Yellowstone National Park
A Winter Wonderland
On New Year's day, 2013, the family and I along with our 2 American friends headed to Yellowstone National Park to experience the winter wonderland in all its glory.
We had been staying in Jackson Hole, Wyoming discovering the natural wonders of the area which included the Elk Refuge and the Grand Tetons. Our trip to Yellowstone National Park was an excursion our travelling group were all looking forward to.
Firstly, let me introduce you to the group. From left to right in the image below is my daughter, Cheryl, my other daughter, Felicity, my husband, David (having a seat), me, Jette, (above Dave, hanging over the sign) with our wonderful friends, Cheryl and Ancil Juby, standing next to Dave.
The morning had dawned with overcast skies and light snow falling. The tour organisers provided us with breakfast while they organised our lunch orders. Though the tour could accommodate a total of 12 passengers, today there were only the 6 of us. It made for a more personal experience and not to mention, extra room on the snow coach.
The drive to Yellowstone National Park was uneventful in that we didn't have any travel issues. We did see a herd of bison feeding on the side of the road as we watched the sunrise (the sun did peak through here and there) on the towering Grand Tetons in the background.
Due to the amount of snow that Yellowstone receives each year, we changed to the snow coach near the main entrance to the National Park. As we made our way into the park, we stopped at various lookouts, to see the waterfalls. Due to the warm temperatures of the water caused by the thermal activity in the area, the creeks and rivers never freeze entirely. Gentle snowflakes fell as we enjoyed the scenery. Our biggest find along the way was a family of river otter feeding in a river. Though Ancil and Cheryl have lived in Wyoming for many years, neither have seen river otter before in the wild. A bonus for us all.
Old Faithful would have to be the world's most recognisable geyser. Predictions around eruption times are generally within 5 to 10 minutes either way. With our river otter sighting, time was not on our side if we wanted to see Old Faithful erupt at the predicted time of 10:45am. So, with no further stops, we headed for the visitors centre and Old Faithful. We pulled into the car park (well, there were only snow mobiles and snow coaches to be seen) and headed straight on through to Old Faithful. As we waited in the designated area, the clouds disbursed and the sun burst through. On time (at 10:44 it was close enough) Old Faithful erupted. One thing amazed me more than anything and that was the lack of sulphur smell. The thermal areas I had visited before in New Zealand smelt of nothing but sulphur. Here, the air was fresh and clean.Old Faithful had lived up to its name and my expectations. I had been watching various webcams, including one of Old Faithful, throughout the year leading up to our trip. To see it in person was just awesome.
If you would like to see the web cams for yourself, click here. Please remember the difference in time zones if you are on the other side of the world like me.
Once Old Faithful had completed its show, we had lunch in a hut near by. With lunch completed, we had about half hour to look through the visitors centre before making our way back to Jackson. The snowy weather had returned once more. Thankfully there was no wind to speak of. On our return trip, we stopped by a thermal pool area where we saw bison feeding not too far away. Another stop was at another waterfall and then we just enjoyed the company and warmth within the snow coach. On our return to the park entrance, we overheard another family speaking that had made the journey via snow mobile. The mother said it had been the coldest day she had ever spent anywhere. Considering the temperature was around -21 Celcius (-6 Fahrenheit), I could totally understand.
If you would like to see some more of my images from our trip to Yellowstone National Park, simply click here.