Yellowstone Nationalpark

After a short stopover at the airport in San Salvador, we landed safely in Las Vegas. We didn't see much of the city (yet) because we just picked up our rental car here and headed straight to Salt Lake City. Here we met Sascha, who visited us again 🥳! He had already landed in the afternoon and was sightseeing in the city that is the headquarters of the Mormons. For both of us it was 670km along the very well-developed motorway, where you can find all the fast food chains your heart desires every few kilometers. The landscape was super beautiful, everything was very spacious and felt even bigger than in Australia. Welcome to Amiland! In the evening we arrived at our very nice hostel pretty exhausted and after a short greeting we all fell into bed dead tired.

The next morning, after an excellent breakfast where we were confronted with the hefty American prices for the first time, we set off on our road trip! In between we made a stop at Walmart, where they have really big bulk packages, and bought, among other things, a gallon of iced tea 😄. Our first destination was Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, where we had booked 3 nights. We drove straight through to the park entrance and bought an annual pass that is valid for most large national parks. Even though we arrived so late, we saw a lot of great things. The nature was beautiful and after just a short drive we saw the first huge bison roaming through the landscape. We were really excited because we thought it would be difficult to find these animals. But it didn't take long for the next ones to arrive, they just walked very relaxed along the street right next to our car! After another bit of driving we found a large herd of bison, which we observed from a distance with binoculars. Afterwards we drove to the so-called “Lower Geyser Basin”. There are many geothermal sites in Yellowstone National Park where geysers bubble, smoke or spew water fountains. Beneath the national park lies a so-called supervolcano, which left behind this strange landscape in several large eruptions many millions of years ago. That's why there is the largest geyser field in the world here! With the light of the setting sun, the geysers looked really amazing! As it slowly got dark, we made our way home and checked into our hotel.

The next day we got up extra early to avoid the line at the entrance and be able to spend the whole day in the park. It was still pretty cool and the fog hung over the landscape. First we walked along a small circular path past hot springs, which were unfortunately still somewhat obscured by the fog. The national park is really well developed, there are large parking spaces at every attraction and a flat circular path suitable for wheelchairs. Our next destination was the large geyser “Old Faithful”, which erupts pretty reliably every 90 minutes. When it was time for the next eruption, hundreds of people gathered on the observation deck. You mainly saw a tall column of smoke, unfortunately little of the water fountain. But another geyser started next door at the same time, so you never got bored 😉. After the spectacle, we borrowed a so-called bear spray, a very strong pepper spray that is recommended for hikes in Yellowstone because some brown and black bears live here. We had planned our first short hike, it was to Yellowstone Lake, which we could admire from above. It is so big that it even has its own climate. On the way we saw a coyote from a distance! After a short circular route past other hot springs that were right next to the lake, we drove to a place where we briefly dipped our feet into the lake. Here we watched a cute squirrel eating his pine cone. After that, the next hike was on the agenda and after a short detour to other bubbling and smoking geysers, we ended the day in the beautiful “Hayden Valley”. At the end we saw lots of bison again, this time even in the middle of the road, which is why all the cars had to stop again and again.

We started the third day early again and with another geyser field. Afterwards we drove to a mountain that was smoking everywhere and full of white deposits, so it looked like there was snow there. After our breakfast at one of the many picnic areas in the middle of the fir forest, we set off on a longer hike to “Bunsen Peak”. From up here we had a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape and its endless expanses. Afterwards we drove to the famous Mammoth Hot Springs. Here it looked like you were in the middle of a glacier. The landscape was so different and varied everywhere! We then made a short stop in the small town of the same name and sat out the first small rain shower in the visitor center. In several places in the middle of town we saw large deer showing what they can do with their large antlers during the current mating season. One dug up the front yard and two others attacked a car that stopped too close to their territory. The rangers were constantly whistling onlookers back using a megaphone 🙈. On the further way we saw pronghorn and cute big-eared deer. At the beginning of dusk we drove to the “Lamar Valley” because you can often see grizzly bears (brown bears) and wolves there. Unfortunately we weren't lucky, but the valley itself was beautiful. As darkness fell, we headed home and at the end the bison herds once again blocked the road 😉.

And then came our last day in West Yellowstone, we checked out of our hotel early in the morning and drove into the park again. We had planned a longer hike to “Mount Washburn”, where grizzly territory was again, because we really wanted to see bears. Unfortunately we didn't see any bears, but we did see pikas, which are also called pikas and are really cute. Just as we started to descend it started to hail and thunder. Thankfully, the weather quickly became nicer again and we were able to drive in the sunshine to probably the most famous attraction in the national park, the large “Upper and Lower Falls”. At these impressive waterfalls, the Yellowstone River falls 30 or 90 meters into the depths and then forms the large canyon. That was a great end to the last great days!

We drove back to West Yellowstone and shopped in the gift shop before heading further south.

The first national park of the road trip knocked our socks off and one of Philip's childhood dreams came true: seeing bison in Yellowstone - and so many more! Overall, traveling here is pretty comfortable and hassle-free and the landscapes are breathtaking!

We're now heading to Zion National Park.