Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park

I cannot imagine what these parks are like in the summertime. Right now, in mid-September there are many, many people. The parking lots are jammed. Far worse than Thrifty’s on a Saturday afternoon. It can make sight-seeing a bit trying at times.

The main roadways in Yellowstone park are two circles making a figure eight. There are roads coming into the park in all four directions so you end up connecting to one of the two circles in the figure eight. We had arrived from the east and between yesterday and today we made a circle of the bottom of the figure eight. There are many, many places to stop. You can usually figure how worth it is to stop by the traffic jam created or the absence of parking places. However, you can be fooled. There are a few roads in the park that are narrow and you can drive in only one direction. Today, I was going down one of the these and decided to stop and take some pictures by the little stream that ran along the roadway. I’d only been stopped for about five minutes when several other cars had stopped and people had gotten out to see why I had stopped. I don’t think me crouching along the side of a brook taking pictures was exactly what they were expecting to find.

 

There is lots of wildlife. Everyone seems mad for the bison. I guess they do figure rather prominently in the advertising for the park. And you really do have to keep and eye out. This evening we are camped in Teton National Park. This afternoon I was strolling to the washroom and as I came up the path I discovered a big buck between me and the washroom door. He had a very impressive rack of antlers and seemed pretty laid back but I took no chances and found relief elsewhere.

Also on view today were waterfalls (lots of them):

The Yellowstone River:

And Yellowstone park’s Grand Canyon – a work in progress:

I was looking forward to Grand Teton National Park because of photographs I’ve seen of the lake and the huge mountains that rise up on the far side of the lake. There are no foothills for these peaks ... just bam ... there they are. However, there seem to be forest fires burning to the west and to the north and so today the peaks were just light grey outlines. Perhaps tomorrow will bring clearer skies.