Category Archives: Travelling

Well as the title of this post goes, the national parks road trip has come to an end. Tomorrow it’s a driving day back down to Salt Lake City for the night before a flight out to Chicago the following morning.

In just over 2 weeks approx 2500 miles have been driven across 6 states visiting 5 national parks, an epic journey of sorts up crazy 12 lane interstates to quiet country highways. Parks were explored, trails hiked and animals spotted roaming the lands. Hopefully sometime in the future I can come back and do another road trip through some of the other 385 51 (correction: there are 392 national parks, but some of these are monuments or special areas like DC, only 58 exist in the sense of the ones I visit) national parks in the US.

If I had to choose which park I enjoyed the most it would actually be quite hard. I enjoyed every park visited as each was quite different to the next and also because they all had awesome geological backstories (if I wasn’t a computer person, I’m pretty sure I’d be doing something earth science related). But depending on what kind of trip person you are I’m sure some parks might not be everyone’s cup of tea (e.g. Grand Canyon NP is on the bottom of my list). That said on this trip I think I’d have to rate Arches as my fave closely followed by Yellowstone. Which is somewhat surprising as on first look Arches appears as a very uninviting place, a desert environment with rock in parts of it. But when you get out an explore it, there’s heaps of things to be seen and done.

As for Yellowstone, if you’ve got any fascination with volcanoes or earthquakes it’s the place to come visit. I would’ve loved to come here back when I was in Year 11/12 studying volcanoes and tectonic plates. The visitor education centres are brilliantly done and getting to see the earth’s forces at work is impressive. Plus animal spotting is a given here… don’t think there was a single day without seeing an animal… on which today spotted a coyote and some other animal that was not an elk (or bison)! Continue reading →

So had a super early start today planning to go to Mammoth in the morning to try and catch some elk herds. On the drive in though we saw an elk herd between West Yellowstone and Madison along with the bull elk sitting in the grass. Had to wait in some traffic due to roadwork on the way to Mammoth but eventually got there. Except there weren’t any elk there (yet). So we continued on to the Tower area to head partway into the Lamar Valley which is a known place to spot all the types of animals in Yellowstone. Didn’t see any new animals, but got to see more bison. Except this time they were in huge herds. And by huge I mean like > 50, with little calves and little bull calves play fighting. Had a semi close encounter with a giant herd too. Saw it by the road so pulled over in a pullout and walked back along to road to get some photos… which was all okay until the whole herd started moving towards us! Once we realised this, made a quick walking retreat back to the car as we weren’t sure where they were going. They eventually decided to cross the road right where we were standing a minute earlier. Pretty impressive seeing them all cross. Luckily they didn’t decide to sit in the middle of the road as when they do they can shut down traffic for hours.

After that headed back to Mammoth and this time road the elk were in town. These elk weren’t scared of humans so were happily sitting in the middle of the village in front of buildings. Elk at Mammoth are quite frequent and they have proper signs up warning you as there are lots of people in this area. Also rangers and volunteers to make sure no one harasses them. Did a boardwalk trail around the springs as well. Many of the springs are dormant at Mammoth, leaving behind pretty cool white terraces formed by the calcium from limestone that rose to the surface years ago. After that checked out the Norris area then headed back to town after another epic day. Thinking to take tomorrow easier and check out the falls in the Canyon area then decide what to with the afternoon.

Some pics from yesterday and today:

In the cold morning all the steam rising from the pools, springs and geysers looks a little kind of freaky!

The water is hot…

These guys decided to have a Sunday snooze next to the trail

The bands of colours are caused by different types of bacteria that grow in different temperatures

Hey there lone guy…

Yellowstone Lake

Bubbling mud at Mud Volcano. Smelt like rotten egg gas (hydrogen sulfide gas)

Bull elk

The bison herd before they headed for us… there was way more than shown in this pic

Elk at Mammoth Hot Springs

Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs Continue reading →

So today was a day of geysers, hot pools, hot springs, mud pots, rotten egg gas and close encounters with multiple bison and some elk. The park is absolutley huge and takes at least 1.5 days just to do the Grand Circuit road loop looking at the sights (which doesn’t leave much time to walk the boardwalk trails), so we decided to focus on the lower loop in particular the Old Faithful area as there are stacks of other sights to check out in this area.

On the drive in there was quite a number of elk and bison herds spotted in the plains. It’s rather easy to spot them as you just have to look for stacks of cars or cars randomly pulling over. Also saw a bull elk under a tree. If you keep your eyes peeled you can also occasionally spot a lone bull bison wandering by himself.

Back at the Old Faithful area we didn’t have too long to wait for her to erupt so we decided to watch it again as don’t think we’re going to drive back to this area. Then went on a walk of the boardwalk trail around numerous other geysers, springs pools etc. The walk was meant to be a few miles return until we got half way and couldn’t go any further as a herd of bison decided it was a nice sunny spot to have a sunbake right next to the trail. A ranger was actually there to stop people crossing both ways as these guys have horns and can charge at around 40km/h. So we had to backtrack and walk by the bike trail to rejoin which added I reckon at least 2 km to the walk as we also had to backtrack that to return – it was meant to be a loop!

After that epic walk it was food time, except hotdogs were $6.10 when in every other park they’ve been $2.00! I think it has something to do with bits of Yellowstone’s facilities like lodges and stores being run by an external provider? So a choc-chip cookie had to do. Then onwards to Fishing Village where coming down to cross the bridge we’re met with a mini traffic jam and a bull bison who had crossed the bridge and was taking a stroll up the road. They’re generally slow walking creatures except when they charge so cars were slowly making their way past though one guy towing a caravan freaked it a little and it did one of those leg stomp things you see before animals charge. Luckily it didn’t as we were the car facing it! There also happened to be a ranger here as well which was interesting viewing from the car, ‘cos I think the kids and parents got told to return to their car and the others – including the ranger – not near a car stood behind a signboard till he walked past them.

Whilst on the way back out, the same ranger was there and asked if we wanted to listen to the ranger talk which was meant to start. Since there was no one there we decided we would. It was actually pretty interesting. Another pair of people joined us midway and at the end it diverged into an animal spotting convo. Looks like there’s grizzlies and moose down Fishing Village way. And according to the ranger last night a pack of 4 wolves took out an elk (they had to remove the body today – otherwise bears will probably come). The other guy there had also followed a wolf’s trail along the beach but stopped once it disappeared into the forest.

Then it was time to head back to town where on the way out more traffic jams due to bison. Animals rule the park here and that’s fine… what’s annoying is the idiot drivers who try to outrun the jam by driving idiotically.

Tomorrow’s an early start, hoping to get up to Mammoth to watch elk in the morning – some guys down at the Tetons told us there’s stacks. Continue reading →

Left Jackson for Yellowstone this morning. Yellowstone NP mainly sits within the state of Wyoming but bits of it are in Montana and Idaho. Where we’re staying in the town of West Yellowstone is in Montana.

The park is actually situated on top of the Yellowstone Caldera which is still considered an active volcano. In fact Yellowstone is considered a supervolcano which means that its eruptions are pretty epic/huge events! Going through the park it’s quite clear the volcano is still active with lots of hot springs, mud pots, fumarole (steam vents) and geysers. Swimming in the hot springs is banned here and with good reason considering many of the springs have temperatures above boiling point!

There are boardwalks built so that you can safely check out the sights as the thickness of the earths crust is rather unpredictable. Walking on them you have to wonder about the poor guy who got the dangerous job to build it especially when there are pools of bubbling hot water that have appeared under the walkway! The smell isn’t too bad either. Only some of them smell like rotten egg gas and you can make it smell not as bad if you face your head so that it doesn’t blow into you when you breathe.

Got to catch Old Faithful do her thing as well. Pretty impressive. Depending on how long she erupts for they can predict to within 10 mins when the next eruption will be. Tomorrow it’s back for some more exploring of the geyser basins taking in the numerous walks around the different geysers and pools.

And as usual, some pictures. The first few are from Grand Teton yesterday…

Gotta contine the sign collection/posting. The one with me next to it wasn’t so great. Needed an unusual angle due to some Americans deciding it was an awesome place to have a convo right in front of the sign that people wanted to take photos off! Yes there are some occasional US gripes we have…

Hey there elk, how’s it going? This guy crossed us on the Signal Mountain trail. Grand Teton says to keep 300 feet (91 metres) but Yellowstone says only 25 yards (23 metres). At least this one didn’t have antlers.

View from the trail back towards the range.

Welcome to Yellowstone

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Elk at the basin right in front of the boardwalk. Lucky he didn’t fall through the ground into hot water!

Black Pool, West Thumb Geyser Basin

The different colours are caused by different types of bacteria that live at differing temperatures within the pool

Now this is a guy you don’t want to have a fight with… a bull elk I think?

Waiting for Old Faithful to erupt…

And there it goes…

Some fumaroles letting out steam. These sounded like an express train!

Me with some geyser in the Fountain Paint Pot area Continue reading →

Started the morning with a Skype call home, then headed back out to the NP to hike the Signal Mountain trail. On the drive in spotted 2 elk in the fields by the side of the road. Didn’t stop to take any photos though as there weren’t any pullouts. Little did we know that we were going to have a rather close encounter with one later on.

Parked at the Signal Mountain Lodge and followed the instructions to backtrack down the road and to the start of the trail (which started just randomly by the side of the road!). And after about 50 metres of walking into the forest a freaking huge elk walked across in front of us and decided it was a nice spot to have a bite or two. And as much as we tried to be the safe distance of 300 feet (91 metres) away as recommended, it’s a little hard when this giant creature decides to just walk on by in front.

Whilst watching/taking photos, we spotted a couple walking back down the trail towards us. They saw us watching, and with some hand signalling communicated there was a huge animal to their side. They made they’re way down quietly and slowly so as not to startle the elk. We all stood there for a bit talking and watching until the elk decided to look up and make a move back towards the trail so we all safely retreated backwards so as not to get in it’s way. The couple continued on their way out of the trail whilst we stood and pondered whether we try and sneak past the elk which would have required getting within 10 metres of it. I decided I wasn’t game to take on an animal if it charged so waited a bit for it to go on its merry way. It definitley knew we were there as when I snuck back up the hill to see if it had moved it had its head facing my way. Once it moved on we continued the hike, me slightly paranoid of any other encounters we may have especially since the couple had come across a ranger on their walk who had told them about a bear they had just shooed away. Luckily no other animals apart from squirrels and birds were spotted on the trail.

The trail was quite pretty winding it’s way through forest as well as open meadows. And I could totally understand why the animals liked it. There was good foliage cover, ponds to drink from and open plains to hang in. Plus no where near as many people as the trails around Jenny Lake. In fact we only came across 2 other hiking pairs on the trail.

Tonight it’s back to The Gun Barrel for dinner. Just a little bit more pricey than what we’ve usually been eating, but really delicious, and not that expensive by Australian standards really. The restaurant also serves game steak – think I should try elk or deer for dinner? Continue reading →

Started this morning with a mid morning hike up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. Instead of walking around Jenny Lake we shortcutted it a bit and caught the ferry across, cutting of a couple of miles. As much as I’m enjoying the walking/hiking, I’m on holidays so anything up to around a 4 mile hike is good (1 miles = approx 1.6 kilometers). Anything else requires just a little to much effort… So instead of a 6 mile walk it became 2 and a bit miles.

Hiking/walking in Grand Teton is quite different from Canyon Country in Utah. The weather is a lot cooler for a start and another key difference is that it is bear country. Didn’t stumble across any bears today (thank goodness), but according to the animal spottings board, yesterday further up the trail at Cascade Canyon a black bear was spotted and a moose at Inspiration Point. No animals spotted by me whilst hiking today though… Except for I think what looked like an eagle of sorts and squirrels.

After the walk it was time to refuel with the good ‘ole meal of a NP hotdog. Then it was time for a bit of a drive to various lookouts, in an attempt to see some animals. But it seemed like the animals did not want to be spotted. Though it was mid afternoon so they probably we’re snoozing.

Tomorrow I think it’s the Signal Mountain trail/hike then I think laundry matters call…

View from trail on the way to Hidden Falls

Hidden Falls. A local here told us that in spring the falls have way more water, and the spray reaches you from the viewing point.

Be bear aware!

Inspiration Point, 7200 feet. The actual trail went way higher than this. Followed it for a bit more, but the canyon fork was still 3.3 miles (5 km) away when we headed back round.

View of the ranges from a viewpoint

Oxbow Bend Continue reading →

Am living it up in Jackson, Wyoming for the next couple of days, the main reason being to visit Grand Teton NP. Left SLC around 7am and decided to put faith in the GPS. Google Maps had provided 3 possible routes, the NPS site 2, but the GPS did not pick the same route that Google said was the quickest. Ended up going with the GPS option as it seemed to take more interstate which usually means faster. Think we picked the correct route as we ended up at our destination in about 4.5 hours – much better than the 5.5 hours of alternative routes.

The route had us go up the I-15 instead of the I-80 then wind our way through the backroads of country Idaho. How do you know they’re backroads? When signs tell you there’s no service for the next 70 miles. Freaky part, when your hire car decides to have the maintenance light come on just as you enter the road with no service and you madly flip pages of the car manual trying to work out if something is wrong. Turned out it was okay. These new fangled cars have lights come on when they think they need a service – i.e. at 5,000 miles.

Eventually made it to Jackson but it was too early to check in, so headed on up the road to the NP. Had a drive around the Jenny Lake area and looked at the Teton Range. The Teton Range was pretty awesome as even though it’s not winter yet there is snow at the peak and you can easily see the glaciers on the mountain. Very pretty. Then made the drive back to town via Antelope Flats Rd. There’s a view from this road of the Tetons that I’d seen a few years ago and it was my mission to go via this road and see it myself with the Mormon barns in the fields in front of me. Call it one of the things on my [non-existant] bucket list. That and it’s also a known place for wildlife viewing. And Antelope Flats Rd did not fail me. I saw the postcard view and spotted animals in the wild. I’m not quite sure whether it was antelope, deer or pronghorn but think it was either of the last 2 as antelope have horns (horns don’t shed each year). Also saw herds of bison roaming the plains. Got some photos but it might be a bit hard to see without zooming in. Can’t get too close to the animals as they can attack/kill.

The Teton Ranges, snow capped with glaciers!

Jenny Lake

View from Antelope Flats Rd

View from Antelope Flats Rd, overlooking a barn on Mormon Row

Is it an antelope, deer or pronghorn? There were quite a few of these, but this guy stuck his head up in the right direction.

Bison. These guys can charge at you, so it was 22x zoom for this. Continue reading →

So checked out Temple Square in downtown today. In case you didn’t know, Salt Lake City is the world headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormon Church). Temple Square features a number of buildings some historical, some more modern, but all nonetheless important to the LDS church.

It was a bit of an experience to say the least as the grounds were filled with Mormon sister missionaries who whilst friendly, seemed to outnumber the tourists, at least whilst we were there. It seemed like the questions they asked were scripted, so having the same convo like 6+ times in a row felt a little intense. I even got the offer to have a missionary come visit me back home in Australia, which I politely declined.

After that a little city hike up a hill to the capital building which is in a residental area at the edge of downtown followed by a visit to the library for a roof view then to the shopping centre.

SLC is one of these cities where public transport in the downtown area is all free. Something that was made use of today, as having walked stacks of city blocks yesterday was actually kind of far! Interesting experience of the day the University line TRAX seemed to have interesting characters to say the least. Like a guy who just got released from jail that morning who was dropped at the Sandy line with some money to get him back to Portland.

Anyways it’s onwards tomorrow to Wyoming. Let’s hope the I-80 isn’t crazy! Continue reading →

After a good few days in Moab where fun was had in the parks it was time to move on to Salt Lake City for a couple of days rest before continuing the National Parks adventure. The drive for the most part was straight forward until the interstate was met just out of SLC. Let’s say the I-15 was absolutely crazy. I don’t recall even the drive last time from LA out to Vegas being as crazy! This was like 12 lanes of traffic (6 each way) with road work and entries/exits every few miles. Way intense.

But made it safely to the Red Lion Hotel in downtown. SLC is the capital and largest city in Utah but it’s downtown doesn’t see that busy at all. Nothing like the Sydney CBD. The whole city is built on a grid system so it’s quite easy to navigate except that streets are split into either north, south, east or west depending on their relation to Temple Square.

Got a few things to check out tomorrow morning but other than that it’s more or less a rest day before hitting the road again. Continue reading →

So yesterday evening after eating a filling dinner (this hiking thing makes me very hungry!), headed back into Arches to watch the night sky. The park is open 24 hours and there’s no lights for miles so it made for fantastic star viewing. I have never seen so many stars in my life. In fact it was so clear and dark that the Milky Way looked exactly how you see it in the pictures, the hazy band of white easily visible. Also saw two shooting stars! No pictures though as not quite the right equipment…

Then this morning headed out for more hiking of sorts. Went to the trail at the end of the road through Arches planning to checkout Landscape Arch then go on to Double O Arch. Except getting to Double O Arch was damn freaky so turned back halfway. It was very windy and you literally had to ascend to the top of rock fins and walk across them. Walking across the second fin and getting to a spot where you had to jump a gap was enough for me. It was super cold, very windy and this particular rock fin was the higest freaking rock anywhere around me. Didn’t trust that if it got more windy on the return I’d be able to comfortably walk/jump across the top. So headed round and checked out a few side spur trails to other arches.

After that headed back to the RV park for some rest before heading to downtown Moab in the hunt of coffee. Then it was back for some holiday chores… i.e. laundry! But jumped in the pool/hot tub (spa) whilst it was washing to pass the time.

Tonight it’s time to pack before the drive to Salt Lake City tomorrow for a day of rest before heading on to Wyoming.

Early morning at the trailhead

Landscape Arch – the worlds longest natural arch. Can’t walk under it anymore as a chunk of it broke of a while back unexpectedly.

The first fin that had to be climbed. This one wasn’t bad… it wasn’t too tall and was protected from the wind.

This fin though was freaky as! It’s the rock on the left, which doesn’t look too bad in the photo. Except that it’s width on the top is my height at most, is taller than every other rock nearby (for perspective those fins to the right are actually a lot lower), and had a freaking crack in the middle you had to jump! Remember no rails… So made the decision I wasn’t prepared to continue as it was too windy for me to feel okay walking across/jumping rocks that high up.

Instead we walked to this… hmmm and I seem to be wearing the same clothes again. Continue reading →