Mel & Trinity

Yellowstone National Park is amazing! Unlike Glacier National Park which is best explored on foot, this park needs to be explored by motorised transport. This is partly due to the vastness of the park (it is enormous) and partly due to the hot springs which limit where you can travel on foot. I say this although it has over 1,000 walking trails.

Yellowstone National Park reminds me of South African game reserves in its feel, with a slightly different landscape of course. The park is a lot flatter – like rolling grasslands. Don’t get me wrong though, mountains are ever present, just less dramatic than the areas further north.

The drive down to Yellowstone from Helena was a wonderful surprise, although I’m quickly learning to expect something amazing each day.

I was pleasantly surprised to get 300 miles from one tank of petrol, 19 litres actually, which means that I could have done more (my tank is 24 litres). I never got close to that type of consumption in the UK. Clearly Trinity loves all this fresh air too!

We approached West Yellowstone via Highway 191. The scenery along this road is exquisite. So much so that my cousin said he would move here in a heartbeat. I can understand why. I had the same thought driving along the road. Just a pity about the cold winters.

On the approach to the west entrance the valley we drove through was picture perfect. The green grass was kissed with patches of yellow and orange flowers – what I imagine the New England’s trees look like in the Fall. To our right a stream meandered along the valley. The sunlight glistened off the stream and I was almost envious of the fly fishermen in the stream (and I don’t even fish), who I imagine live in the little cottages dotted along the valley. What a gateway to the park and move from Montana to Wyoming.

When we reached Maddison we headed south towards Old Faithful. We stopped a number of times along the road to see the various hot springs and paint pots. The springs are fantastic! I will never do them justice in my photos but I hope this gives you a flavour of what to expect if you ever make it to the park.

It was fantastic to see Old Faithful. It’s water sprays up to 180 feet high and lasts around 4 minutes. It’s clearly a popular sight as there must have been a few hundred people sat waiting for the geyser to ‘let off some steam’. This is what what we waited 35 min to see.

One of the highlights of the day was lifting Chris in the park. It was great to share the experience of riding a motorbike with him, and also riding Trinity without a helmet. Feeling the wind running through your hair in such an amazing environment is incredibly special. It’s a feeling of freedom which is difficult to explain. I loved it!

We were incredibly lucky to see bison and elk in the park as well as on our drive to Gardiner, which is where we are staying. The drive between Mammoth Hot Springs and Gardiner (the northern entrance to the park) is breathtaking! This should give you a taster.

My final pleasure for the evening was finding a Montana Ale that I liked. Here it is. A great end to a great day! Just a pity it as the same colour as my face. I so need to remember to put sunscreen on. One this is for sure, I’m going to have one hell of a tan when I get back to London.