After our night on the North Platte Walmart parking lot we started our day by eating a "healthy" breakfast at Burger King. After breakfast we went to Buffalo Bill's Ranch, the reason we had stayed in North Platte. The ranch was totally different from what we had expected, it wasn't so much a ranch as it was a manor with a big stable next to it. Still it was an interesting place and worth a visit if you're in the neighborhood.
From North Platte we drove to Gering. We mostly used Route 26 which had great views on the surrounding areas and a lot of historical sites and small towns which, like the ones we had seen in the past few days, were behind us before we had time to really even notice them. The road was empty and we had time to drive slowly and enjoy the trip. We arrived to our destination of the day, Gering, early in the evening and decided to go eat something. We ended up going to a local restaurant that the receptionist recommended called Steel Grill. It had a good atmosphere and the food was good.
Driving through Iowa and especially Nebraska, it has been easy to see the affects of the abnormally hot and dry summer here. Unlike the summer in Finland which was, how should I put this, "lyhyt, mutta vähäluminen" cold and rainy, the summer here has been warmer than it has been in the past almost hundred years. Pretty much every creek we've crossed in these areas have been completely dry and even the big rivers are clearly very shallow, not to mention that the grass is yellow everywhere. When we crossed to Wyoming, the situation seemed to improve even though the drought is still present.
Day 16 / 9/18/2012 / Gering, NE [Scotts Bluff National Monument] - Dubois, WY
This was our first outdoors day of the trip. Liisa had found Scotts Bluff National Monument when doing her research for the trip and we decided to include it to our route and I'm very glad we did. This was by far our best stop on the trip so far. The monument is located next to the North Platte River on the great plains and was a landmark used on the Oregon Trail back in the 19th century. Now it gave us a great day exploring the steep hills.
We started our visit from the visitor center on the footsteps of the bluff and met some very helpful and great national park workers who were interested in our road trip, Finland, and Europe. After watching a short historical document on the bluff and the Oregon Trail, we drove up the monument and walked around the top admiring the views. Then we decided, as it was a beautiful day, to hike further down the hill. Liisa ended up walking all the way down back to the visitor center and I turned around halfway down the hill to get the car.
Scotts Bluff National Monument is a great place to stop and admire the nature and the beautiful scenery with a lot more bluffs and the great open space around it. On a clear day you can see tens of miles from the top but unfortunately there was a lot of smoke or fog in the air and we couldn't see quite so long. We have experienced a lot of that fog from Scotts Bluff all the way to the Nevada/California border and still haven't figured out what causes it, is it the elevation here or the temperature or what.
Even though I could have spend the whole day hiking in the area we had to move on as we were headed to another outdoor location, Yellowstone. On our drive from Scotts Bluff we encountered another great view of nature, a natural bridge, where we spent some time admiring the bridge. After a long day we arrived to another KOA campground at night and went to bed quickly so we would be ready for one of my top three stops on the trip.
Day 17 / 9/19/2012 / Dubois, WY - [Grand Teton National Park: Jenny Lake - Moose - Jackson Lake Lodge] - [Yellowstone: Grant Village]
In addition to going to Yellowstone, we had decided to also go to Grand Teton National Park located just south of Yellowstone. We decided to do this after a sales person in an outdoor store in Cape Cod recommended the stop there as she had just visited there herself. Grand Teton is a place definitely worth going to. With $25 you can travel around both Grand Teton and Yellowstone for seven days. Definitely the best place in Grand Teton is Jenny Lake. From there you can see the mountains reflecting from the lake's surface.
We ended up spending more time in the Grand Teton National Park than we had anticipated and we weren't in Yellowstone until early evening. After putting up the tent in the Grant Village, we went to the nearby visitors center. There we got our first glimpse of the wildlife in Yellowstone, a deer was eating behind the visitor center, just 20 meters from the porch. After the visitors center we went for a short drive to see the neighborhood and saw our first geysers. Yellowstone has a lot of thermal areas spread throughout the park and there are a lot of signs everywhere to warn about these areas. Also early on our drive we learnt how to best spot animals in the park, just drive around the park and when you see lots of cars parked to the side of the road, join them and look at where they are looking, works every time.
Day 18 / 9/20/2012 / [Yellowstone: Grant Village - Old Faithful - Biscuit Basin - Morning Glory - Firehole Lake - Grand Prismatic Spring - Canyon Village - Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - Firehole Canyon] - West Yellowstone, MT
It was easy to wake up early to our main Yellowstone day. Of course it helped that my cheap air mattress that I bought started leaking and I pretty much had to sleep on the ground, oh and it was freezing cold, I felt the cold coming from the ground. Nevertheless I was eager to start the day.
Our first stop was at Old Faithful. The geyser erupts every 91 minutes, give or take 10 minutes. We had calculated when it would happen and had a great timing, we were there just few minutes before the erupture, just enough time to practise our poses. The event was pretty cool although it wasn't the highlight of the day.
From Old Faithful we drove not too far to Biscuit Basin. On the basin there were several colourful hot springs. From there we decided to hike to Morning Glory, one of the most famous hot springs. Nowadays the once perhaps the most beautiful coloured hot spring in Yellowstone has lost a lot of its colours due to people throwing coins, rocks, and even carbage in the spring. The excess material clogs the springs "pipes" which causes the pool to cool and cooler water means less pretty colors.
On our way to Morning Glory we saw a lot of very impressive hot springs.
When we returned to our car in Biscuit Basin, we saw our first buffalos using the already proven method, we saw a bunch of people staring at something and when we joined them, we saw a small group of buffalos. They are very impressive animals when you see them.
Our next stop was another hike. We wanted to go to the biggest hot spring: Grand Prismatic Spring. We hadn't studied the map as closely as we should've because when we had hiked for a while we realized that the road wasn't leading to the spring. I climbed to the nearby hill and saw that the road in fact wasn't leading to the spring but there was a parking lot right next to it a couple miles down the road where we had driven. Still the view from the hill was amazing and the hike wasn't a waste at all.
After visiting Grand Prismatic Spring we drove to Firehole Lake and, after stopping to eat, to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The canyon was very impressive and I think a nice warm up to the actual Grand Canyon which we are going to see in a few weeks. On our way to the canyon we had a real close encounter with a buffalo. A lonely buffalo had decided to try and find some company by running in the middle of the road between cars. It came so close to our car and my window that I could have touched it. A few miles down the road, another buffalo was waiting for us.
After the canyon the day was almost over and we were wondering whether to just head out or still do something in the park. Luckily we decided to try and find some more wildlife. We managed to see a lonely wolf and hundreds of buffalos. We drove around in Hayden Valley where you are sure to see buffalos. They live in big herds and move calmly around the valley. On our way back from the other side of the valley we saw just how calmly. A big herd was crossing the road and walking among cars and people, who seemed willing to risk their lives just to get good pictures.
All in all the day in Yellowstone was just amazing and it overthrowned the Scotts Bluff day as the best day for me so far.
We had planned to stay at a campground outside the park in West Yellowstone but as my sleeping pad was broken and we were tired and didn't want to be cold during the night, we decided to treat ourselves with a night in a hotel. It was a great decision as the bed was really comfortable and we even enjoyed the hotel's hot tub.
-Riku
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