time looking out for the elusive white-tailed Kaibab squirrel. Cutting through colourful meadows before emerging at the rim again at Haunted Canyon. It’s a beautiful walk and early morning we had the trail to ourselves. There were a few people at the trail lookout but not a speck of the crowds that are common on the opposite side of this vast crack in the earth.
Unique to this forest, the squirrels proved to be quite camera shy, but we did spot a few. We started to melt on the walk back as the temperature climbed close to 40ºC or 103º F.
Arriving back at the Grand Canyon lodge late afternoon we timed it perfectly for a ranger talk. This talk given by a passionate lady was all about the rare Californian Condor. Just a few years ago, on the brink of extinction, a decision was made to capture the remaining wild birds and start a captured breeding programme. Today, many juvenile birds have been successfully reintroduced back into the wild. An inspiring talk delivered by a great story teller.
Anybody seen a Californian Condor?
The lodge also provides the perfect place to capture the sunset over the canyon. For the less adventurous, the lodge has massive picture windows. Step outside and there are a couple of vantage points to snap that killer photo. So that was the Grand Canyon, maybe next time we should tackle the challenging rim to rim canyon walk.
The end of another perfect day
Our next stop should be classified as a National Park. There are certainly some wonderful sights, crazy landscapes, strange inhabitants and rivers of visitors flowing in every direction, Las Vegas. As we had to drive passed, we thought we would spend a couple of days in Sin City. Both of us have visited on several occasions so nothing that Vegas offers was a surprise.
Staying at Sam’s Town, we were a short shuttle ride to the action of The Strip. Dinner was at China Poblano in the Cosmopolitan, a fusion of Asian and Mexican and very tasty. We then made the mistake of visiting the Dueling Piano Bar at New York New York. The bar was packed, and the piano players whipped the crowd into a frenzy with mostly American foot stomping classics. Fair to say, we were both dusty the following morning. A good job there were hours of NFL to watch, the perfect remedy for a sore head.
Late afternoon we headed over to Fremont St, the historic part of Vegas. Historic as in not built in the last couple of years. The street was eerily quiet; the street performers must have all hibernated for winter. So we spent a couple of hours nursing some very expensive cocktails at the Wynn Hotel overlooking the lake of dreams, complete with artificial pine forest. Yep Sin City National Park.
Three nights accommodation in 2 drinks each
Our route to Yosemite took us through Death Valley National Park. Another one to tick off the list. Our visit was literally a quick stop for lunch and a lookout. An incredible landscape of moulded hills and vast openness. After a full day of driving, we arrived at the edge of Yosemite National Park and found a quiet campsite just before Tioga Peak.
Yosemite, out of all the National Parks, was top of my must visit list. The inspiring photos of Ansel Adams had sparked a burning desire to visit many years ago. The road through Tioga Pass roller-coasted several hundred feet. We stopped for a little tree hugging with some of the largest and oldest sequoias in the world. There was even one with a hole in the trunk big enough to drive a car through.
Despite being the off season, the park campgrounds in the central valley were full to bursting. Learning our lessons we had booked a space prior. Add to this a huge amount of maintenance work taking place and the gloss was starting to wear off a much-anticipated visit.
We biked the two miles from the campground to Yosemite village for a mooch. The toll of Burning Man had Julie’s bike squeaking as if it had a family of rodents stuck in the chain. It would go quiet when we were on our own but as soon as we came close to anybody the rodents would squeal for help. We took the short but steep hike up to Columbia Point, which offered a beautiful view of the central valley
Alone with her thoughts
The following day, the last hike on our road trip started with a bus ride from Yosemite Valley to Glacier Point. The 40 minute journey came complete with the most annoying driver commentary you could imagine. If we hadn’t already planned on hiking down we would have had to sabotage the driver’s microphone.
We descended through a forest and picked up Four Mile Trail that offered impressive views of Half Dome. The trail drops 3,200 feet from Glacier Point to the valley floor.
Half Dome to the right
The forecast was for heavy rain with occasional thunder but the weather gods were smiling and whilst sun cream was not needed it was dry. That didn’t last long. In the time it took to get our raincoats out of our backpack the clouds engulfed Half Dome. Within minutes, the dry path turned into a stream and we were soaked from head to toe. We were only a third of the way down; boy this was going to be fun.
By the time, we reached the bottom of Yosemite Falls the rain had thankfully stopped. We squelched our way passed folks heading uphill to the bottom of the falls. The final leg to the valley floor was steep and knee jarring. We offered words of encouragement to those heading in the opposite direction.
The following morning on the way out of the park we stopped to admire the gigantic granite face of El Capitan. Crazy folks were gearing themselves up to tackle this incredible climb. I bet it wasn’t this busy when Ansel Adams whipped out his camera and tripod.
El Capitan in all it's glory
So there you have it, after 46 days, 6,600 kilometers (4,100 miles), ten National Parks and five states, our road trip comes to an end. We have had a fantastic time; the parks are all so unique. We have gotten close to some amazing wildlife, seen some mind-blowing landscapes, met some wonderful people and taken enough photos to fill the Grand Canyon. We had walked close to a 650 kilometers (400 miles), and we are still talking to each other, go figure.
As awesome as this trip has been we would be really pleased to hand back the RV. But, first, we had a couple of days in Trailer Hell and a wedding to attend.
Hoodoo Time: Exploring Bryce, Zion and Capitol Reef National Parks
Join us as we continue our big US road-trip through Utah finding hoodoo heaven in Bryce NP and experiencing some heart-pumping action hiking The Narrows in Zion NP.
September 2015
After the stunning landscapes and natural formations of Arches National Park we headed south to Bryce and Zion. On route, a flying visit to Capitol Reef National Park.
Capitol Reef, as well as having the obligatory multicoloured rock structures, giant domes and yes more arches, throws up a new opportunity, fruit picking. On the drive through the canyon, we spotted the Fruita area. This was once a Mormon settlement and many of the building from the late 1800’s have been restored and the accompanying orchards opened. When in season you can pick apples, peaches, cherries, pears and apricots. We stopped at an apple orchard, grabbed a fruit picker and a ladder and wandered from tree to tree. Once you filled your bag, you weigh your harvest and pay just $1 per pound of fruit, what a bargain. The last time I went scrumping I didn’t have permission and had to run away from a large barking dog.
We cruised the scenic drive through Capitol Reef as far as the RV would let us, stopping for lunch where the tarmac turned into a dirt track. We admired the petroglyphs left by the American Indians over 800 years ago. There was also the opportunity to take photos of impressive rock formations such as The Castle.
The Castle
Our overnight stay was another bargain. Just $10 for a site at Singletree, complete with flushing loos and dump facilities. A gem of a campground in the middle of the Dixie Forest. The following morning we continued along Scenic Route 12 to Bryce National Park, rounding every corner we were met by either mule deer or cattle in the middle of the road. The downside of early morning starts.
We arrived at Bryce and managed to bag a site in the first campground. Yes there was some site envy that meant that we moved to a better location once the occupants had departed. We spent the afternoon cruising to the end of Bryce’s 18 mile scenic drive, stopping to check out the many viewpoints overlooking the canyon amphitheatre. The stars of the show are the extraordinary rock towers known as hoodoos. They stand like brightly coloured sentries worn away by years of erosion. Now if you are a Game of Thrones fan, you will know that it’s compulsory to say ‘hoodoo’ in the same way Hodor says’ Hodor’. If you are not a fan, Google and you will see what we mean.
Natural beauty
To really appreciate this amazing park you have to get down to the canyon floor via the Queen’s Garden trail. This, in turn, leads you to the Peek-a-Boo and Navajo trails for a more challenging hike. Like an army of faceless warriors, the hoodoos wait to be called forth from the canyon. Some have worn away into well know shapes, like The Poodle. We wandered the trails for several hours finally emerging at Wall St for our rapid scale back to the top.
Sunrise is best seen not from Sunrise Point but Bryce Point. It’s here that crazy photographers climb out of bed at a ridiculous hour to catch the sun striking the army of hoodoos signaling a new day. And of course we had to take part in this tradition. Armed with tripod and camera I joined a small band of hardy souls whilst still dark. An hour later as the sun started to break through, the lazy arsed latecomers tried to push their way into the best positions. With elbows spread wide, the early birds kept the enemy at bay.
The early birds
Dawn at Hoodoo Town
We managed to get a peek at how the other half travel. Bemoaning the fact we couldn't buy a bottle of wine (those pesky Mormons), saw us invited by a lovely Dutch couple to join them in the biggest RV’s we had seen. This mansion on wheels, complete with his and hers lazy-boy chairs. Quite an insight, great conversation, and some lovely wine to boot.
Just 70 odd miles west of Bryce is Zion National Park. Again, an early start meant that we arrived in Zion with most of the day ahead of us and allowed us to claim a campsite inside the park. The east entrance to Zion takes you through a mile long claustrophobic tunnel. Being an RV we had to pay $15 for an escort. This basically means that they stop the traffic at the other end so you can drive down the middle of tunnel. Emerging back into daylight you then take a switchback road to the canyon floor. All quite dramatic.
Tunnel vision
Cars are banned from the majority of park roads and an excellent shuttle service ferries visitors. Our first ride took us to Zion Lodge, the trail head to the Emerald Pools. A short walk, all up hill that provided views across the top end of the park. The only snag being the amount of grumpy hikers who thought it was their God given right to march on through instead of waiting for the path to clear. This midday fraternity not quite having the same level of etiquette as the early morning brigade.
A big draw at Zion is the Narrows hike, an eight mile walk up and through the Virgin River. This hike can only be completed when the weather forecast is good, not only for the park but also 50-100 miles further up the valley. Just a week prior a flash flood in another part of Zion swept seven experienced hikers to their deaths. A great tragedy that weighed heavily on the park staff. A timely reminder that Mother Nature can strike with great force at any moment.
To make the walk you need to hire rubber boots and a walking stick. We started out early with a view of hiking half way in and returning. The farthest part of the trek would mean wading up to waist height in cold water. Waist height for me would mean chest height for Julie. The walks starts off at the Temple of Sinawava at the far end of Zion. The riverside walk stops after a mile and then it’s padding time. Stepping into the river for the first time sends shocks waves from the tips of your toes to the top of your head. The cold is soon forgotten as you scout the sides of the canyon looking for a suitable escape route in case of flash flood. As the walls of the canyon narrow a peaceful silence engulfs you. Sitting on a rock munching down on lunch we are totally in awe of landscape around us.
Heading back down the river we feel once again justified for the early start by the hordes of people heading into the Narrows. After returning our kinky boots we chilled for a couple of hours before taking the bikes for a bus ride back to Sinawava. We then biked the 11 kilometres back to camp stopping off at various spots trying to capture the stunning beauty of this park as the sun sets.
There was one hike that we would like to have done but ran out of time and that’s Angel’s Landing. The guidebook states that this walk is not for the faint of heart with sheer drops to the canyon floor. There have been several deaths over recent years from people falling from the top. A challenge for our next visit.
Angel's Landing
Our next port of call, the Grand Canyon North Rim. But we would have to take the long way around as the tunnel we entered through was blocked by a rockfall. Thankfully it happened in the middle of the night, and nobody was injured.
We loved the contrast between Bryce and Zion. Although Bryce can be enjoyed from the canyon floor, it is most stunning from the top looking down at the hoodoos. Whilst Zion is best experienced from the bottom of the canyon looking up. Both offer majestic landscapes. You would have thought that after half a dozen parks the walks would be very much the same. Instead, each walk throws up different challenges, different landscapes and different opportunities to understand the complex nature of the National Parks.
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B B B Bear: Exploring Grand Teton & Arches National Parks
Join us as we continue our big US road-trip with bear encounters in Grand Teton NP and beautiful arches in Arches NP.
September 2015
Please tell me when we get to have a lay-in? Seems like every day we wake before dawn, looking for wildlife that’s still tucked up bed or peeking at the sun rising through a blanket of cloud. All for our lovely readers, hope you appreciate it.
Today’s early departure is because we’re heading to Grand Teton, the next park on our list. Plus we wanted to try to secure a site at the RV park before the crowds rolled in. Our next destination was only 7 miles down the road. A close neighbour and a much smaller sibling to Yellowstone. The park is only 480 square miles in size compared to big brother up the road at 3,500 square miles. What it lacks in width it makes up for in height, offering some of the tallest peaks in the region.
On the road in we stopped at a couple of lookouts to soak up the stunning views of the magnificent Tetons. If only we had known the view would be fleeting.
The Tetons
Turns out we could have climbed out of bed at 4.00am and it wouldn’t have made a difference. The RV park was full for the week. Damn the sun chasing, time on their hands, grey brigade. How about backing off to your retirement village, taking your fancy rigs with you and letting the tourists have some space. Things happen for a reason though, and it turned out the nearby campground with not quite the same facilities but at half the price was more than happy to welcome us. And we would get an extra surprise later that evening.
Grand Teton was planned to be a two day stop over as we headed south to a bunch of parks in Utah. We quickly made our way to the visitor centre at Colter Bay. Did we tell you that these are a must do first stop at each park? Behind the centre was a short hike around Colter Bay, a mixture of forest and shoreline. The walk offered a great perspective of the Tetons which looked even more majestic towering over Jackson Lake.
Alone with his thoughts
Late afternoon we ventured out to Oxbow Bend to listen to a ranger talk on the local wildlife. Turned out to be more of a chance for visitors to share gossip and binoculars than an educational opportunity. We did see a gang of elk in the distant with a stag keeping sentry over his harlem of girls. The hot gossip was the death of a volunteer at Yellowstone that had been attacked by a female grizzly and her two cubs. They had partially eaten him and stashed parts of his body. This happened a few weeks before our visit. Slightly worrying.
Oxbow Bend
We returned to camp as dusk fell. After dismantling and stowing the bikes, I went to the bathroom block to spend a penny. Returning, I almost poo’ed my pants as I came face to face with a bear just a few feet from the van. Was this an aggressive grizzly bear or the more timid black bear? With this afternoon’s gory story still swimming around my head I wasn’t stopping to ask for identification. I threw open the RV door, stumble inside and stammered ‘bbbbbb bear!”. We watched from the safety of the cab at first. Then feeling ‘smarter than the average bear’ we ventured outside to see the black bear meander through the campground. Talk about close encounters. No we didn’t grab a photo, it happened quick and it was pretty dark already.
The following morning as we left, we mentioned the encounter to the guy at the gate, he just said ‘yep that black bear comes through here all the time’. They somehow forgot to mention this when we checked in.
The weather had taken a turn for the worse and our plans to catch the ferry across Jenny Lake and hike the Cascade Canyon went out the window. We mooched around a couple of lookouts trying hard to peer through the heavy blanket of clouds. A decision was made to cut our losses and start the journey south to Arches National Park, nearly 500 miles away.
We broke the journey by staying the night at Jordanelle State Park. Woken by the driving rain and howling wind. This was going to be a fun journey. Did we say that the RV wobbled like a wet cardboard box in the wind?
We arrived on the outskirts of Moab, the nearest town to Arches, late afternoon. We checked the first RV park we came to for a space. We nearly choked when they wanted to charge US$53 per night. The girl at the desk scoffed when we said we would look elsewhere. Such great customer service! The next two parks displayed the ‘no vacancy’ sign. So following Julie’s research we headed in search of Bureau of Land Management sites next to the Colorado River. The BLM camps are first come first served and offer no facilities other than a long drop loo. The first two places were full. The next two were tents only. Another site on a river bend looked pretty full, but on checking the ticket on the pitch, the occupants had already checked out. Bingo. Three nights for less than the cost that grumpy guts wanted to charge for one night.
Arches National Park is in the state of Utah, home to the mormons and has very strict rules when it comes to the consumption of alcohol. After a hard day’s driving we were busting for a glass of wine or two. We found a nice little bar but were informed we would have to eat something if we wanted a wine. Turns out beer chips were all that was needed, cheap and tasty. The supermarkets are not allowed to sell wine and the beer they sell is watered down to a lower alcohol strength.
With over 2,000 sandstone arches, it’s a park full of incredible natural wonders. The wildlife is also a little different, rattlesnakes, kangaroo rats and spade foot toads are the ones to watch out for this time.
First up was the hike to Devil’s Garden. This is a 15 kilometre trek with some amazing scenery. The first arch we came to and one of the most photogenic is Landscape Arch. This is the longest arch in the park and looks as if it could fall down at any moment. The hike itself takes you along a narrow fin of rock with steep drop offs. It’s the longest hike in the park and takes you passed some stunning arches. The views across this crazy landscape are amazing. It’s lunar meets Mars with a hint of playdoh.
Landscape Arch
A very special place
We had lunch at an area called Fiery Furnace. There is a hike you can take with a guide through the furnace, but this needed to be booked in advance and was sold out for the next few days. Later, we stopped to take in stunning rock formations such as Courthouse Towers, Sheep Rock and Three Gossips. These were at one end of Park Ave, a small valley surrounded by giant rock walls.
Park Ave
Another early start saw us enter the park well before sunrise. I wanted to photograph Double Arch as the sun came up. Turns out we could have taken photos of nearly every other arch in the park, then had a cup of tea and still had time before the sun found its way across Double Arch. Never mind we passed the time talking to a couple that had heaps of travel stories to share.
Having done sunrise we headed back to camp for some chill time before returning for sunset. But first a quick stop off at Balanced Rock.
Returning to the park we took the 5 kilometre hike to the most photographed formation, Delicate Arch. The walk from the carpark was all uphill and at times across slick rock with a drop off. When we arrived it was almost standing room only. There must have been 200 hundred people with cameras of all shape and size just waiting for that killer shot as the sun dropped. Well almost everybody. There was a few folks including one father and his six kids all in tie dye t-shirts that kept insisting on being under the arch for their family snaps. The closer it got to sunset the less patient the hordes became, shouting and hollering abuse. This whole evening proved to be a great insight into human behaviour. Somebody who will remain nameless, muttered ‘jeez it’s only a rock’.
Just a rock, yeah right
Delicate Arch
So another two parks under our belt. Shame about the weather at Grand Teton, but the close encounter with the bear more than made up for it. Arches was truly magical in a very different way. We both came away stunned by the amazing architecture that Mother Nature can throw up.
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Bear, Bison & Beauty: Exploring Lassen Volcanic & Yellowstone National Parks
Join us road-tripping Lassen Volcanic NP, including Lassen Peak, Cinder Cone and Bumpass Hell. Also Yellowstone's iconic Old Faithful, Mount Washburn and Lamar Valley.
September 2015
Let’s skip back in time briefly. Upon arriving in the land of the free, wall to wall advertising, and stunning national parks, we spent a couple of days in San Francisco replacing clothes that had worn out or were too big. This travel malarkey is a great way to lose weight. Best guess is that I have lost 14 kilograms (30 pounds) since we left New Zealand. Not having access to my daily coffee and muffin, and all the extra walking has me in slightly better shape than when we left.
After our first proper shop in months we spent a couple of days with friends, Paul & Rick, at their cute cottage in Bodega Bay. We met Paul last year at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. The neat thing about hanging out with these guys (there are quite a few) is that they had visited many of the national parks. The plan was to visit nine parks across five states. When we shared our route, they had some great feedback. These guys had done most of the day hikes so helped us pick the best ones.
Home for the next 48 days was a 23 foot RV. Not having driven anything so big, and not used to driving on the wrong side of the road we couldn’t wait to get away from the freeways and cities. This thing drifted at the best of times but with a slight breeze it had the stability of wet cardboard box. For the next 4,000 miles, we were going to have to concentrate on every inch of tarmac. Our last home on wheels, our beloved 1975 Volkswagen Type II aka The TARDIS, was akin to living in a bedsit compared to this mini mansion.
One park we didn’t have on our list was Lassen Volcanic National Park, in Northern California. The boys insisted that we should add it to the list so off we went. We had a week before we headed into the desert for Burning Man, so plenty of time to explore. We stopped for a couple of nights just outside Sacramento, to stock up on food, find a bike for Julie and unwind after a couple of days in the big smoke. Paul had already donated a bike for me, Julie’s came via Craig’s List.
Lassen was a fantastic way to start our national park adventures. The park itself was pretty quiet but also fairly compact so easy to get around and find the hikes that interested us. The campgrounds were reasonably empty. The bargain of bargains in the USA must be the annual pass to all 58 national parks. At just $80 per car, to quote a great movie ‘it’s a deal, it’s a steal, in fact, it’s the sale of the f***ing century’.
Amazing Lassen Volcanic National Park
After checking out the visitors centre and armed with maps and the park newsletter we set off putting our best walking boots forward. It actually felt like it had been a while since we had done a strenuous hike.
There is some debate over how many types of volcanoes there are, three or four. Regardless of who is right Lassen has four, and we were going to hike up two of them. But, our first stop was Bumpass Hell. Named after Kendall Vanhook Bumpass (what a name!) who whilst guiding a reporter through the area in 1865 fell into one of the geo thermal pools. He was so badly burnt that one leg had to be amputated. The price of fame. Coming from New Zealand, the land of thermal wonders, you get a little blasé about bubbling mud pools but this little walk was impressive.
Tread carefully Mr. Bumpass
The following day we hiked to the top of Lassen Peak which is a plug dome volcano. Up bright and early to beat the rush, this 9 kilometre hike sees you gain a total of 596 metres. One side was so windy you were lucky not to be blown off, yet the other side it was baking hot with no wind at all. The views from the top are spectacular. It’s quite gratifying to heading back down when most people are just starting out. You also find a more civilized bunch of folk first thing, we started to call them the ‘EMC’ - Early Morning Club. We found a quiet spot at King’s Meadow for a lunch and even dipped our toes into the babbling brook that ran through it.
There wasn’t much on the wildlife front except for a mother deer and her fawn. Mind you the plague carrying chipmunks made up for that in sheer numbers. Chip and Dale never seemed so threatening.
Our next hike required us to leave the park and reenter 40 miles down the road at Butte Lake. This also meant taking the RV down a dirt track for the first time and not everything was as secure as it should have been. Cinder Cone is, yep you guessed it, another type of volcano and an amazing little hike. From the carpark the path its cinder chips all the way to the very top of this 6.5 kilometre walk that gains 250 metres. The steep path that winds its way around the side of the volcano is even harder coming down. It’s almost two steps forward one step back. Again we were thankful not to be doing this walk in the heat of the midday sun. The views from the top across the park were amazing, lava flows to one side, painted dunes to the other.
Cinder Coner
The campground at Butte Lake was incrediably quiet, we were the only one staying. At dusk another couple rocked up and said ‘hi’. It turned out they were experienced Burners and on their way to Black Rock City too. We shared a wine or two round the fire pit picking their brains. The whole fire pit thing took some getting used to especially when California is on extreme fire alert.
The next stop was Burning Man. After that we head to park number two, Yellowstone. The journey from Burning Man to Yellowstone is over 700 miles and took three days. Two of those were spent at Winnemucca decompressing and cleaning up eight crazy days worth of dust. We pulled into one rest stop by the side of a creek to find a sign warning about ‘New Zealand snails’. Now, I know we were driving a little slow but there was no need to be so rude.
Yellowstone, maybe the most famous of the national parks; Yogi Bear and Old Faithful two of its superstars. Established in 1872, Yellowstone was the world’s first national park. At nearly 3,500 square miles, it’s the eighth largest in the USA and number four for the most visitors. So leaving booking your campsite until you are driving through the gate is probably not the most sensible idea. Julie was frantically dialing the campgrounds looking for a space as we drove in. Thankfully we managed to grab a couple of nights at Grant Village in the south of the park.
Within a couple of miles of entering we came across bison grazing by the side of the road. These magnificent animals have been successfully reintroduced into a number of the parks. At the visitors centre we checked on a couple of day hikes as well as campsite availability. This centre had a huge picture window and sitting outside was a huge bison. Picture perfect.
Paints a thousand words
Yellowstone has the largest geo thermal activity in the world with hundreds of geysers and the star of the show, Old Faithful. Unlike Lady Knox Geyser at Wai-O-Tapu (Rotorua, NZ) Old Faithful does not need washing powder to kickstart an eruption. On our visit the eruption happened five minutes after the predicated time, which Julie guessed right. Not quite reaching it maximum potential of 186 feet, today’s eruption was still spectacular at somewhere below 100 feet.
There she blows
The Grant Village campsite was rather busy, all its 400 hundred sites full of RV’s of every shape and size. Situated by the edge of Yellowstone Lake, we had an easy stroll at sunset which was beautiful. I also tried to capture some of the zillions of stars and part of the Milky Way. Well I have been lugging a tripod around and had to put to use or somebody would have suggested it was surplus to requirements.
We were up bright and early the following day to try to secure a site at Tower Junction campground. A first come first served site and 50 miles away. Driving around the edge of the lake as the sun rose was stunning, amazing colours in all directions, shafts of orange light peeking through the trees. The only wildlife we saw were mule deer, very cute with extra large ears. We arrived just in time to snag a site, 30 minutes later the campground was full.
Sunrise over Yellowstone
Who you looking at?
One of the recommended walks is Mount Washburn so off we went. On the noticeboard at the trailhead was some bear safety information. Somebody had handwritten on the notice that they and another group of walkers had been charged by a large male grizzly just a few days ago. Hmmmm. Being cheapskates we had decided against buying/renting bear spray, so Julie armed herself with SPF50 sun protection spray and off we headed.
About quarter of mile along, the trail cut through a small thicket of trees. It was here that the aforementioned grizzly was sighted. We picked up the pace and started talking in loud deep voices; we drew the line at singing. This 10 kilometre round strip starts at 3,107 metres and climbs an additional 425 metres. On the way up we came across a flock of grumpy looking bighorn sheep. Even the lambs had that ‘don’t mess with me’ look.
It’s the highest peak in the park accessible by Joe Public and great swaths of Yellowstone are visible. On the horizon the mountain range at Grand Teton, an adjoining park. There is a fire lookout station that is still manned by a Ranger who spends summer in splendid isolation. Well once the day walkers have headed off for their lattes. It must be so peaceful to watch sunrise and sunset from here.
We made it back to the car without any bear encounters, somewhat relieved and disappointed at the same time.
Julie’s research suggested that the Lamar Valley would be a good place to spot wildlife so another early start was called for. We found a parking area overlooking the valley and switched to wildlife spotting mode. Now of course, we were properly equipped to spot wildlife, not. We listened with envy as a group next to us with a powerful telescope went on about a bear they could see foraging on the edge of the distant woods. All we could see was a herd of bison grazing and they were just dots on the landscape. Disgruntled we moved on further up the valley, stunning scenery but alas no wildlife.
Just more bison
Heading back we came across a dozen cars parked up. Slamming on the brakes and taking the RV off road we jumped out and there in front of us was our first grizzly bear, not more than 50 metres away. We managed to grab a couple of photos before it trudged off into the distance. Ha, who needs a fancy telescopes, the early morning start paid off.
Does my bum look big in this?
Back at camp, we had an even closer wildlife experience. A huge male bison was wandering through the site, eventually settling down feet from our RV. It spent most of the afternoon crashed out in sun occasionally rolling over to get an all over tan. We named our new pet ‘Benedict’. Late afternoon Benedict disappeared into the woods and despite our frantic searching he never came home, insert sad face.
The following day we upped sticks and mooched south, staying at Grant Village again. Along the way, we walked along the ridge of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. On one side, we visited Inspiration Point which was anything but inspiring. Unfortunately, an earthquake had made part of the canyon unstable and the viewing platform was closed. On the south of the canyon, we took Uncle Tom’s trail down 328 steps to the base of the Lower Falls. Going down the metal staircase was easy, coming back up the near 500 foot climb was a different story. Then we walked along the ridge to Artist Point, which offered a stunning view of the canyon and the multitude of colours that make up the canyon walls.
So there you have it, our first couple of national parks under our belt. A 1,000 miles into our 4,000 mile trip. We highly recommend both parks, they are so different. Lassen was small, quiet and offered some challenging hikes. Yellowstone was clearly busier but offered great wildlife opportunities. We could have quite easily spent another few days in Yellowstone, there is so much to see and do.
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