Yellowstone

The Holy Grail of the National Parks?

It is impossible to describe Yellowstone in one little blog post… but I’ll try nevertheless.

We arrived in West Yellowstone, Montana on Sunday evening, July 19^th. Despite the fact that we were tired from our 6 hour drive, we were too excited not to visit Yellowstone National Park right away. And we soon realized, we were in for a treat… Granted, the park is very touristy (roads and paved walks lead you right up to the action) but that didn’t spoil our fun at all.  For the two and half days we were there, we woke up very early and stayed very late. When most of the crowds had left, the wildlife came out and the lighting was perfect.

First of all, I have never seen so many geysers, mudpots, colorful hydrothermal features, fumaroles, … in my life and I have been to Iceland. These are just a few examples:

Of course, we also checked out the Old Faithful, the famous geyser which has been attracting crowds since the 19^th century. The geyser erupts every 92 minutes, we waited patiently together with hundreds of other tourists… Maybe not an example of beautiful, unspoiled nature but at least a nice caption the kind of crowds this park attracts.

But Yellowstone is not only about volcanic activity… there is also Yellowstone Lake:

… and the canyon, described as the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone:

… and waterfalls:

… and wildlife:

We spent about two and half days in the park but it feels more like a month since we’ve seen so many different things (and probably also because we spent about 14 hours per day in the park). We heard a lot of different languages while we were there, and I know this park is a very popular destination in Europe... with reason! I think up until now, if you could only visit one park, I would recommend you to go to Yellowstone. But I would also recommend you to take more days off and explore the rest of the States!