If
you've never visited Yellowstone National Park, prepare to be amazed and
surprised. No matter how much you've heard about it, or read about it, or
pictured it, the reality simply must be experienced first-hand.
What
surprised me the most was the variety of the terrain. I expected plenty of
mountains and trees and geysers, but was unprepared for the vast meadows, the
giant lake in the very center of the park, and the beautiful broad rivers,
especially the Yellowstone river. Its pristine waters are the lifeblood of
the park, and take on many wonderful forms -- slow-flowing shallows, clear deep
pools rich with trout, powerful white-capped rapids, thundering
waterfalls. If I could take one thing home for my
backyard, it would be a piece of this extraordinary river.
Another
surprising thing about the park is its enormity. To see as much as
possible, you need to do a lot of driving. We drove at least a hundred
miles a day, and often twice that much, to reach areas distant from our camp.
The
final surprise to me was a not-so-pleasant one -- the extensive damage remaining
from the devastating 1988 fires. I can only dream what these forests must
have been like before, and wish I had seen them.
Fishing Bridge
RV Park, the only full-hookup camp inside Yellowstone, was cramped and a bit noisy. We watched
in bemusement one evening at 9:30 p.m. as a 40-foot motor home attempted to cram
itself into a 30-foot space, backing up right against the awning of the adjacent
trailer. But by the time we reached the park, we were accustomed to tight
quarters, and it was worth it to be deep inside the park. We did scope out
some other campgrounds with fewer services but a bit more space. Next time
we plan to have a generator to make us more self-sufficient.
While
at Yellowstone, we also took a drive through the Grand Tetons and into the town
of Jackson, famous for the Jackson Hole ski area. We chose not to stop
long in the town, since it was comprised mainly of boutiques and restaurants and
very little parking, but the views driving west over the pass were
spectacular.