Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in America, is famous for its geysers. But when you visit Yellowstone, you will find it has so much more to offer than just geysers.
When I couldn't book any flight to Jackson, Wyoming on the date I wanted, I chose to fly to Idaho Falls, Idaho, never even thought about trying Bozeman, Montana. Nothing wrong with Idaho Falls itself, it's just the city was so small that the plane serviced there was small too. It was an uncomfortable flight. More on that later.
We camped five nights, two at Madison, three at Canyon campgrounds when we were in Yellowstone. I was surprised at how easy it was to book those campsites two weeks before our trip. Probably because of the high elevation, it could get pretty cold at night in late August (we had 25F one night). I liked both campgrounds. Madison didn't have any other facility, so it felt more peaceful. Canyon Village was a major junction on the park road, so the area was very much commercialized. The campground had laundry (came in handy on those rainy days to dry the sleeping bags) and showers ($3 for as long as you want). Nearby there was Canyon Village Cafe. For a cafeteria inside one of the most popular national parks, I had to say their price was reasonable, and the food was descent. We ate at both Canyon Village Cafe and Lake Lodge Cafe (16 mi south). They were run by the same company. Lake Lodge Cafe's prime rib ($13 for 7 oz) and fried chicken ($8.99) tasted so good we went back the next day.
Our camp site at Madison Campground.
Old Faithful, perhaps the most famous geyser in the world. It erupted every 92 minutes almost on the minute when we were there. At its peak, the water was shoot to 100 some feet high, but it quickly went much lower, and stopped totally after about two minutes.
Wave Spring in the Old Faithful Area.
One of seven bull elks seen near Norris.
Beaver pond seen on Beaver Ponds Loop trail, a moderate 5 miles hiking trail in the Mammoth Area.
Bison seen near Mud Volcano. There are so many bison in Yellowstone you are lucky if you don't see them every day multiple times. They love to roam on the road, sometimes in the middle of the 2-lane park road, causing traffic to back up in both directions. It's very exciting to drive slowly past a bison on the road the first time. They are just huge. But when you have to sit in traffic several times a day because bison like to take a stroll on the road, or can't decide which side of the road has better grass, the excitement runs out quickly.
Just south of Yellowstone, there is Grand Teton National Park, a beautiful park with much fewer people and traffic. We took some hikes in Leigh Lake and Jenny Lake area. The Cascade Canyon trail was said to be a good hike. But it is 9 miles roundtrip with 1057-foot elevation change just to reach the canyon. We'd need an extra day to do that. Maybe next time.
Jenny Lake, a popular spot in Grand Teton.
After two days at Grand Teton, we drove back to Idaho Falls. With half a day left to spend, we decided to check out Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve, located 75 miles west of Idaho Falls. It is a dormant volcanic area with miles of lava flows which occurred thousands of years ago. There are several hiking trails and a scenic 7 mile loop drive in the park. The landscape was really weird, in some way it reminded me of Volcano National Park on Big Island, Hawaii.
Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve.
On the way to Craters of the Moon, we happened to drive by Arco, Idaho and EBR-I nearby. Out of curiosity, we went inside EBR-I, and was surprised at what we found. It turned out EBR-I stands for "The Experimental Breeder Reactor-I". It was the first nuclear reactor in the world to produce useable quantities of electric power and achieved many other firsts during its twelve years of operation. The reactor was decommissioned in 1964, and the site has been open to the public since 1976. Everything inside looked so ancient, it's hard to believe within such a humble building, so many historic moments had happened. After a quick look around we drove off. EBR-I stood behind alone in the middle of nowhere. It looked so small and insignificant from the road, who would know it contributed so much for millions of people's life.
Arco, Idaho, first city in the world to be lit by atomic power. I wonder if the residents knew what's happening back then and how did they feel about it?
Recorded on a wall of the EBR-I building.
We were going home the next morning. There was only one flight per day for Northwest Airline going from Idaho Falls to Minneapolis, so we sure didn't want to miss it. We arrived at the airport early, waited, checked in, and seated. Everything seemed fine until the flight attendant came on board and told us the plane was overweight, 11 people had to get off. I couldn't tell you how shocked we all were. The plane could seat a total of 40 some people, how could we be so overweight that 25% had to get off? And what could we do if we did get off, wait another day for the next flight? Some people started to walk off the plane checking their options, but no way could we have 11 volunteers. Just when we were all lost, didn't know what's gona happen next, the flight attendant came back. He said the computer made a mistake, they recalculated, instead of needing 11 volunteers, they only need 4 this time. I was not sure I felt better or worse after hearing that. How could they make a mistake like that? Which result should I trust? The next ten minutes was not easy for me. The gate closed, the plane taxied to the runway, and finally off we went into the blue sky ......
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