On 11/3/2006 5:38 PM dicktay plucked Senior Frog's Magic Twanger and said:
Hi,
Earlier this year I seeked som tips & advice of a trip to Yellowstone &
Grand Tetons Nationl Parks.
Here is the trip report.

This was our first visit to Wyoming and hopefully it will not be our last.

We flew in from Australia and stayed with friends in Littleton, Co for a few
days.
Left Littleton on 6 Sept and almost immediately had navigation problems
getting from Santa Fe Drive onto I25 so we found ourselves in the middle of
downtown Denver! What a great start to our trip. Made the mistake having
lunch at Taco Bells at Casper, Wy. It will be the first and last time we
ever eat at a Taco Bell.
Overnighted at Sheridan. Thought the Holiday Inn was great, especially the
restaraunt and the waterfall in the atrium.It was a foretaste of thngs to
come.

Day 1:

We enjoyed the drive over the Beartooth mountains and Shell Falls very much.

Arrived in the park at the West entrance mid afternoon. Weather was overcast
with showers threatening about.
Minimal delays on the roadworks to fishing bridge. Saw our first large wild
life, bison, around the Mud Volcano area and across the river were lots of
them grazing. We were very taken with the magnificent scenery and
unbelivable wildlife.

The only real worry was the reaction of a lot of motor vehicle drivers when
there were animals near the road,. They would just stop in the middle of the
road and get out and take pictures and movies, even when rangers were trying
to direct traffic! I thought Americans were good drivers (this was our 4th
visit to the USA) however something seems to happen when they enter the
park. Also it doen't help that I normally drive on the other side of thje
road.
I now know why it is very difficult to judge driving timed what with "animal
jams" and also stopping to take pictures and look at scenery.

Started to rain at the Yellowstone River falls and there was a fair bit of
smoke haze over Dunraven Pass, however the sweeping vistas were still
spectacular. We saw our first deer on the road oround Tower-Rooselvelt and
was thrilled to see elk from our hotel window at Mammoth Hot springs.
Although there were quite a few people about it didn't feel crowded. Feeod
in the restaurant was expensive but great. The fast food eatery was not all
that good (we only ate there once).

Some pics (12) of our first day are he Note the site only covers
Yellowstone and Grand Tetons at the moment. Just click on the thumbnails to
see larger pics ~ 150-200KB. Some pages have links to leven larger pics. .

http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday.../YNP1_Top1.htm


Day 2:

Weather was overcast with a few showers threatening.

My wife decided she wanted to do the "Yellowstone in a day" organised bus
tour from Mammoth. Basically a loop around the park with longer stops at
Artists Paintpots, Old Faithfull (lunch), West Thumb, The Yellowstone Falls,
where it started to rain again, and Tower-Rooselvelt.
While rushed we felt it was a good intoduction to the park. The driver was
very informative. We were the only foreigners on the bus however that was
good because we had a chance to talk to "locals" (Americans). One comment we
liked was "we don't do that in RV's we own" after a driver in a rented RV
pulled out and did a U turn right in front of the bus causing the bus driver
to brake heavily. It was another good day in the park which finished up with
seeing a bull elk freeing istelf from wire netting around the trees at
Mammoth. Everbody cheered.

For photos (30) of this day see:

http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday.../YNP2_Top1.htm

Day 3:
Weather was cloudy and clearing.
We walked the Beaver Pond Trail. Saw a bull elk right at the start of the
trail. Didn't see much other large wildlife, or beavers, and there were
only a few other couples on the trail and was good to get intimate with the
scenery. If we do revisit the park we would be doing a lot more hiking. It
was a nice easy day. Back at Mammoth we did smile when one of a group of
"cool" bikers failed to put down his side stand when parking his bike. Three
bikers didn't look so so cool pulling the bike up from where it fell into
the side of a car!

There are 17 photos, mainly on the trail he

http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday.../YNP3_Top1.htm

Day 4.
Overcast.
A quick look at the silica terraces at Mammoth then down to Old faithfull
where we had a cabin for the night.
A fairly quiet day - we had a bit of a sleep in. Could not believe the
amount of wildlife along the Madison River.

Six pics are he

http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday.../YNP4_Top1.htm

Day 5.
It rained overnight however it turned out to be a perfect day.
We spent the morning exploring the Upper Geyser Basin and after lunch headed
down to a cabin at Coulter Bay in the Grand Tetons where we would stay for
the next two nights. We thaught the boardwalks were a great idea. Once you
got away from Old Faithfull there were not a lot of people around. Didn't
see much wildlife however we could hear elks bugeling in the distance. Even
though the sun was behind the Grand Tetons they still looked impresive.
Thew cfeteria for the evening meal is just ok - however it is not open for
breakfast!

27 Pics are he
http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday.../YNP5_Top1.htm


Day 6.
Weather was perfect.
Had an unbelivable day walking the Cascade Canyon Trail in the Grand Tetons.
Beautifull and spectacular scenery, Jenny lake and the Canyon along with
lots of wild life. We saw our first moose and a couple of other small
animals we hadn't seen before. We don't know what they are.

Like this one:
http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday...ns/GTNP_28.htm

and this one
http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday...ns/GTNP_32.htm

While there where a lot of people on the other side of Jenny Lake, once you
got past Inspiration Point there were not a lot of people on the trail.
As always we didn't have enough time and again this is another area we would
like to revisit and maybe do a loop walk and camp in the backcountry.
An extreemly enjoyable day. The "Chuckwagen", at Coulter Bay, food was good.

The pictures (36) are he
http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday...GTNP1_Top1.htm

Day 7
We headed back to Littleton for a short break, overnighting in Casper,
before continuing on with the rest of our holiday in Europe before flying
back to Australia via Singapore.

Some general comments.
(1) We could saved a very long drive back through Wyoming by not returning
to Denver but flying out to London from Billings.
(2) We didn't feel the park was crowded although there were quite a few
peple around and we did book are accomodation 8 months in advance.
(3) Allow a lot more time to explore the park especially if you do like to
do some hiking.
(4) Do some day hikes at least - it all of a sudden gets a lot more pecefull
and intimate as soon as you are 15 minutes off the road.

The general (Holiday2006) URL for my site is:
http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday2006/Top2006.htm
I will be filling in the blanks in Europe over the next few weeks.

The USA section is here with just a few impressions of Wyoming added (to and
from the parks).
http://www.poseruniverse.net/Holiday2006/USA/USA.htm

if anybody wants wall papers or larger pics, (with a © on them) for
printing. I can make them availabe for downloading (free) if need be.
Most of them were shot with a 8MP digital SLR camera.

Finally:
My wife said, when we driving back to Colorado. "I feel if we have had a
wonderfull holiday". I told her we still had another 32 days to go!

Thanks to everybody on the 'net for assistance in planning this holiday and
if I can be of help please feel free to ask.

Richard



Thank you for your trip report. I am glad you had a good time even
though it rained a bit. Maybe next time you will allow more time to
explore Yellowstone, and adjacent national parks. Another interesting
trip you might like to take during our Summer is exploring Minnesota
and/or the Great Lakes region. It's an interesting mix of national
parks and places like Chicago. There's a park by one of the lakes that
consists of very huge sand dunes. I mean truly colossal sand dunes.
Every now and again early settler's homes get uncovered by the migrating
dunes and then covered back again.

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Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951