The best part of going out with equally crazy people is that everybody does their best to stick to the plan. Nobody shows the attitude of "being only 5 minutes late". The sunrise in town of West Yellowstone was certainly not that colorful as its sunset, but was definitely had an air of rise-and-shine-dear-travelers.
After a heavy breakfast at a log house McDonalds, we started off for further north. The day previous was from south to north, via west (and then rest at west). Today, we had the north, the east and then finally the south and then exit from the park. The first stop was the grand Mammoth Spring. A huge heap of dazzling limestone with smoking hot water cleansing it everywhere. This is one of those places where you actually feel the need of wearing a protective sun-glass. The disturbingly white reflection at that time of day only made me think how it must be to look at this on a full moon cloudless night... only heavens know.
As the day progressed, we got habituated with the openness of the place. Other than the pitch road and a few sign-boards on its sides, nothing else artificial was to be seen for long distances. The effort is not just for the preservation of the natural beauty, but also the preservation of the natural habitat of the native animals.
The list of things-to-see went on and we were finally on the surprisingly small two tiered wooden platform to see the Tower Falls. The first tier was not offering a good view (not sure, if it was due to my own height!), but the second (the higher one) was just perfect. A waterfall in the middle of all the green. It was barely visible where the fallen water was landing. As a matter of fact, Yellowstone National Park is still not completely known. The rangers still survey the land (sometimes from the sky) to look for anything which is still unknown - a hill, a waterfall, a hot geyser, anything. I guess, this possibility of the unknown has kept mother nature fascinating and full of wonders since the beginning of mankind! Its difficult to imagine what the human will do when it will assume to have known everything about nature.
I was expecting to run into that smell from the last day somewhere or the other, but there was not a hot geyser anywhere to be seen. Instead, it was cold in the extreme north of the hoop called Yellowstone Highway. And it seemed very thoughtful of the management to have built pullover points at those perfect bends and altitudes of the hilly road (cannot appreciate enough how skillfully our vehicle was driven on these roads). At places like these you somehow evaluate your existence, or may be the cause of it. You know you will drive away from this place in next 11 minutes, but for every second you remain there standing, you ask what is more worth of collecting in this life - paper and metal or some pure air in your memory.
The next point was the one to which I personally was looking forward the most. The Artists' Point. Undoubtedly, it looks like some serious painting effort by the creator. A picture perfect waterfall in the heart of grand welcoming arms of the canyon walls.
Standing there and looking directly at the eye of the fall gives you a feeling that it is looking back at you (although, it looks more like the stuck out tongue of Rolling Stones, but still...). And the moment you realize that the most beautiful thing present there is looking at you, it is needless to explain that overwhelming feeling of joy. And this place is not called Artists' Point for without a reason. Artists literally come to this place and paint their version of this fall.
There were more places where the group stopped just for the sake of getting out of the car and standing, there were many more pictures taken of the depth of the canyon, and also of the sharp bends of roads cutting through snowy forest grounds, but I probably wont be able to fill up the spaces around those pictures (not enough adjectives in my vocab), but one thing I can say - by the late afternoon that day, all five of us were not at all tired, but were neck-deep cheerful to have seen what we had seen in last two days. We now knew how we wanted our future trips to be like.
We came out of the park gates when the sun was still there and started to drive back to the Salt Lake City airport. We could not have thanked the sky enough to have remained cheerful throughout the weekend and occasionally putting on fashionable clouds with magnificent colors and shapes. We stopped at the town of Idaho Falls, had a really nice dinner at a local Olive Garden as mark of the accomplishment of our Yellowstone mission and finally at the airport, we got ourselves framed in a single shot: shoe-less, exhausted, sitting spread legs on the floor ...but gloriously cheerful!!
Huhh!! Till next time,
Cheers!
After a heavy breakfast at a log house McDonalds, we started off for further north. The day previous was from south to north, via west (and then rest at west). Today, we had the north, the east and then finally the south and then exit from the park. The first stop was the grand Mammoth Spring. A huge heap of dazzling limestone with smoking hot water cleansing it everywhere. This is one of those places where you actually feel the need of wearing a protective sun-glass. The disturbingly white reflection at that time of day only made me think how it must be to look at this on a full moon cloudless night... only heavens know.
The list of things-to-see went on and we were finally on the surprisingly small two tiered wooden platform to see the Tower Falls. The first tier was not offering a good view (not sure, if it was due to my own height!), but the second (the higher one) was just perfect. A waterfall in the middle of all the green. It was barely visible where the fallen water was landing. As a matter of fact, Yellowstone National Park is still not completely known. The rangers still survey the land (sometimes from the sky) to look for anything which is still unknown - a hill, a waterfall, a hot geyser, anything. I guess, this possibility of the unknown has kept mother nature fascinating and full of wonders since the beginning of mankind! Its difficult to imagine what the human will do when it will assume to have known everything about nature.
I was expecting to run into that smell from the last day somewhere or the other, but there was not a hot geyser anywhere to be seen. Instead, it was cold in the extreme north of the hoop called Yellowstone Highway. And it seemed very thoughtful of the management to have built pullover points at those perfect bends and altitudes of the hilly road (cannot appreciate enough how skillfully our vehicle was driven on these roads). At places like these you somehow evaluate your existence, or may be the cause of it. You know you will drive away from this place in next 11 minutes, but for every second you remain there standing, you ask what is more worth of collecting in this life - paper and metal or some pure air in your memory.
The next point was the one to which I personally was looking forward the most. The Artists' Point. Undoubtedly, it looks like some serious painting effort by the creator. A picture perfect waterfall in the heart of grand welcoming arms of the canyon walls.
There were more places where the group stopped just for the sake of getting out of the car and standing, there were many more pictures taken of the depth of the canyon, and also of the sharp bends of roads cutting through snowy forest grounds, but I probably wont be able to fill up the spaces around those pictures (not enough adjectives in my vocab), but one thing I can say - by the late afternoon that day, all five of us were not at all tired, but were neck-deep cheerful to have seen what we had seen in last two days. We now knew how we wanted our future trips to be like.
Huhh!! Till next time,
Cheers!
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