Part III: Grand Teton and Yellowstone, Day One

You can’t go wrong taking the Rockefeller Parkway through Grand Teton and Yellowstone. One of the first sights you come across after Moran Junction is Jackson Lake.

And you might see a bear like this little one that was hanging out in my lane on the road. I was nervous about driving too close to him so I got into the oncoming traffic lane to drive past. He didn’t notice me til the last second then turned around, raise his paws and opened his mouth at me. I kept riding. The people in cars at Yellowstone feel invincible around animals like this. Here you can see a truck stopped to photograph the bears from a lane away. But in other places people would pull up inches beside a buffalo, sling open the van door, and start taking photographs. So let’s take a step back and go over some of the dangers of this wild country called Yellowstone.

First of all, the geological features in the park can be dangerous. Mind your step. Don’t be like this hapless kid on summer vacation.

And watch out for bears. They live here and do what they want.

Finally, avoid the most likely misadventure you can have in the park: being gored by a buffalo. They’re everywhere.

One of the park’s biggest attractions is Old Faithful. The geyser area is also one of the more developed parts of the park with walkways and a lodge, general store, etc. This was the first place I saw a crowd of people. I arrived just a few minutes before it was set to erupt, which happens about every 90 minutes.

(If you look at the larger version of this one you can see two elk hanging out to the right of the geyser blatantly disregarding the small signs warning them to stay off the fragile ground.)

And that’s that. Old Faithful is a must see but there are so many geysers of all different types.

There are so many I couldn’t to begin to recall their names.

The colored areas are mixtures of chemical elements and bacteria beds.

Just looking at the picture its hard to tell whether its a satellite image or a distance planet or the organic form of bacteria in a steam bath.

Yellowstone has a lot of geysers but it has way more buffalo.

They walk up the street alone.

And graze together.

And lay around.

Or block traffic. If you go to Yellowstone you WILL see buffalo, there’s just too many. They hang out with other animals too. I saw a herd of buffalo mingling with a bunch of deer and a separate herd alongside some elk.

If you go in the Spring you’ll see the buffalitos as well. The roads through the park form a figure 8. I saw all this stuff on just the lower west side of the 8!