Back to Jackson

Well I've seen some bear and wolves. Unfortunately they were at a rescue centre in town not in the wild, but were interesting non the less.

I went on a wildlife tour yesterday afternoon into the Lamar Valley and Mammoth area. Didn't see any new wildlife but it was nice to see the park at sunset. I've never been anywhere where you get so many different, fantastic views where ever you look.

I'm heading back to Jackson tomorrow and will be flying back the day after 

Video

I've put a video and more photos at http://gallery.me.com/philiphardy

Lower Loop

Some photos from the Lower Loop:

Storms

Well I just got back to West Yellowstone after a good day doing the Lower Loop (during which we drove through a thunderstorm) to find scenes of major destruction. Trees have come down all over the place, several hotels - including the one next door to mine - have major damage (or missing) sections of their roof and the Best Western, a few blocks down no longer has a roof (well it does, but it's in the car park upside down). I'm not sure quite what sort of weather caused it (it was sunny here this morning) and the storm we drove through in the park didn't seem this bad.

Luckily, my hotel is just how I left it.

http://www.kxlh.com/news/possible-tornado-causes-damage-in-west-yellowstone/

Yellowstone Upper Loop

Thursday was mainly taken with travelling up from Jackson to West Yellowstone through three states: Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. It was quite a nice scenic journey through the snake river valley as far as Idaho Falls. Although, as I was the only passenger for that part of the journey, the bus driver insisted on telling me everything he knew about England (even though some of it was about Scotland) without letting me get a word in edge ways, which is perhaps a shame for him as I feel I might have been able to provide some insight.

The next day I was picked up at 08:15 for a tour of Yellowstone's Upper Loop. The park's road system is in a figure of 8 formation dividing it into two loops. The lower loop covers most of the caldera and sees most of the geothermal activity. The upper loop is more mountainous and contains the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, although there's still plenty of volcanic activity to be had.

First to see was the Grand Canyon and its various waterfalls which are quite spectacular:

There was also a spot of bird watching here. There was a nest of Ospreys that were fishing and then feeding their chicks. Unfortunately I couldn't get any photos of this because they were too far away.

Lunch was taken at the cafeteria in the Canyon Village, which is a buffet or, as my tour guide excitedly put it - a trough. It was nice, and it was the first time I've seen any salad since I landed in America, but I didn't really have any idea what I was eating because none of it was labelled.

After lunch we drove over the Dunraven Pass to the other side of the Canyon stopping at a number of lookouts and waterfalls along the way.

Eventually we got to Yellowstone's administrative town of Mammoth. Home of the Mammoth Hot Springs and their calcium carbonate deposits. The hot springs change all the time, where there's hot water flowing they support the growth of multicoloured (orange, yellow and blue) archea, but where they are dry they quickly turn brilliant white. The guide took us to see one spring which, until five days ago had particularly active but is now completely dry and nearly all white already.

There wasn't any new wildlife today. We passed plenty of Buffalo and there was some Elk in Mammoth, but no bears yet.

I've fixed the links to the Grand Teton photos that weren't working.

Grand Teton

I'm told that President Roosevelt once said about the Grand Tetons "this is what mountains should look like". I have to agree. It's not the biggest, or the tallest mountain range in the world by any means, but its's certainly dramatic, steep and jagged - and comes with snow on top.

I had a tour of the Grand Teton National Park yesterday with an extremely enthusiastic and rather over qualified guide (Degree in the history of the Grand Teton and Yellowstone). Apart from seeing the obvious sights and some wildlife I've learnt a lot about the life of the original settlers in this area. And that is - it was difficult. Homesteaders, once they'd been allocated their land and built somewhere to live on it, had to stay for five years and make improvements to and money from their land. This was something of a challenge, given that the growing season around here lasts less than three months. Oats is pretty much the only thing that anyone grew successfully, but there's only so many oats people need. Cattle ranching was another option, and a popular one - this is deepest cowboy country, but life on a ranch was hard and the markets for cattle vast distances away. Infact, despite the natural beauty, it was an unpopular place to settle until someone realised that city folk would pay good money to come and see it. And here I am.

I haven't seen anything that might want to eat me yet, but I have got pretty close to a moose and some buffalo:

Thankfully my bag has turned up and I now have clothes and things. On to Yellowstone tomorrow.

Here

Well I got here. My luggage hasn't though. Last night when I arrived it was still in Chicago. Hopefully it'll turn up today. This is all down to the compete inefficiency of Chicago airport: The queue for immigration took over 90 minutes and by the time I got through I only had 40 minutes to get my connection (from a different terminal). My bag obviously didn't run fast enough.