Friday, June 29, 2007

Days 17 & 18 -- Yellowstone (pictures later, sorry)

We spent the last two days in Yellowstone National Park, at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge -- the junior partner to the grander Old Faithful Inn.

We had fun in Yellowstone and it was beautiful, but for a variety of reasons, it may have been less than the sum of its parts.

What we liked:

We had fun seeing wildlife. Bison, including one quite close-up; Elk, beautiful; Moose, only saw one lying down from a bit of a distance -- kind of a disappointment.

Old Faithful. Despite it's Disney-fication (complete with a long and winding multi-lane access road to it's huge parking lot), it was really impressive. We saw it blow 4 times (since our hotel was so close, we could walk over in the evening when the crowds had thinned and the temperature was cooler), and it caused us to ooh and aah each time. We also liked the camaraderie that developed with other tourists as we waited for it to blow (it is not perfectly regular, so you usually end up waiting 15-30 minutes). We talked to a radiologist from New York, a family from Israel, and a family from about an hour from our house in Berkeley (they had a teenage daughter who mistakenly took a picture of her foot instead of Old Faithful -- her brother made sure to tease her on that one!)

Other things we liked were some truly beautiful scenery and swimming in a "warm" river (okay, Laura barely got in, I waded, and "A" swam).

Here's what made it less than ideal. "A' especially, but all of us to some extent, felt really cut-off from civilization -- no internet, barely any buildings (shopping, etc.), hardly any decent food even. Too much driving each day -- we had been driving so much for the last many weeks that it was hard to have to drive for hours each day in the park. Our lodge was fine, but way less pleasant than the one in Grand Teton. Too many crowds -- and I hear it gets worse as the summer progresses.

We must sound like whiners, and perhaps we are. And we did enjoy our time there, but less than we might have hoped. I will try to post some pictures in the next couple days.

No comments: