Denver, Dinosaur National Monument, a national dam, and Grand Tetons National Park, are all stops made so far on our eleven day road trip to Los Angeles, California. We are driving through Wyoming taking in the scenery on our way to the upper most part of the state to make camp in Yellowstone National Park. The drive to Yellowstone isn’t long, about only thirty minutes from Teton, but the drive through the park is what adds another hour. Along the curvy roads, buffalo and elk are spotted from our windows, some in herds and some roaming the edge of the road on their own. What I want to see, though, is a bear!
Both of my parents and my sister have already seen a bear at Yellowstone, in fact they saw a mama bear and her cubs two years ago on their way to drop my sister off at school in Berkeley, so I have a feeling my chances are pretty high. Yellowstone has over 1,000 bears living in its park with 634-839 of those being grizzly bears according to the National Park Service. There are bear attacks usually due to hikers hiking alone. Bears are not the only animals in Yellowstone that are known to attack: buffalo, elk, bighorn sheep, and moose are all other animals that live in the park and if they are not viewed in the proper manner, they will not fight their instinct to attack. If visiting the park, the best thing to do to see wildlife and to keep yourself and the animals safe is to remain in your car. Most of the time, the animals are not far from your window, so it’s guaranteed that you’ll have a good view. Still, the National Park Service puts in their brochure that it is required to stay at least 25 feet away from bison, elk, and deer and about 100 feet away from all other animals in the park. Unfortunately, some tourists continue to fail these rules and put themselves in risky situations and end up getting killed or severely injured, so the best lesson I think we can all take from this is to STAY IN YOUR CAR!! You will never know how irritating it is to see a person disrupting ordinances until you visit the park yourself. Getting out of the car disturbs and scares the wildlife form living in its home. Sometimes, the animal will run away once someone gets out of their car to get a closer look and this just ruins it for everyone else. It’s also important to remember that National Parks are not a zoo and the animals you see are there because they live there not because they are being put on display. It is the goal of the National Parks to keep ecological processes and sustain the animals’ habitats, so that visitors like you and me can visit whenever we want and see the wildlife. So although the National Parks are for our enjoyment, they are also the homes of many different species. It’s important to keep in mind that they were here first. Just some food for thought.
Ok, back to the trip! We’re driving along the roads of Yellowstone looking for our camp site. We cannot help but notice the beautiful geysers that are all over the park and what makes Yellowstone a breathtaking destination. The first one I get to see is Old Faithful. I am lucky enough to get there only minutes before the show. We wait…and wait…and wait with our cameras ready…then we wait some more until finally…IT ERUPTS! It is truly spectacular and not something you’d ever expect to see. While it’s one of the coolest things you’ll ever get to see, it’s also worth mentioning that if Old Faithful decides to fully erupt, it will take out about 1/3 of the United States along with it. But at least the last thing you get to see is something truly worth the trip to Yellowstone.
For the rest of the day, we decide to drive around the park and stop at various locations to look at the wonders of Yellowstone. We hike down a steep mountain edge to a ginormous waterfall, we walk along the rickety planks lining the hot springs, and we stop at the local grub for a bite to eat and to get lectured on the fact that we should always carry bear spray with us. That’s the thing I am coming to learn about Yellowstone employees: they make it seem like bears are around every corner waiting to surprise you, but in reality, that’s more rare than they make it out to be. If bears were really that prevalent, then I would have expected to see one by now.
Anyway, continuing on our leisure drive, we stop to see one of the main attractions…the hot springs! This is definitely my favorite part of the trip. We are walking along wooden platforms that run in between each pool of super hot water and sulfur. The most interesting thing I notice here is that each pool has its own distinct color. Some are deep aqua blue while others are a darker green or black. Why are they different colors? It has to do with temperature. While the deep aqua blue pools pull you in with their beauty, you don’t want to be mesmerized by their power because they are the hottest pools. With some pools reaching depths of 65 feet (roughly the length of a semi truck), its temperatures burn at about 160 or more degrees! I said the green or black pools are cooler, which is true, but not so much cooler that you can jump in for a swim, although it’s tempting.
We camp that night under a foggy sky, but it is warm enough none the less. We leave the next morning spotting more bison from our windows, but no bears are in sight. Coming to the park in mid June is the colder part of the season, but it still doesn’t stop tourists from crowding the sites and chasing away wildlife. It’s important to enjoy the natural areas available to us for recreation sport and environmental education. With 58 National Parks across the U.S., there are plenty to choose from to visit at least once in your lifetime to experience the true beauty of the country and appreciate the preservation that has been in effect since the late 1800s. I can’t tell you which National Parks triumphs over others because they are all worth their own beauty for different reasons and I’m willing to bet after you visit your first park, you’ll be dying to visit another.
We are now five days into our trip on the way to California. With a few states in between us, it’s tempting to ask what the next destination will be. That still, though, is one that is unplanned.
