Yellowstone National Park

I must admit that I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the world’s oldest National park. Even if I had heard that the wildlife there is amazing I was worried that the mountain landscape would look much like Switzerland and that I would therefore not be greatly impressed by the park. Not because I don’t appreciate the Alps but simply because I am used to them. However, my doubts turned out not to be justified whatsoever.

Kate and I entered Yellowstone from the East entrance, leaving Cody after a great American breakfast at THE packed local diner called “our place”. Before passing the gates of the park our Chevy took us through the Buffalo Bill State Park where we got our first glimpse of the mountains surrounding a magnificent artificial lake.

First thing you do when you enter the park is to secure a camping site since most of the grounds attribute their spots on a FCFS (first come first served) basis. We asked a ranger for the most beautiful and remote campground and got directed to the North Eastern part of the park, where the night before our Motel manager had told us most of the Grizzlies were to be found.

Yellowstone is big, huge indeed. You have to realize that it took us over 2 hours to get from the east (not south) entrance to the Lamar Valley in the North East and that over the three days we spent in the park we drove more than 400 miles (640 km)! The roads are good but once in a while you get stuck in a jam created either by an Elk, Bison, Pronghorn or a Bear crossing the road or strolling within photo-opportunity distance. On our way to the camping ground we sighted two magnificent mule deer, hundreds of Bison with calves, an American White Pelican and hundreds of Uinta Ground Squirrels. (The only other place I’ve been where you could see such a high concentration of animals in close distance are the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador.)

The Lamar Valley (where the Lamar river flows) was our “home” for the 2 nights we spent in the park. From a distance this valley reminded me of the Saanenland (a valley close to Gstaad, Switzerland) because of its largeness and hilly mountains. The only big difference is that Bison are grazing the river plain along with pronghorns and deer, which makes you feel like in a Kenyan Safari (at least that’s how I imagine a Safari…). The other difference, which impressed me most, is the idea that as far as your eyes can see, the landscape is completely natural and virgin. Nothing disturbs the peace of nature there, which is an extremely rare sight when you think about it.

Driving along the Lamar river towards the rather remote northeast entrance there were two campgrounds from which the first was already full by the tine we arrived there. The second one, Pebble Creek, had one camping site that was waiting for a small car and tent like ours. We met the ranger in charge of the site and I must say that these national park rangers are absolutely charming; friendly, helpful and patient. Even when there were jams on the roads because an animal was near the road and everybody was just parking their car or RV on the often nonexistent shoulder of the narrow mountain roads, the rangers kept their tone friendly while asking people to move their vehicles to designated parking areas and not to approach the wildlife.

Our campsite was neat and since we were right in bear country all our cooking equipment, waste and dishwater had to be carefully put away after every use.

The nights up there were cold but beautiful. The starry sky made us understand how people recognize the divine element above us. Even in my supposedly very warm Mammoth sleeping bag I had to wear warm cloths and when the moon started to rise and the temperatures dropped, Kate was glad to have me roll on top of her in my cocoon as a human heating blanket. She had a ten-buck sleeping bag from Canadian Tire and a couple of blankets. The Campground had an outhouse and no showers such that we didn’t shower for 3 days. No worries, people who’ve been at bug camp (:-) VK) will confirm that this doesn’t have to be a smelly experience. Wood gathering around the camp was also an experience for itself. One night, on our way home from a day of hiking/sightseeing we stopped at the entrance of our small camping valley to find dead wood and froze on our way into the woods at the sound of a low moan coming from behind the trees. As a very law-abiding Swiss kid I backed up and decided not to bother whatever was behind the trees. But behind us was a group of Harley bikers who, as soon as they saw us frozen half way to the woods, got interested in what we’d heard. They went right in, not showing any respect for the thing we probably ended up scaring away, but at least they proved us how tough they were…

On the two full days we spent there we saw a big part of the park and enjoyed some of their trails. Our Motel manager back in Cody had really confused me on what a national park was all about. He’d made it sound as if hiking in the park (without a gun) was risking your life and he did that in a convincing fashion but our camp ranger described this discourse as the “Montana Mentality”. Caution is always necessary but paranoia is completely unnecessary in this case. So we got to hike up Mt. Washburn, an amazing panorama at the top and along the hike.

I’ll let Kate continue!