Yellowstone Park Adventure!
By Aarav, 13
A few weeks ago, my school finished. I was so excited since my parents had planned a summer trip for us.
We would fly into Utah and go to Yellowstone via a road trip driving through Utah , Idaho , Wyoming, Montana and then drive to South Dakota to see Mt Rushmore! . After that we would drive to Colorado and visit Ohio and then New York to see my cousins. Hurrah!
I had read about Yellowstone and Mt Rushmore so my excitement knew no bounds. This was a very unique and fun trip as we were on the road for 40+ hours over the span of 9 days.
I enjoyed looking out the window and chatting with my family. We took many pictures of these places which I have shared in the article. My favorite place was undoubtedly - Yellowstone National Park.
Yellowstone National Park is located in Wyoming, but has many entrances coming from South Dakota and Colorado. We came in through the Montana entrance.
We were greeted outside by the park’s ranger in a huge entrance way.
Just as we entered the forest and saw many bison around us. The number of bison we saw were more than the number of people in the park! <Describe a bison>
I wanted to see more — bears and wolves!
Our first stop was at Gibbon Falls. It was a majestic waterfall in a wooded setting.
As we drove, I saw steam ahead. My father parked the car and I sprang out to see my very first spring! — Beryl Spring. There was a wooded walkway where awe were allowed to walk. It was steaming around us, and many signs told us to not touch the water since it was hot.
The reason the water is hot and the geysers/springs are steaming all the time is because millions of years ago Yellowstone used to be an active volcano, that was spread out from the edge of Idaho all the way to Nebraska. If it were to explode today the volcanic ash would spread from Minnesota all the way to California! Hope not!
This volcano right underneath Yellowstone is the reason why boiling water is being shot into the air for so long. Also, below Yellowstone is the caldera of the volcano which is the opening of the volcano. This is shooting magma, thus leading to the ground being warm and water boiling.
The next location we visited was Norris Geyser Basin. This place has the hottest geyser’s all throughout Yellowstone if not the country! It holds a massive 193 count of geysers and some being up to 195 degrees Fahrenheit! It is even home to the hottest geyser in the world- Steamboat Geyser. Also, there were different colors of the geyser water. Some were red, blue and green, which was the hottest.
Next we went to Mammoth Springs which was 2 levels of springs on the lower side and upper side of the mountain. We walked up stairs to get to the top and most of the geyser’s dried up, but had left their mark on the nearby trees.
It was dusk when we headed to the Lamar Valley, the drinking and feeding spot for many of Yellowstone’s amazing animals. We had driven a short distance when we saw a line of cars on the side of the road and people with cameras — got to have spotted animals!
I could barely control my excitement - it was two bear cubs grazing in the grass. One was a grizzly bear, and one was a black bear — were they friends? However I read later that they actually attack each other. I think they were not aware of each other there.
We got to see them scratching and laying on the ground! It was super fun!
As we drove ahead we saw hordes of bison on the meadows on either side of road. All of a sudden, we came to a halt as there was a bison trying to cross the road. “They have the right of way — we must respect their home”, my parents said.
There were thousands of them roaming in the whole valley, as it was their time to eat and get water. We also saw their calf, and the elder bison were protecting them. No calves would be outside of Lamar Valley which was very interesting. Seems like the adult bison considered the valley to be the safest spot for the young ones. It was incredible and scary that some of the bison were just 5 feet away from our car!
On our way back from Lamar Valley, it started to rain. It was getting worse by the minute so we had to go for the hotel. We had one more destination though and even the rain couldn’t stop us — Tower Falls. It is a very beautiful fall with a unique shape. We had seen what was below us and it was almost invisible since the gray skies blocked our vision. We rushed back to the car since it started to pour hard.
On our drive to the hotel which was a steep climb, we tried to see more of the wildlife in the fog. We saw some deer but unfortunately we couldn’t spot any Big Horn mountain sheep.
As we climbed higher, we were surprised to see snow in summer! It was cold, my Dad said that we were at almost 8000 ft elevation.
I was so hungry — we walked into the food hall. It seemed like a huge food court with many choices. I had some stir-fry with rice and another helping of turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans!!
At around 5 am, I woke up with loud howling noises. The hotel staff had told us that a pack of wolves had camped nearby and were howling every night that week. My mom and I tried to look, but did not spot any animals.
It was the sound of the wild that I will never forget.
The next day, we continued the tour and stopped at the majestic Prismatic Spring. It has so many different shades of color. Then we went to a breakfast buffet and waited till the next time the Old Faithful would erupt.
The Old Faithful is a “reliable” geyser that goes off every 35 minutes to 2 hours and sprouts 90–184 feet in the air. The duration of the event is from 1.5 to 5 minutes. This results in the largest predictable geyser in the whole of Yellowstone!
While I wish there was more to tell you, this was the last stop on our Yellowstone journey. As a first time explorer to this park, I have to say it is an awe-inspiring place where one experience wildlife, nature’s wonders and the majesty of it all!
I continued with Yellowstone on my mind as we traveled through Grand Tetons to Mt Rushmore.
