Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Thursday 6, Friday 7 and Saturday 8 August

The first thing we noticed when we entered the Park was that travel was going to be a lot slower than we were expecting. Not because of the winding, high-elevation roads (although that slowed us down later as well). Just past the entrance, the driving slowed to walking pace. After a fair distance at this pace, during which I got out to walk alongside the road with several of the kids, we saw the first hint of what everyone had slowed down to look at. There was a very fresh pile of scat lying in the middle of the road. The traffic started to pick up at that point, and we all got back in the car. Soon we grabbed our cameras as we finally glimpsed the cause of all the fuss: a bison was lying comfortably by the side of the road. We were very excited to see a bison so close, a mere distance of several metres away. One of the Yellowstone Park rules is that bison may not be approached closer than about 25yds (20m), but of course this doesn't apply when the animal has chosen to lie itself down right beside a main road.

Coming in from the west entrance, the road follows the Madison River to the Madison Information Station, where the road branches north and south. We were planning to head south towards the geysers, fumaroles, hot springs and mud pots of the 'geyser country' in the Yellowstone volcano caldera. If you don't understand most of those words, don't be surprised; we didn't either until we learnt by seeing and reading the signs alongside the paths and boardwalks. We stopped at Madison to collect our Junior Ranger booklets and purchase a few souvenirs.

Our first view of a geyser was a steaming pool on the edge of a river and it drew great excitement. But that was nothing compared to the number of hydrothermal features (hot water spots) we saw over the next three days. I have been to Rotorua in New Zealand before, but this was even more amazing. There are over 300 geysers in Yellowstone. This is the greatest concentration of geysers in the world - over two-thirds of the world's geysers are in this park.

We walked along the Fountain Paint Pots boardwalk for almost a kilometre around hot spring pools coloured a deep blue by the single-celled microorganisms that are able to withstand the temperatures of 95*C. At the edges of the pools, the water has dried leaving white salt crystals. As the water runs out of the pools, it changes colour, from yellow to orange to brown to green as the water cools and provides the perfect temperature gradient for different bacteria or algae. It is an amazing testimony to the genius of our Creator that he has chosen to make a place so inhospitable to human life (think boiled alive) into the perfect habitat for creatures that would decorate their home with such lovely colours to delight the human eye.

Along the walk we also saw an example of mud pots, where the hot water that spews forth is so acidic that it breaks down the surrounding rock, creating a bubbling cauldron of mud. This one was typically muddy brown, but on our last day in the park we drove past Sulphur Cauldron, a mud pot which is a bilious green due to the sulphur dioxide produced by the thermo-acido-philes (heat and acid loving microorganisms) that make that muddy pool their home.

Finally we walked past several geysers. These are places where steam and boiling water jet into the air from underground, heated by volcanic magma in rock fractures below the ground. Geysers leak steam fairly continuously, in white clouds that billow forth bringing warmth and the occasional rotten egg smell. Some geysers spurt water fairly continuously, others intermittently. Of those geysers that go off in periodic bursts, some do so regularly and others are unpredictable. These differences rely upon the dimensions of the underwater reservoirs where water builds up under pressure before it finally jets forth to the surface. We heard a rumbling grumble from deep in the earth just before one of the geysers went off beside us. We were thankful to be on the boardwalk, with signs all around us warning us not to leave it lest we should step upon one of these geysers at just the wrong time, or break a hole through the thin rock crust to the boiling water below.

The most famous of the Yellowstone geysers is Old Faithful, where we arrived around 5pm. It was 'scheduled' to go off at 5:27pm, according to the Ranger's calculations posted at the Visitor Centre, which they base upon the length of the eruption before. Each eruption lasts between 1min30sec and 5min, and the shorter the eruption, the shorter the wait until the next one, with durations of 60min to 90min between eruptions. The Ranger's estimate has a +/- 10min window, and their prediction this time was well within these limits, starting at 5:31 and lasting for around four minutes. It was a very impressive sight, even if we were very cold from waiting in the rain for Old Faithful to release her waters.

Being far to the north, in the later month of summer, the sun is setting late here. We were able to eat some sandwiches in lieu of the lunch we had missed and then drive east to the continental divide, which crosses the park road at a pretty little lake strewn with lily pads. This means, rather strangely, that water from one end of the lake must drain to the Pacific Ocean in the west and water from the other would run towards the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Then we turned back and returned the way we had come, past Old Faithful and Madison. Just past Madison we once again slowed for traffic, which was lining the sides of the road as people stopped to watch mule deer browsing in the river-side meadow. We didn't stop for long because it was getting dark, but continued on to the western park entrance and our hotel in West Yellowstone, a mile outside the park border. There we enjoyed a very late dinner at the hotel restaurant before collapsing exhausted in bed.

The next day we all enjoyed breakfast at the hotel restaurant (kids ate free, hip hip hoo-ree!) before once again lining up to show our annual pass to enter the park. This time at the Madison junction we turned north, towards Mammoth Hot Springs. This is another of the more famous locations of the park, and we had seen lots of pictures of the vast hillside of terraced pools trickling water, which had raised our hopes. This late in summer, however, most of the pools were either dry or, at the very least, not overflowing, so the image of a waterfall that covered an entire bare hillside was not to be seen. It was beautiful, nevertheless, and I am very thankful that Mr Jackson left me waiting with the kids at the car while he walked down the steps and climbed back up again on his own. He arrived back at the top dripping sweat and gasping for breath (the altitude is well over 2km here, higher than any point in Australia), much like pretty much everyone else who chose to climb the staircases to the top. At Mr Jackson's suggestion, I walked down with the kids, while he drove the car down to meet us at the bottom near the Visitor Centre. There was one place where a hot waterfall still streamed and steamed down the white hill and through a series of terraced pools, orange with algae that flourished in the hot water.

At Mammoth, we ate sandwiches again for lunch and then listened to a Ranger talk on the management and mis-management of wolves in the park throughout the years. We were able to feel a soft wolf pelt (from a road kill victim) and a replica wolf skull, which caught Sam's imagination particularly. At one stage the Yellowstone wolves were hunted and the National Parks Service even had a bounty on their pelts. With a sudden decline in wolf numbers the elk population rapidly increased, since wolf packs hunt elk. The over-abundance of elk damaged the alpine meadows, and the open valleys became barren wastes. At their peak, there were 20,000 elk in the park, but since the re-introduction of grey wolves, the population of elk has stabilised around 7,000 (four of whom were grazing placidly on the green lawns by the Visitor Centre) and the natural meadows flourish once again.

Leaving Mammoth, we headed east, and stopped at a Petrified Tree. This tree, once a redwood, was covered by volcanic ash along with two of its fellows many years ago, and turned to orange stone in a similar process to that with which fossils are formed. The other two trees are no longer to be found, having been damaged by souvenir hunters who took pieces over the years, though they can be seen in photos taken in the early 1900s. Only one petrified tree remains, enclosed in a padlocked fence to prevent the same happening to it.

Across the car park from the ancient tree, we found the beginning of a backcountry trail to Lost Lake. We decided to hike this trail, and Mr Jackson quickly apprised himself of our can of bear spray and backpack with drinking water. This was the first - and only - hiking trail we walked without seeing other people the entire three days of our visit. It was pleasant to meander along, just our family for once, making quite enough noise to warn any nearby bears of our approach well in advance. Just a few steps down the trail we saw three large grey mammals sitting together on a fallen tree trunk, which I tentatively identified as pika. Then we followed the trail along the bank of a tiny chuckling streamlet, through an alpine meadow thick with pale, pretty wildflowers: white, yellow, purple, pink. We startled a ground squirrel or two, but saw nothing larger. Around a turn in the hillside, we glimpsed Lost Lake, thunder rumbling and warning us to walk a little faster. As we drew closer, a light rain shower began, and we took shelter under a tree whose bark had been stripped by elk or mule deer. The grassy soil close to the edge of the lake was spongy and springy, reminiscent of our trampoline at home.

On our way back to the car, the storm heralded by the earlier thunder broke upon us with heavy rain and sudden, sharp hailstones. We were soon drenched! Some of us were excited by the rain, but others were decidedly not. By the time we arrived back at the car park, the kids were well and truly ready to strip off their soaked clothes and dress in the raincoats we had naively left behind in the car. That marked an end to our adventures for the day, with Samuel very upset by his unexpected soaking, so we bundled into the car and set off for West Yellowstone again.

Our route this time took us south and west as we completed a clockwise circle of the upper loop of the park road, which forms a figure 8. We had now traversed all but the south-east portion of the road, and that would be tackled on our final day in Yellowstone.

Friday night we talked about our plans for Saturday and decided we must forgo my planned visit to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, where I had hoped to spend Saturday night before driving on to Salt Lake City for Sunday afternoon church. Instead we planned to visit Canyon Visitor Centre, at the centre of the eastern side of the figure 8, and then turn south to Grand Teton National Park, before overnighting at Montpelier, just inside Idaho.

This we proceeded to do after checking out of our hotel, one of the nicest of our trip so far. The line for the park entrance was the longest we had seen, over a mile, extending into the township of West Yellowstone. But once we were past this, the congestion eased, and before I knew it Mr Jackson was telling us all to get out at the Canyon Visitor Centre. This name refers to the nearby 'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone', the third famous landmark of the National Park, from which it takes its name. The Yellowstone River is the largest of many rivers that courses through the park, and just south of the Visitor Centre the river plunges over two mighty waterfalls and into a canyon so deep and wide that the eye cannot comprehend it. It truly rivals the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, which we shall visit next week.

The walls of the Yellowstone River Canyon flow with bands of iron-rich white, orange, brown and - of course - yellow stone, inspiring its name. Paintings of this canyon were instrumental in convincing the federal government to pass into law the act which created the first national park in the world here in 1872. We stopped at several vantage points along the north rim of the canyon, the first to view the Lower Falls, the second to admire the colour palette of the canyon walls and rushing water far below.

Time was getting on, and I was not a little frightened at the prospect of my children tumbling over the edge to the green water below. So we returned to the car and drove on to Fishing Bridge Visitor Centre, just in time to listen to a Ranger talk on bears and safety around them. The main rules are: walk in groups of three or more, make noise while you walk, always carry bear spray, and if you see a bear, don't run. Stand still, and use your bear spray if the bear comes any closer than 18m. If the still comes closer, drop to the ground stomach down with your hands over the back of your neck and stay there for 10-15min. (In the ranger's words, this will be "the longest 15 minutes of your life".  We didn't see any bears in the park, but it was good to know what to do just in case.

We did have several close encounters with bison, which are responsible for four times as many injuries in the park as bears are. This is because people underestimate the huge beasts and get too close for comfort. At one stage we came across a herd of bison grazing in a valley meadow, and emerged from the car to take photos, making sure to stay the recommended 25yds (20m) away. Even Sam was brave enough, with reassurance, to have his photo taken with bison in the background. Earlier, while driving through the Hayden Valley, a bison had crossed the road just ahead of us. He went grunting and snorting right past our car, as we stopped to give him as much room as possible. I could have reached my hand out the car window and touched his shaggy coat, but wisely kept my fingers on the camera shutter instead.

It was well into the afternoon when we exited from the south entrance of the park and crossed into the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway and then into Grand Teton National Park. Spectacular scenery abounded, but that will require another post, since we are about to arrive at our accommodations in Montpelier, Idaho (our 10th state).