Here are some of my pictures from my visit last summer.
Awesome place. I can’t wait to go back. The wildlife combined with the beautiful scenery can’t be beat. I didn’t get to see a wolf, but I heard them at night.
I’ve been a couple times, once on family vacation when I was a kid, and once for a short time as an adult. One of my more amusing memories of the second trip was sitting at a picnic bench, watching a prairie dog.
It’s awesome. The Tetons are incredible, too.
If I had to kill 2 weeks I’d divide it up between the Yellowstone area and the Grand Canyon. It’s not like it’s a theme park and the wilderness ends at the border of the parks. You can throw a dart anywhere out West and find spectacular scenery. Try following the Colorado River on Google Earth and click on the embedded pictures.
You have to take some of the remote areas seriously. If you have a flat tire in the desert you better have beer and a good spare.
Surely you mean beer OR a good spare?
If you’ve got a spare then you don’t need beer because you can just drive to the next bar. If, on the other hand, you don’t have a good spare then you need to fill the car with beer because you may be there a while.
I went to Yosemite once and nearly got EATEN BY A BEAR :eek:
I was staying in a lodge and was out on the verandah having a smoke when I heard an enormous crashing sound directly underneath me. Being completely clueless, I was leaning over into the bushes trying to see what was causing the commotion.
Fortunately there was a dog there that belonged to the lodge. It had taken a liking to me and was stood next to me when it happened. The dog went apeshit barking and stood between me and the crashing sound (I didn’t know it was a bear at the time). But the dog wouldn’t let me get past it to look into the bushes - it kept repositioning itself to be in between me and the bush.
Then the door to the lodge crashed open and the owner came running out with a shotgun, ran past me and jumped into a car and drove up the hill where there were other people running about and driving about.
Eventually the crashing stopped and the dog stood there looking very pleased with itself. I didn’t know why it was looking so proud but I gave it a stroke because that’s what it looked like it wanted.
When the owner came back I asked him what the problem was and he told me a bear had been sighted in the camp but they hadn’t found it. It was then that I put 2 and 2 together and realised the bear they were looking for was stood in the bushes about 2 feet from me the whole time they were running about.
I never actually saw the bear, just heard it, but I think maybe that dog saved my life without me even knowing it. I was at the lodge for another couple of days after that and the dog never left my side the whole time. It obviously thought “this guy needs looking after”.
Turek and Boscibo.
Thanks for posting those pics, truly fantastic. With both of your permissions I’d like to download a few of your pics to use as backgrounds
Also, thanks for all who’ve posted, much appreciated
I did that trip years ago. Awesome every step of the way.
Sure. If you want higher res versions of any of them, PM me.
“On your own doorstep.” hehe. You really need to come to the States sometime and get a first-hand look at how big it really is. I’d have to drive for a day and a half (about 1100 miles) to get to Yellowstone. Then again, I guess that’s why so many Americans love the “road trip” vacation.
Are Yellowstone and/or the other parks mentioned feasible for traveling with young children? My boys are 6, 3 and a newborn, and although I’d like to wait until they can all appreciate the trip, I’d also like to go to various places over the years so I don’t want to wait too long to start. So, if I waited another 2 or 3 years, would visiting those places be difficult with a 9, 6 and 3 year old? (I realize a lot depends on us, but really just interested in logistics of lodging; ease of hiking, etc.)
My first time there was when I was 10, and that was in the 50s, when bears were everywhere. It’s perfectly feasible to travel there with children. Yellowstone Lodge is comfortable, and there are other accommodations outside the park. Your kids are a bit young to have any appreciation for it, though.
Lots of areas in the park are wheelchair accessible - lots of nice paths and boardwalks. Because of that, they’re also stroller-friendly, too.
The 3 year old might not get much out of it but the 6 & 9 year olds would get it very well. My kids remember their trips there from a couple years ago and my youngest is currently 6.
Hey, I’ve been to the US of A a number of times, I know how big the place is.
By “on your own doorstep” I meant you don’t have to get on an airplane and…oh wait:smack:
I was there last summer, and am going back again this summer. In my LiveJournal, I’ve been posting a "virtual Yellowstone vacation’ with pictures and commentary which you can find here.
It’s an extraordinary place. Everyone really ought to go and see it at least once. (Be careful if you take young children, though; there are a lot of natural hazards. Sadly, about a dozen youngsters have lost their lives falling into the geysers and hot springs. Keep your kids under control; those pools are HOT!)
My parents would take us out tent camping when we were able to sleep through the night - they would put the littlest in a backpack and we’d all hike together.
The two littlest won’t get a whole lot out of it, but the older ones definitely. Just take lots of pictures - I don’t remember this trip, but I think it’s me and my sis at Big Bend NP when we were 5 and 4 respectively. I remember the hat though!
There are also wild animals. My undergrad advisor used to have on his office door a sign that I think was a replica of one from Yellowstone, warning people not to approach bison. Just because it’s a park doesn’t mean the animals are tame.
You’re not doing a wild bear or coyote any favors by feeding it. On the contrary, you’re probably condemning it to death. Animals that learn to approach cars looking for food are obviously at much greater risk of being killed by a car than animals that stay away from cars (this is a huge problem with the wild ponies of Assateague- most of them eventually die from being hit by cars). A bear that approaches humans or their campsites will often end up being killed to keep it from threatening people and property. A female bear that learns to beg food from humans may teach her cubs to do the same, and then the mother and cubs might all end up being killed.
Anne I may be wrong but I was under the impression that feeding the animals is forbidden.
Mind you I guess that even if it was some people would just ignore the notices.
They do. I haven’t been to Yellowstone, but I know they do at other parks.
On Assateague, there are signs literally every few hundred feet saying “Ponies are wild animals”, “Ponies bite and kick”, and so on. When I went there with my family the summer after I graduated from high school, what did I see? A couple trying to get their toddler to get close to a mother pony nursing her baby so they could get a picture. Unfortunately, there are dumbasses who must think that, because this is a park, the animals must be tame enough to feed or to pose their kids with for a picture.
I might be biased, since I worked for the National Park Service for a number of years, but I truly feel that the US national parks collectively make up one of the jewels of natural and cultural preservation in the world. I mean, from Yellowstone to Glacier to Acadia, to the Everglades, to Hawaii Volcanoes, to Kenai Fjords, to tiny little national monuments all over the country, the Park System is unbelievably spectacular. You could spend a lifetime trying to visit and soak each one in. In fact, that’s precisely what some people do.
I was at a zoo not long ago (maybe Columbia, SC) and we were in a “tropical rain forest” environment. There were beautiful Tucan or Tucan-like birds perched all over and this one guy, apparently showing off for his kids, was trying to get the bird to take his ticket in its (very sharp-looking) bill. An attendant hurried over to tell him to stop and said, “You’re not very smart, are you?” The guy looked like he was going to protest, but thought better and walked away.
In all honesty my friend and I say this an an Englishman who is proud of his country and the scenery which we have.
The Lake District,Forest of Dean, Scottish Highlands, Snowdonia, The Peak District etc. etc
I’ve been to your country numerous times and the sheer splendour of the scenery no matter where I’ve been has been absolutely magnificent.
Except maybe Noo Yawk but I was only there for 2 days, the noise drove me nuts