Fascination
Exploring Yellowstone National Park is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. My earliest memory discovering Yellowstone is seeing an impressive aerial photograph of the Midway Geyser. I remember thinking to myself, “how can something be so colorful and vibrant naturally?” Later in life, I become more cynical. “The saturation on these photos HAS to be cranked, or at least heavily edited.” I would think to myself. So, when my mother asked if I wanted to go on a trip to Yellowstone, I was more than thrilled to go and see if the Midway Geyser lived up to my expectations.
I started my journey at the Eugene airport and it continued over to Denver, where I met up with my mom. She just finished driving from Indiana, through (in my opinion) some of the most boring and repetitive highway scenery in the entire United States. In other words, I think she was happy to have a co-pilot.
New Lands
From the airport, we began our six hour drive to the Wind River Reservation. Our destination was the Shoshone Rose Casino & Hotel. I can’t really mention anything notable that happened on this portion of the trip. I remember being very tired from work the night before and not being able to sleep very well before the flight. My mom and I caught up, ate some popcorn, then arrived at the hotel.
The hotel was quite luxurious, but I didn’t see or spend much time in the casino area. the bathrooms there were such a treat. I’m not used to having infinite hot water, so I definitely took the time to indulge in possibly the largest shower I’ve ever used. Then, after some much needed rest, we took off for Yellowstone.
It Begins
Leading into the south entrance of Yellowstone sits the Grand Tetons. I feel like an idiot for not noticing their beauty earlier, but one thing that caught me totally off guard was how breathtaking the Grand Tetons are! I wish I could have spent a few days exploring just this area, but I had a schedule to stick to, and all I had time to do was take a few shots from the shore of Jackson Lake.
Once inside Yellowstone, it was stop and go the whole way through. We were posting up and parking at just about every single scenic stop we saw. There were waterfalls and beautiful river valleys all over the place! It was a scenic overload for me. I was scrambling around and taking so many photos that I didn’t take my time to do the best job I could. I really hate feel neurotic at a photo location, but I didn’t have much of a choice with only 3 days at the park.
On our way to Gardiner, which is a town right outside of Yellowstone, we came across a Bison making its way across a field fairly close to the road. I was so focused on the first bison that I didn’t even see the other one that was about thirty feet from me! I ran back to the car to swap lenses and got some photos while I could. He seemed to not mind us at all and even walked towards us while he was eating. After some time a swarm of people began to slowly form around the bison and I took that as my queue to move on.
Day 2
The next day I woke up in Gardiner and went on to look for breakfast. Its a nice little town with a lot of small restaurants and a couple gift shop style places. It seems like its a tourist spot for half the year, and then seems to die down as it gets cold. I was there on the tail end of the tourist season, so businesses were beginning to hibernate for the winter. Once we got breakfast, we went back into Yellowstone. We stoped and checked out an awesome spot called Artist Point. I hadn’t heard of it before, but with a name like that, it has to be pretty, right? It was amazing, and there was even an artist painting the scene in front of us! Artist Point overlooks a giant valley with a river leading up to an enormous waterfall. The valley rim is made up of rocks that are various shades of yellow and orange with some of the rocks being formed into hexagonal salt pillars. Looking around, you can very much tell that you are wandering on geologically active grounds. The smell of sulfur in the air reeks of rotten eggs and is borderline unbearable in some areas. Signs line the walkways next to high activity areas. To prevent exploration, they illustrate a boy falling through the earth and perishing in a pit of boiling water. With all the reminders that Yellowstone is a volcano, you can’t help but feel slightly on edge while visiting.
The next destination we had in mind was Old Faithful. I was excited to see the famous geyser, but what I had in mind is not what I got. I thought it would just be one short spurt like a whale coming up for air. what I got was about sixty seconds of an amazing display of earths power! The water shot up so much higher than I thought was possible, and it kept going, and going! We got lucky and caught it while it was off schedule. apparently its a little less dependable than I thought, but that was to our advantage because we were late and so was Old Faithful. We only had to wait about ten minutes before the amazing natural display, then we were on our way to our way. We made way for the hotel, but had many stops in between. One area had a path all the way down to the river where I was able to see a man fishing. It was nice to take a longer hike rather than sitting in the car from place to place. After that, we went back to Gardiner for the night.
Final Day
For our last day, we headed back into Yellowstone to check out Mammoth Hot Springs. This was such an interesting spot. It reminded me of being on a live action movie set for Nightmare Before Christmas. the ground was a greyish white color with dead trees all over. The hot springs themselves created this terrace like effect that I had only previously seen in caves. The minerals from the water seem to accumulate and create beautiful shelves for gorgeous cascading falls. After the hot spring hike, my mother and I met back up and made our way to the grand finale, Midway Geyser.
Others might say I’m over exaggerating, but I feel like Midway Geyser lived up to all of my expectations. Even the scenery on the path leading up to the geyser was beautiful. there were small falls bleeding over into the river and the flow pathways were lined with minerals. These little streams had some beautiful rust coloration to them from all the mineral deposits. Crossing the bridge over the river onto the wooden walkway was breathtaking. Overlooking the hot blue pools lined with yellow and orange mineral deposits is something I wont forget. the geyser was spitting steam into the air making it a bit difficult to photograph. I had to protect my camera if the wind started to blow against me and I had to time out my shots to avoid a lens full of fog. The pool at the end of the walkway was absolutely amazing! the fine minerals and sands from the geyser formed a tiny desert under the water. the ripples of the sands made it appear like a google earth view of the Sahara Desert. After capturing this awe inspiring spot from every angle, I concluded it lived up to the hype.
To end the day, My mother and I went to go and check out the FDR Arch in Gardiner at sunset. The sunset was lovely and provided and nice backdrop for the monument. The next day we said goodbye to Yellowstone. It was tough, but we were on a schedule to get back and meet up with some more family. So even though we wanted to, staying wasn’t an option this time. I very much cannot wait to revisit and spend much more time in Yellowstone. I feel like I would recommend to spend a week to get the full experience. Even then, you probably wont see everything.