18th September 2012
How have I managed to travel for a year around the world, staying in over a hundred different lodgings, and never left a single thing behind in our room? And then I come to America for two weeks and leave my satchel including my wallet in a cabin at Signal Mountain Lodge? Which meant a 6am start for the three hour drive back to fetch it, so that our next day in Yellowstone could begin sort-of as normal.
We explored a couple more geothermal areas while heading north, but after the somewhat underwhelming Norris Geyser Basin decided that we were totally geysered-out. In the afternoon we discovered a scrum of cars on the roadside near Yellowstone Canyon that turned out to be caused by an elk carcass nearby that had a wolf on it. Or rather, had a wolf on it some time previously. Now it was just a feast for ravens, but wolves being the main show in Yellowstone there were plenty of people willing to stake out the meat. We decided that we’d head back here the next morning.
The Yellowstone Canyon is worth a mention. We wandered down to check out a viewpoint, and it’s a grand sight. However, I have to reluctantly conclude that we’ve seen quite a lot of canyons and gorges in our travels. I wasn’t underwhelmed, but I definitely wasn’t overwhelmed. I suppose I was just about whelmed? I’d probably say the same about the whole park. At first light or dusk there are beautiful spots, and in particular the bright gold and burnished copper of the turning aspen trees against the dark green pines is wonderful. But for sheer natural beauty I’d say Grand Teton, Yosemite and the Canadian Rockies have it beat (just picking from the same continent). Then again, Yellowstone has the bubbling geothermal features and the iconic wildlife, so is arguably a more diverse diversion. Me being me, I’d probably pick the Canadian Rockies as favourite for having less visitors!
Anyway, that’s the Yellowstone trio: steaming geysers, traffic-arresting wildlife and pretty panoramas.
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