Muneesh (Muni) , Narendra (Naren), Saurabh (Gole) and myself planned a road trip to Yellowstone National Park for the Independence Day (4th July Weekend). Yellowstone is at a distance 910 miles from Davis We reserved campgrounds for two nights so that we could spend all our time within the national park.
We set off on Wednesday, the 2nd of July 2003. We rented a Dodge Intrepid from National, courtesy Muni's Emerald membership with National, which he secured from somewhere. The Intrepid is really spacious, it has a huge trunk, which was a big plus. Apart from tents, sleeping bags, pads, blankets, we carried huge supplies of food. Muni being a food connoisseur and an excellent cook, had stuffed the car with all tastes and varieties of food. You name it, noodles, chips, Gatorade and water in an ice tray, chicken, eggs, Haldirams, we carried it all. In fact a 121 item checklist was circulating and we were wandering through the alleys of Walmart and Safeway the day before, quarreling about what and what not to buy.
We set off at about 7:00 in the evening from Muni's house, with Gole at the drivers seat. The traffic on I-80 was dense, and it was 9:00 when we reached Reno. We had a buffet dinner (after bickering over options for a long time before realizing that no alternative would fit the tastes of all four of us), and then set out to gamble. We played the roulette, I being the conservative gambler played only with 50 cent chips, while Gole and Muni played with $5 crowns. It was 11:30 when we decided that we had lost enough, and that it was time to move ahead.
I took over the driver's seat. 80 East in Nevada is pretty desolate, you hardly see any traffic at night. Sometimes miles pass before you see a car in your direction. The speed limit is 75, but I was driving well past 90, sometimes 100 in some stretches. We reached Cirman around 3:00, from where Muni took over. Although he managed to loose the way by missing a highway exit, we reached Twin Falls, around 550 miles from Davis at 6:00 in the morning.
The mention of Twin Falls is important, because it hosts the last Costco en-route to Yellowstone. This played a important part in Muni's plans. All remaining supplies, like beer, fruit, milk, and ice were planned to be picked up from the Costco. The only glitch, Costco opens at 10:00 while it was 6:00 then, and Muni was painfully disappointed.
We marched ahead, Naren being at the wheel this time. We reached Pocatello at 8:00 where we had breakfast at I-Hop. A Walmart was next to it, so we picked all supplies from there. It was 1:30 in the afternoon when we entered the realm of Yellowstone. We had expected the place to be dry, however it was abundantly green. Roads were very picturesque, trees lined up symmetrically on both sides. Our first stop was at the Old Faithful Geyser. This geyser derives its reputation from being periodic in its eruptions, once every 80 minutes. When we reached there, we found large numbers of people surrounding the geyser on the pavement, around 100 feet away from it. We could see steam coming out of the geyser hole, with spurts of water sometimes. With every spurt of water, people would stand and clap, with great expectations of finally seeing the geyser in its full majesty. When the geyser finally erupted, it was simply awesome. Hot water arose quite high, around 300 feet from the ground, and the wind blew the steam in one direction. People clapped in enthusiasm, some taking shots in their cameras and camcorders. A picture of Old Faithful in full glory is below, courtesy Muni's digital camera.
After a quick lunch, we set forward, reaching the Bridge Bay campgrounds adjacent to the Yellowstone Lake at around 5:00 in the evening. We had reservations here, but the NPS officer found it difficult to locate them, Naren's last name `Singhal' having being spelled as `Finghal' when the reservations had been made. Finally, we were allotted campsite D 216.
The campground was pretty open, a grassland surrounded by trees, and a having view of the lake. We quickly started setting up the tent, and this turned out to be difficult because of the strong wind. We ultimately took shelter behind a rest-room building :(, where we could give shape to the tent by inserting poles at the right slots. We then carried the tent to the campground, where Gole did an excellent job of nailing the ends of the tent to the ground. This was indeed difficult, because we had to stretch the tent in all directions so that we could have the maximum space, and the sides of the tent would not fall on our face when we slept. Having done all this, we proudly posed for a photograph, which is below.
I, Naren and Gole set off for a shower. When we returned, we were treated to one of the most delicious dishes of chicken I have tasted, prepared by Muni. Eating bread toast, and chicken while enjoying the breeze from the lake was refreshing and drove the tiredness of a sixteen hour drive. Our appetite having being met, we set off for a drive around the lake. We spotted some bisons. Muni had taken out his Walkie Talkies, so it was fun goofing around with them.
We fell asleep around 1:00 am. Although it was near freezing point outside, the sleeping bags and the tent provided sufficient warmth. Early in the morning I woke to Muni proudly exclaiming that he had seen a wolf just outside our tent. Before he could recover his camera to take a picture, the wolf had vanished. Because of lack of evidence and Muni's bluffing reputation, we disputed his version of the incident although the next morning we did find prints of an animal's paw near our fireplace.
We were up by 8:00. I prepared scrambled eggs while Muni boiled some eggs. It took some time to decide on the day's plans. Any decision-making process was always slow, each of us had different ideas, and no-one was usually willing to accept ideas other than his own. Finally, we set off northward, in the direction of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon.Our first stop was at Mud Volcano. This is a site of numerous hot geysers and pools from which mud keeps ebbing out. As we neared the pools, we could hear the hissing sound of water and mud spurting out. Also there was a strong smell of sulfur and rotten eggs. After much debate over taking a hiking trail around the geysers and ultimately being helped by a lady who mentioned that it was worth it, we undertook a half mile hike. Apart from mud pools, we had glimpses of the evergreen Hayden and Pelican Valleys, which are known to be abundant with wildlife.
The stretch of road from Mud Volcano to the canyon, is almost parallel to the Yellowstone river. It is very scenic, particularly because you can always hear the splashing sound of water against the rocks as you drive. We briefly halted at a couple of places where there were good picnic spots and we took a few snaps.
On reaching the canyon, we drove along the south rim road. Our first stop was at the head of uncle Tom's trail. Here we had the first view of the Lower Yellowstone Falls. The falls are pretty impressive, the drop would be around 50 feet. Our next stop was at Artist Point, one of the most photogenic spots in the Yellowstone valley. The view of the canyon from here is truly remarkable. You have a perfect view of the two sides of the canyon, and the river flowing at the bottom. The rock and sand here are predominantly yellow in color, from where the park derived its name. The reflection of sunlight in the rocks gives a spectacular glittering appearance, and you are instantly reminded of the settings in Western classics like Mackenna's Gold. Below is a photograph of the view from Artist point.
The drive along the north rim offers similiar views on the other side of the canyon. Having explored all the spots there, we drove westward towards towards the Norris Geyser basin. Midway our drive we spotted a group of cars parked, and immediately pulled over. A couple of bison were meandering in the grasslands. Muni immediately took out his SLR and the telephoto lens and began shooting. Gole in his usual jovial mood was offering all kinds of poses with the bison in the background. It was truly amazing that the bison were not distracted by the tourists barely 50 feet from them, and were quietly busy in their own activities.
The Norris geyser basin is full of colorful geysers. The color is owing to the various minerals dissolved in the hot geyser water. The colors were mostly in various shades of blue, brown and orange. The emerald spring and the cistern spring are the most famous here, a glimpse of emerald spring provided below. We met Mohua, one of the alumni from UCDavis and her husband here.
Our next destination was the Mammoth Hot Springs, which we had nicknamed 'Mehmood'. This area is different from the other parts of the Yellowstone valley. The predominant landscape is of terraces of mineral deposits, particularly limestone, formed by the hot springs ages ago. The terraces has distinct colors, again owing to the composition of minerals deposited. The drive through the upper terraces offers remarkable views of the terraces below. The drive also takes you through a spring known as Spring Bubble, which is distinct for water flowing out from all sides. This area also offers good restaurants and cafeteria. We had lunch of sandwiches and water melons. Thereafter we hiked through the lower terraces taking beautiful snaps, one of which is below.
It was evening, approximately 5:00 pm by now, and we commenced our return drive to our camp. We drove towards the north eastern entrance so that we could complete a full circle. We took a detour of 7 miles along an unpaved path through the grasslands in the hope of spotting wild animals and good plant-life. Alas we were not rewarded in our efforts, and the only animal we managed to spot was a grizzly bear, that too with the help of other tourists who had stopped by. The drive back took us through the Tower and Uldine Falls. The Uldine falls is known for the three distinct steps of waterfalls. We pulled over at a place where numerous tourists had aggregated, and spotted a herd of at least twenty bisons, resting in the grasslands, around one mile from us
Before returning to our campground we took a shower at a place near Fishing Bridge. We were back at our campgrounds at 9:00 pm. While Muni cooked Uttapams, myself, Gole and Naren started the campfire. Luckily tonight was not very windy, and with the help of kindles, the dry wood caught fire very easily. Within half-an-hour, we had a nice fire burning. The uttapams turned out to be pretty delicious and heavy. We surrounded the fire from all sides, and ate uttapam and drank bear to our hearts' content. We took a number of snaps of our campfire, one of which is below. Thereafter tired and exhausted, we retreated to our tent and played one round of judgment. My midnight we were all dozing.
Muni was the first to be up in the next morning. We were supposed to check out of the campsite by 10:00. It took some effort to pack the tents and the sleeping bags. We spotted some bison meandering near our campgrounds and set out to explore. After checking out, we drove southwards along highway 89 towards the Grand Teton National Park with Naren at the wheel. This national park is famous for its scenic driveways and its scow clad mountain peaks. Highway 89 coasts parallel to the Jackson Lake. This lake is very calm and quiet. The reflection of the mountain ranges on the other side in the placid water is amazing. Trees are lined up on both sides of the highway. Unfortunately a park ranger pulled over Naren over here, and he was fined for driving at 75 in a 45 mph speed zone.
Having received a ticket, Naren insisted on driving all day. Our next stop was at Jackson. This small town serves as a gateway to the Yellowstone valley for most of the tourists, and hence is very lively. We were tempted to have lunch here, but on second thoughts decided to move ahead. We drove along highway 89, which led us though a number of national forests. This highway is very picturesque, and the speed limit is usually 55. Although we made very slow progress, we enjoyed our drive with all the windows of the car open. Most of the places here are very thinly populated, and even towns of reference in our maps turned out to have a population of 100 only. We finally reached Montpelier at 3:00 in the afternoon, where we had burgers and ice cream for lunch. Thereafter Muni took over the drivers seat. We stopped briefly at Bear Lake. This lake is visible from the highway even from a great distance. The color of water here is amazingly blue. Compared to the Yellowstone and Jackson lakes, this lake was far more active in terms of water sports and people at the shore.
We reached Salt Lake City around 7:00 in the evening. Our first destination was the great Salt Lake. Surprisingly, we found the place deserted. At the main complex, even the rest-rooms were closed. The lake, famous for the very high concentration of salt, doesn't have much life in it. On nearing the lake, I found it to be an active breeding ground for mosquitoes and insects.
We drove to Temple Square in the heart of Salt Lake City. Temple Square hosts the magnificent Mormon Temple, and the assembly hall. The Mormon Temple is the most important landmark of the Mormon Christian faith, and is the most visited destination for tourists in Utah. The temple surroundings are calm and serene. We briefly attended the proceedings in the assembly house. Muni then got hold of two sisters, one from Romania, the other from the United States who led us around the temple, explaining us the history and the faith of the Mormons. Muni was the most enthusiastic asking most of the questions. The look on Gole's face clearly showed his frustration. The sisters here are very friendly. We would remember the sister from Guatemala who came running 50 feet, so that she could help us take a group photograph. It had turned night now, and the Mormon temple was lighted. Against the background of dusk, we could see the magnificent Capitol building.
After much debate over the choice of dinner, we finally settled on Hooters. We were treated to a very nice dinner of roasted and grilled chicken.
We started from Salt lake City at 10:00, with me at the wheel. We stopped for refueling at Wendover. This interesting town is located on the border of Utah and Nevada. On the main road, the Nevada side of the border is lit with numerous casinos, motels and a big hotel. The Utah side is deserted !!! I drove a long stretch till Battle Mountain which is around 320 miles from Salt Lake city. We reached here at 2 in the morning. Muni took over from here, and I went to the rear seat to sleep. Muni drove till Reno, where we reached at around 5. Naren took over from here, and we were back in Davis at around 7:30. Thus came an end to a fascinating road trip.
Amitabha