Yellowstone Aug. 19-22, 1998 [Yellowstone Gallery]

Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks have been on my wish list to visit for a long time. Thanks to the slow down of semicondcutor industry, we have to take one week off in this quarter, so we came up with the plan of this trip. We had six people in our party: Clare, Linus, my mother-in-law, my friends: Lih-Huah and Cheng-Ping, and myself. We stayed 3 nights in Grand Teton and 4 nights in Yellowstone.

Getting there ...

We drove from Grand Teton to Yellowstone after breakfast. The weather was getting better as we approached Yellowstone. We were complaining about the wild life in Grand Teton: we didn't find many of them, and they were all very afraid of human. It was different in Yellowstone. Whenever you see cars and people stopped by the road, you know there are animals and they seem to enjoy being watched.

The Fourth Day (Continued) ...

• Black Sand Basin, Firehole Lake Drive, Lower Geyser, and Norris Geyser Basin
  We got to the Old Faithful area just before noon. After a break, we began to experience the geothermal activity in Yellowstone. With half of the earth's geothemal features, Yellowstone holds the planet's most diverse and intact collection of geysers, hot springs, mudpots, and fumaroles.

  There are two major geysers at the Firehole Lake Driver: Great Fountain and White Dome. We saw the sign at Great Fountain Geyser predicting eruption between 12:00 to 4:00 (but I remembered it was 11:00AM with +/- 2 hours posted in the visitor center). We decided to wait for it. We stayed in our car, and saw people come and go, and not too many people stay to wait. We thought most people were not patient enough. After 3:00pm, Lih-Huah found that it was 12:00AM to 4:00AM on the sign. It was the time for the last eruption! We left like fools without saying any word to others who were still waiting. At least we have seen the White Dome erupt many times while we were waiting.

  Emerald Pool	Lower Geyser Basin	Lower Geyser Basin	White Dome Geyser

Gibbon Fall	Norris Geyser Basin

• Old Faithful Inn
  

  We stayed in the Old Faithful Inn for one night. Old Faithful Inn is National Historical Landmrk which was built in 1903-1904. Old Faithful area is probably the most developed visiting area in any national parks in US.

The Fifth Day ...

• Sunrise at Old Faithful
  

  Old Faithful is very likely the world's best known geyser. Recent earthquakes have lengthened its average eruption interval from 65 min to 75 min.

• Upper Geyser Basin
  

  We spent almost the entire day to explore the geysers in the Old Faithful area (Upper geyser basin). We saw all the geysers we plan to see.
  

  	predict	actual
  Grant Geyser	9:05am +/- 1hr	10:10am
  Castle Geyser	10:15am +/- 45 min	10:45am
  Daisy Geyser	11:05am +/- 15 min	11:10am
  Old Faithful Geyser	12:30pm +/- 30 min	12:45pm
  Riverside Geyser	4:15pm +/- 1 hr	4:30pm
  Great Fountain Geyser	6:30pm +/- 2 hr	6:10pm

  
  
  

  Grant Geyser	Castle Geyser	Daisy Geyser	Old Faithful

Riverside Geyser

Morning Glory	Heart Spring	Great Fountain Geyser

• Midway Geyser Basin
  

  Midway Geyser basin has the largest hot spring in the park: Grand Prismatic Spring. It is so big that it can only be fully appreicated from the air.

• Sunset at Yellowstone Lake
  

  We arrived the Lake Hotel before sunset. Yellowstone Lake is North America's largest mountain lake at this altitude (~7700ft). The lake was quiet and without any sign of human disturbance.

The Sixth Day ...

• Early morning in the Yellowstone Lake area
  I walked to the Lake alone this morning. There was a bison just lying on the grass behind the Lake Hotel. There were also two big matured elks on the meadow closed to the Lake Lodge (see Wildlife below).

• Artist Point in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
  

  We passed by the Artists Point on our way to Mammoth. The view here is spectacular and should not be missed by anyone visiting Yellowstone.

• Mammoth Hot Springs
  At Mammoth, hot water is powered by the same underground forces as geysers, but works it way up through limestone rather than rhyolite, resulting in travertine (calcium carbonate) forming spectacular terraces. We drove to the Upper Terrace Drive and walked to Canary Spring. After visiting Upper Terraces, we went to Mammoth Hotel area to have lunch, and went back to visit Lower Terraces. Minerva Spring is probably the most popular one among all these springs because of its colorful and ornate terrace formation.

• Tower Fall
  

  We continued to drive to the Tower Fall area. We (except Linus and Clare) took the trail to hike down to the base of the fall. The 132-foot Tower Fall with its volcanic pinnacles was worth the hard walking.

The Seventh Day ...

• Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
  We started to the Canyon journey from the South Rim. We first stopped at the Upper Fall Overlook. From the same parking lot, we hiked down to the Canyon via the Uncle Tom's Trail which drops about 500 ft over a series of more than 300 stairs and paved inclines. The last part of the trail is constructed of perforated steel sheeting, so you can look through the stairs and feel like walking in the air. When we reached the bottom, there was still sunshine and a nice rainbow across the fall. After I setup the tripod, the sun was gone, so was the rainbow. On the way back up to the parking lot, it began to rain and we didn't have too much energy left to run.
  After lunch, we went to the North Rim. We hiked the trail from the Inspiration Point to Lookout Point. This trail provided the most magnificent landscape view during our stay in Yellowstone. The weather was still unstable. Fortunately, this time we could find some place to hide from a thunderstorm for a few minutes on the trail.

Upper Fall Overlook	Lower Fall from Uncle Tom's	Lower Fall from Lookout Pt.

North Rim Trail	North Rim Trail	Lookout Point

• Grant Village, West Thumb
  We skipped West Thumb this time because of heavy rain when we got there. Maybe next time!

Wildlife in Yellowstone

The Last Day, Going Home ...

Finally, it's time to go home. We left the Grant Village at 6:45am (I went to the Lake shore to see the sunrise). It was a long drive back to Salt Lake City. On the way to SLC, Cheng-Ping was caught by police in a small town in Idaho for speeding (39 mph @ 25 mhp zone). He was not as lucky as I was in Grand Teton, and he was given a ticket. We got to SLC with plenty of time left and we could relax a little at the airport. It was a trip full of wonder and excitement.

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