Its been an year and month passed, still I cherish the adventurous most memorable trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone national park. If you are looking for some outdoor activity and want to enjoy the nature at its best its a place to go. After a long routine, we wanted a break and just didn't want to go sight see some place or relax under tree we wanted to hike, see something very extraordinary, experience nature, see wild life and that's what led us to select Tetons and Yellowstone visit.
We had to travel from Cincinnati, our itinerary we flew to Denver and then to Salt lake city which was followed by road trip to National parks. Once you start driving in Salt lake city towards the parks we get to experience beautiful skyline of mountains. The road trip is five hours after air travel it seems long but its fun. Totally we had been for five days. Two days of travel and spent rest in two parks, we fell short of time as there is so much to see and experience.
We had planned half a day at Tetons, but the plan went for a toss as we were mesmerized by the beautiful mountain ranges and just couldn't stop trekking amidst the stunning proud ranges. The trek was mostly easy with few strenuous path occasionally but what kept us going on and on is the scenic landscape, with thick grenery where we could spot some wild life, mostly got to see elks then all of sudden you see a rocky patches this is where we were looking to spot bears, then we see streams. All these inspired us trek for 15 miles, though exhausted it was bliss for eyes and heart. The day ended with us reaching Yellowstone,as we were entering the park welcomed us with a beautiful sunset view.
We started the next day early, and headed straight to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The bright sun rays cut the water sharp, the view was as if there were pearls flowing the shine surely squinteed the eye. The morning freshness added to the beauty of falls, the clamness in surrounding made the place near to heart and to just stare at the water and the way it flowed forming a canyon was awesome, there were few hot springs along the walls of canyon the color of the stone which form canyon was mostly yellow, meaning lot of geothermal activity in process .All the trails to canyon are beautiful mostly thick tall green trees forming an canopy.
The most happening in Yellowstone national park are the hot springs, fumaroles, mud pots, travertine terraces and geysers which are spread across the park which makes it highest concentration of active geysers in world. Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest hot spring in United States, the bright colors, with blue center surrounded by orange to red which is due to activity of bacteria and temperature of water, the whole spring looks attractive with lot geothermal activity going in silently as the temperature of water in springs isn't enough to produce eruptions. Fumaroles are the hottest thermal features.
Mud Pots are fun to see but they smell really bad, some what like rotten egg, its again microorganisms in action, they use hydrogen sulfide gas and convert to sulfuric acid which breaks the rocks to clay. Mammoth Hot springs are the terraces formed from limestone, the surface of terrace is chalky white due to travertine a form of limestone deposited from the thermal water. Coming to Geysers, the park is hub of lots of active geyers, they erupt hot water periodically. Some eruptions of geysers are predictable, eruptions timings of such geysers are available in the information centers. The famous among them is Old Faithful geyser, as the name suggest its eruption is always faithful and occurs approximately every fifteen minutes the sight of eruption resembles a water fountain except in this fountain you can't go and drench yourselves. Before planning to visit this park I had no idea about all these geothermal features, slowly started to read about them and thanks to wiki got to know lots from it. Being amidst nature we surely spotted many wild life, grizzly bears, elks, deers and bison's. Bisons were almost everywhere, we saw them lazily grazing, relaxing next to hot springs and geysers,strolling across road, one bison just crossed in front of our car.
Being in such a remote place, we were prepared for the rough rustic stay but every halt we made the cabins and rooms in the park were way better than our expectations. My favourite among all is Old Faithful lodge, situated opposite to Old Faithful geyser, the architecture is awesome the lodgings with in park are affordable.I really appreciate the way both these parks are maintained and for making this adventurous trip a life time memorable for every vistor.
