Wildlife all around us!
- Timon van den Berg
- Aug 31, 2018
- 10 min read
Hi Guys and Girls, long read this time but we had some catching up to do. We also changed the style of the blog so you can now leave comments if you feel like it, using your Facebook account. The blog won't actually post anything on your Facebook Account!
So off we go to the national park of all the national parks in the US “Yellowstone”. Of course this is my opinion and there are many national parks with their own uniqueness and beauty.
Leaving the Rocky Mountains on our left hand, we drove to Cody. A serious trip of approximately 470 miles and only partly over a two-lane highway. Good thing about US secondary highways is that they are typically still pretty fast. Cody is a tourist hub before entering Yellowstone. If you were unable to secure a spot for the night inside the park, Cody is one of the places where you can go to. During the summer they have a daily Rodeo and a downtown with a cowboy vibe. But when we entered Cody, all we noticed was a Chinese restaurant with an all you can eat buffet. After the burgers, camping food and some Mexican food we were in the mood for something else. That night Chinese it was! The campground we stayed on was amazing, the view was fantastic. The elevation this campground was on was not so great which we found out over the night, with close to freezing temperatures. The mummy sleeping back was tested this night for the first time, and it worked!
Rise and shine, the next morning Hester was in a Yellowstone mood, alarm set at 6:00am to see some wildlife. But I needed some sleep. We spent a lot of time in the car during the last week, we did some hikes and we had great plans for Yellowstone. So 6am changed into 9:30am. We entered Yellowstone from the east, which brought us to the highest lake in North America. There we had an amazing view over the south east of the park and we also spotted our first geysers. That night we would stay in Roosevelt Lodge (most expensive stay in the US during our trip) in the north east of the park, only 50 (90km) miles or so. I took us almost 8 hours to get there, we made stops around every corner seeing amazing views, the Yellowstone river, mud pools, wildlife, visitors centers, some road work and what not more. Driving 25 miles into the park we hit a small traffic jam. Since I’ve been here before I knew what was going on. Bisons were crossing the road and we had to wait our patience. Normally this is fine, but not when your wife is so enthusiastic that she starts to command “Open the window now!”. For those who don’t believe it, I got that on camera. Still love you, no worries. Spending at least an hour between bisons we continued our way north. The Roosevelt lodge is a nice place to stay. I personally think it’s nice because it’s not too massive. It gives you a real outdoor adventure feeling. The cabins have a bed and stove in which you can make a fire to keep you warm. It was very cozy and an amazing (yes still using that word) experience. Before going to bed, we set off to Llamar Valley. This is the place to spot wildlife in Yellowstone without going in long hikes and accidently meeting a large grizzly bear or so. Since we didn’t want to pay a $100 per person for the organized excursion bus, we decided to follow it in our own car. Guess they are not to happy about this that I’m writing this down. But anyway the saying “To go Dutch” is our excuse! On the unpaid excursion we spotted an eagle nest with young’s, couple of 100 bison, elk, antelopes (or something like it). Unfortunately, no bear or wolf but still pretty cool. We finished the night with a beer in the Lodge. Something I think is a amazing about these national parks is that they serve very decent quality food and beers for more than fair prices.
The next morning we had to battle for our night spot. The problem is that if you want to stay in Yellowstone you have to book your overnights 4 to 6 months prior to your arrival if staying during main season. Since we decided last minute to go we were only able to secure our first and last night in the park. So leaving the second night open. Since we didn’t want to leave and reenter the park we had to secure our stay at a first come first serve campground. So again the alarm set for 06:30am, no breakfast jumped in our car and drove to Indian creek campground. Arriving there at 08:00am we were able to secure one of the last camping spots still available. We spent the day in the north west side of the park, we did a 6 mile hike and spotted a serious snake, elk and lots of mosquitos . We spend some time around the Salt Springs and in the afternoon, elks were coming into the town to eat from the fresh grass planted by human. That night, we as two dear devils decided to go for an evening walk. On our way into the forest we met the ranger, but he didn’t really pay attention to us so we thought well this should be fine. About 10 minutes from the campground we spotted elk along the river. Since the sunset was moving in fast we decided to head back pretty quick after, both realizing that with all these bears around us an evening walk without bear spray might not be that smart. That night Hester made us a cup of hot choclate milk! Yes that was needed, since it was very cold!
On the third day we went back to the place where we entered the park, crossing through the most touristic section of the park. It’s a pretty part of the park, but during peak season way to crowded. The Old faithful spring is nice, but it isn’t the prettiest spot in the park. The parking lot is huge and the buildings around it massive. We did some short hikes to the highlights but that was it. Arriving at the campground we put up our tent and took a shower using our own campsite shower. After dinner we went out to spot some wildlife. We basically spotted the same animals as the time we went into the Llamar Valley, but this time we were lucky, because someone shared his telescope with us and we were able to see the animals way better. That was very cool!
On our way back to the campground we spotted multiple elks, some of them standing close to the road. The great thing about Yellowstone is that every night a ranger comes to the campsite to tell something about the park. Since this was a big campground, they build an amfitheater for it. We listened to a story about how wolfs were brought back to Yellowstone. Somewhere halfway the presentation we were disturbed by a group of elk who entered the amfitheater to join the presentation. Very funny but since the ranger paused the presentation they decide to move on.
After a great night sleep we knew our Yellowstone trip was over. Without a doubt it was worth the extra miles and money. This National Park is of the grid, since we were out of cellphone range for three days but it’s beautiful and a great place to visit. Driving back south the sun was again in our faces and Mexico started to call or name, but first we made a brief stop in the Grand Tetons National Park. We didnt have much time, so in comparence to other visits we just shot some pictures and moved on. That day we crossed through Jackson, where I stayed 17 years ago visiting Yellowstone for the first time. We didn’t stop since Jackson is like Cody; a real tourist-oriented city. We drove south via Wyoming’s back country roads. At a gas station we met a couple coming from Washington state on their way to meet their son who owned a garage in Wyoming. We told our story (in a nutshell, didn’t want to hold them there all day) and they liked it so much that we were presented with two hands of fresh fruit coming from her sisters farm! That would do us good, some vitamins. That night we arrived in the Saltlake City area. We stayed the night in an AirBnB and had a nice talk with the host who also lived in Finland. (Kittos, Graden for having us!) That night we had dinner at a “Sonic”. From a menu perspective it’s similar to a McDonald’s, but the experience is different, and I definitely wanted to eat here prior to leaving the US. Let me try and explain the experience to you. You drive up to your personal booth, there you press a button and when the lady is ready to take your order she will reach out. You place your order and then you pay below the menu screen all without leaving the car :-). Then, when your order is ready a waiter is coming to the car on rollerblades to deliver your order. It’s great and way better then McDonald’s since when you are eating in you car you’re not watched by your neighbors how you are eating your hamburger (hamburguesa en espanol, si yo hablo un poco espanol).
The next morning, we left early to grounds known by both of us, since we’ve been there before. First hours leaving Saltlake city we drove through thick smoke from nearby forest fires. To reach Bryce Canyon we decided to take a short cut, the map shows it as off-road but google street view shows pavement, so we gambled and took the shortest route. We spotted many sand devils and small tornados. We tried to capture some on pictures but that wasn’t really easy since most of them stopped fairly quick. Bryce Canyon is nice but it’s crowded. We took the bus shuttle to one of the trail heads and hiked down through the valley. You notice quickly that as soon as you hike for 10 min you lose 90% of the park visitors. That night we stayed on a campground in the middle between Bryce and Zion National Park. Again the campground was full of Dutch people, pretty amazing how many we met in this region. Our campsite neighbours were Dutch and we were spoiled with their left overs since they were flying home the next day.
Zion is pretty. Because it was recommended we
decided to hike the angels landing, but arriving at Zion we learned the trail was closed. The reason seemed to be that it was peak season and the trail is simply too narrow. Hester was slightly happy it was closed because the route has some big drops and securing yourself with cables might have been needed. But instead of angels landing we decided to go for the Zion park observation point, 600 meters up and what goes up must come down. It was heavy, but we made it and the view was amazing. Very unique was the fact that a military plane flew through the canyon, I guess to test his skills, but a big plane in a small canyon is a special sight. On our way out of the park we spotted a herd of bighorn sheep. Really nice but a little dangerous since they hiked above us and they were moving rocks.
The next morning, we made our way to Antelope Canyon, via lake Powell. The canyon is property of the Indians and they know how to make it big. It was sold out for the next 4 weeks and a reservation for peak season was needed months in advance. Just so you know, for 55usd a person it ain’t cheap either. Hester was able to secure a ticket via a Chinese travel agency a couple of weeks ago. Communication was a little hard since we received instructions in Chinese/English but eventually we found our tour guide and he provides us with the tickets. The lower canyon is pretty, but it’s only 400 meters and it takes you about 1,5 hours since everyone is taking pictures. Like cattle, the tour guide is pushing you through the canyon. To be honest it didn’t really bother me, when I wanted to take a picture I stopped and at some point, the views al started to look alike :-)! We ended our day in the Grand Canyon. Lots of forest fires in the North Rim made the canyon filled with smoke. We’ve both been here before, so we made a couple stops and moved on to the campsite.
Our break was coming up and honestly speaking, I was slightly done with all those national parks. I needed a city! We stayed four nights in Flagstaff, AZ. Our car needed general service, so we picked Flagstaff because it’s elevated and therefor cool in the summer. The city is a combination between Woodstock, NY and Denver, CO. It has many outdoor activities, but it also has an artistic vibe. Amazing small bars and restaurants and 100 of miles well maintained mountain bike trails. Since we had the car in the shop, we rented mountain bikes and did the flagstaff loop. It was nice, but because of elevation also challenging. The AirBnB where we were staying was like a small hostel and we had a lot of nice talks, with different kind of people. In Flagstaff we also started with our preparations for Mexico. We knew that we needed copies for almost everything to cross the border, so we headed to the public library, a place I hadn’t been for 15+ years. Hester really enjoyed it! She typed on the old keybord so hard that the whole place could hear she was working :-). Overall, we didn’t do a lot in Flagstaff which was exactly as it was meant to be. We hung in the bar, ate some pizza, prepared for Mexico, skyped with family and friends and that was it!
Before crossing the border, we decided to stay somewhere close to the border for a two days. We ended up being the first guests for Neil and Carrie, who just started doing AirBnB. Their place is just south of Tucson and about 65km from Nogales, MX. With a saltwater pool in the backyard, what can go wrong, right?! Well I have to say our stay with them almost felt like a 5 star hotel! We were welcomed with drinks, freshly made breakfast in the morning and ofcourse a lovely saltwater pool with mountain view in the backyard. Here we also did one of Hester here most favorite things; getting our final injections for Hep A and B. This is dessert area so besides from visiting a small national park with cactuses and Tucson we spend most our time in the pool. Here, we also decided to change our crossing location, which as you will read later wasn’t a smart thing to do.
On Sunday the 19th of August it was time for us to head for the Mexican border, time for new adventures and meeting some old friends from our time in Helsinki!
Overall the US has been great we encountered to travel here for 36 days but we ended up staying here for 53 days. We expected to drive 5000 miles, but we drove 9000 miles instead.
We already knew that New York is a special part of the US and maybe not even comparable with the rest. But now, after seeing so many different places, I think we really started to get to know this country. By the time we are posting this story we already made our way into Mexico, but more on that next time...
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