Day 6--Grand Tetons and Yellowstone

We had a glorious day today. The weather was once again fantastic. We rented a six person skiff at the marina in the Grand Tetons (TEA-tawns) and toodled around a small portion of Jackson Lake which lies between our lodge and the Teton mountain range. It was fun to go in and out of the coves with Sullivan driving most of the time. We were surprised that we didn't see any animals at all but we did see a family of ducks, a heron and some geese (which were glorious when they all took flight together. After zigzagging around the coastline for a couple hours, we returned the boat and headed into Yellowstone which was less than an hour drive away. The topography and trees change radically as you drive from one park to the other. Upon entering Yellowstone at the south entrance, the evergreens begin growing literally starting on the edge of the road and move densely back. Then there is a gorge on the right side of the car with the fast moving Snake river at the bottom. It was beautiful, but scary for me to drive. I kept telling everyone else to enjoy the view and not to tell me about it because the drop was long and made me nervous. Then we checked into our rooms at Grant Lodge and headed out for the evening. Chris and I were amazed at how BIG Yellowstone is. To drive to any of the sites, we had to plan on being gone a long time. We hit three today. We drove to West Thumb Geyser which was close to our lodge. This area has probably 20 different geysers of various types. It is suppose to be the best representation of all the geysers types available to be seen in the park. They were really amazing. Mud geysers (water looks like mud bubbling), fishing hole geyser (in the water where explorers wrote about catching a fish in the water and then dropping it into a boiling geyser and cooking it without even taking it off the pole), seismograph geiser, and geysers where the water is so turquoise blue and you can see the caverns heading into the depths of it. It was amazing. Then we hopped in the car and drove another half hour to Hayden Meadow. There we saw a heard of wild bison. They were magnificent!! It was cool to see them wandering through a riverbed, resting in the meadow, walking with their babies, and just hanging out. There were probably hundreds because they were on both sides of the road (hillside on the left and meadow on the right). After stopping to take pictures, we continued on to the Canyon of Yellowstone. There is a waterfall to start the canyon off. It wasn't a long one but it was a mighty powerful one. The canyon then slices through the rock. Sullivan also had his picture by a sign for Uncle Tom Trail. He joked that he didn’t know his Uncle Tom had named after him in Yellowstone. We got back in our car and drove to Artists Point...the most photographed place in the park. At this location, we stood on the edge a cliff looking down onto the canyon formed by the water and "Colored" by geysers over the years leaving their sediment on the hillside. This canyon is faily narrow and incredibly deep. Every time one of us would say "Isn't this beautiful?!" Dharma would chime in "And Deadly!" We all kept laughing. It Was breathtakingly beautiful but the cliffs are so deep and steep and void of greenery that if you fell, you wouldn't stop until you hit the bottom. After that we drove back to our lodge. As we drove around Yellowstone, anywhere a mass of cars was pulled off on the side of the road meant that wildlife had been spotted. It could be a mess at times trying to get around the cars stopped here and there. At one point, as we were traveling past Hayen Meadow on the way back, traffic on the road had come to a long standstill. Commenting aloud that there better be a bison in the road for people to hold up traffic this long, we finally reached the top of the ridge and ...there was a bison and its baby in the road. Sullivan took a couple great pictures as we eaked around the creatures hoping we wouldn't make them mad. It was a Great Day.