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A 7-day adventure by Juliet Sinclair's Trips Read more
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  • TravelerYellowstone National Park 2021
    Day 1

    Yellowstone National Park Day 1

    July 17, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Not sure how to feel about this, but the pandemic has stopped people from other countries to visit our national parks, so we didn’t see any tour buses, which means even Old Faithful was not that crowded.

    We made sure to leave early from our hotel from Yellowstone West, a tourist town right outside the park’s west entrance. The morning temperature was about 40 F, I was so glad I did my research before coming here and we were fully prepared for 40 F morning and 85 F afternoon. What we did was: wearing a pair of long pants over our shorts, and wear a light winter jacket on top of a T-shirt. As we were walking around comfortably in our cold-resistance attire, people in shorts were shivering around us. 😉🥶

    We waited about 30 minutes for the Old Faithful to erupt, but it was so worth it!! The power of nature was truly a magic sight! And then we climbed a hill next to the Old Faithful (climbing on a 8,000 feet altitude hill is no joke!), and watched it erupt again!

    Can I offer another suggestion here? Go to the picnic area before noon! Since I like to do my research thoroughly before I visit anywhere, I took an excellent suggestion from an article that suggested we pack our own lunch in order to avoid crowds in the few restaurants in the park, and it worked out great! Seeing all those people waiting outside of the restaurants proved we did the right thing. However, another great thing we did was to reach a picnic area around 11:30 AM, so we were able to eat our lunch in a quiet forest settings, before the crowds showed up around noon.

    After lunch, we head to Yellowstone Lake. The lake is 136 square miles, a huge body of water inside of the park. The geyser area the lake is called West Thumb, because the section of the lake looks like a thumb of the lake (and it’s on the west).

    we then went to Biscuit Basin that’s also covered with many unique geysers, and 2 of them erupted right in front of us. It was awesome!! At the end of the boardwalk, was a a very lovely hiking trail to Mystic Falls. Almost the entire hike was accompanied by a crystal clear river, with beautiful wild flowers on the banks. A nice water fall at the end of the trail rewarded us even more beauty of the nature.

    The best thing about going to the park early was how much crowds we had avoided. On the way out of the park, we had seen so many overflown parking lots, and the road to Old Faithful was completely jammed!

    Since we have 5 days in Yellowstone National Park so we will have plenty of time doing many things, we left the park around 3:30 PM when the park was super crowded.

    After a bit of rest in our hotel room, we went out for Chinese food! I’ve decided to try a restaurant called Red Lotus, and was very surprised how good the food was! Even to my very picky Chinese taste buds, the food exceeded my expectations! Highly recommended!

    A successful first day!    Read more

  • TravelerYellowstone National Park 2021
    Day 2

    Yellowstone Narional Park Day 2

    July 18, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    We had one goal for today before we set out this morning: we want to see wild animals! And the goal was immediately reached as we were driving towards Mammoth Spring: a lone bison was casually walking on the road right next to us. We had to drive on the other lane to avoid him. Having a huge animal walking right next to me was so interesting!

    Other animals we saw today are a family of elks, a herd of bison in a distance and some deers. Not bad at all!

    Mammoth Spring was a very interesting geographic location. Although we had seen a much bigger site of this phenomenon in Sichuan, China a couple years ago. The unique formation was created as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate. We enjoyed the walk nevertheless.

    Next site was Artist Paintpot. We still haven’t got tired of seeing all those colorful geysers yet, but the most interesting things we saw were the mud pots. Basically they were pots of boiling bubbling mud, fascinating and a bit disgusting to look at.

    Lunch was at a beautiful picnic spot right by the Madison river. Getting there early afforded us some peace and quiet moments before other families showed up.

    We then stopped at a tranquil lake by the road. There was no official trail by the lake, so we had to create one on our own. The water was so calm and clear, the hill next to it made a perfect reflection on its surface.

    Trying to go to Norris Geyser area but was deterred by a huge line of cars going to the same place, so we went to Yellowstone Grand Canyon area. Once again the crowds held us back from going into it further, so we decided to come back here first thing in the morning tomorrow.

    We had brought bear spray with us on this trip; when we decided to go on a backcountry hike, we could finally carry it with us. The trail we chose had almost no one on it, which was perfect since we wanted some solitude. Unfortunately… or fortunately, we didn’t see any bears on this hike, just a quiet trail with a view of a beautiful meadow. 4 miles of hiking later, it’s time to exit the park!

    It’s only the second day, but for some reason, days during a trip seem longer than when we are home, doing routine things.    Read more

  • TravelerYellowstone National Park 2021
    Day 4

    Yellowstone National Park: Day 4 (a clos

    July 20, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Every time we passed by Norris Geyser area, it was always super crowded, so today we went there the first thing in the morning, and enjoyed this site with far fewer tourists.

    As soon as you walked in, with all the smoke coming from many geysers, it looked like a battle field to me. It’s such a unique and interesting site!!

    As we were leaving, the parking lot started to fill up, and a car was waiting for us to leave. Under the pressure to leave as soon as possible, Steve decided we were going to Lamar Valley. It turned out to be an excellent decision!

    After another lovely lunch at the most scenic picnic table, we headed into the valley.

    First of all, I have to say the this northeast quadrant of the park is very beautiful! The rolling mountains under the blue sky in the distance, the streams and rivers snaking through the vast plains, the wild flowers covering the the grassy landscape. Just WOW!

    And the vast amount of animals!! I think we saw about 800 to 1000 bisons!! Herds of bisons were everywhere! A huge herd of bisons were migrating to the river area of the valley, so they were constantly crossing the road, causing traffic jams. The amount of baby bisons we saw assured us that the bison population here was very healthy!

    As we were returning to the west side of the park, we noticed some cars were parked by the roadside, and a crowd was looking at something. So we asked a guy, he said:”a black bear!”

    So we parked our car and running towards the crowd, sure enough, a black bear was under the bridge, and enjoying some shade.

    Steve said:”Great! A bear at a safe distance.” Just as he said that, the bear started to move, and it climbed up towards to bridge, and getting closer and closer to us. Some people ran to the other side of the road, suddenly the bear was directly in front of me, about 20 feet away! I ran to the other side of road, just as the park ranger screaming:”everyone across the road!”

    Well, apparently the bear liked to follow the order too… the bear crossed the road as well. 😳. Fortunately with the park ranger around, we didn’t feel particularly threatened.

    Being this close to a bear in the wild was certainly the highlight of the trip!!    Read more

  • TravelerYellowstone National Park 2021
    Day 5

    Yellowstone National Park: Day 5

    July 21, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    A heavy fog covered the entire park this morning, and gave it a mysterious feel to it.

    Instead of heading directly to a major destination, we were hitting all the places we skipped for the last 4 days this morning. There were waterfalls and more interesting geysers. This park is full of beautiful places!!

    The main attraction today is the Prismatic geyser. Based on its name, we waited until the fog was lifted before we went there. We were hoping the sunlight would gave it a colorful hue we saw in photos. However, due to the mist steaming from the geyser, we couldn’t see it very well. It’s still stunning beautiful nevertheless!

    As we were leaving this places, we saw how packed the parking lot had become. Cars were parked at least half a mile away, and many were lining up to try to park. As we were driving north, the traffic towards south almost at standstill! Once again, we were thankful how much we were rewarded for getting into the park early.

    One good thing about the Yellowstone National Park, it’s the fact many attractions were close to their parking lots, so people don’t have to walk far to see the beautiful sites. However, I think the best way to see the park is going for a nature hike, not only we can see more beauty of the nature, but we can avoid crowds.

    Once again, we went to our picnic lunch early at 11 AM, and found the best spot for the entire trip so far. The table was hidden between trees, and right by Gibbon River, it’s a quiet and beautiful spot! We enjoyed our lunch with a lurking raven. We couldn’t help ourselves but to gave it some fresh cherries. The raven took out the pits very efficiently before eating them, and then stashed some cherries in its hiding place out of sight. What a smart animal!!

    We ended our trip to Yellowstone Park with a bit splash in a clear stream in the woods. The water was shockingly cold, but felt so refreshing!

    We have to say goodbye to this park now, and heading to Grand Teton National Park tomorrow!    Read more

  • TravelerYellowstone National Park 2021
    Day 6

    Grand Teton National Park: Day 1

    July 22, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    We drove through Yellowstone National Park for the last time in the trip, said goodbye to this magnificent place on earth, heading to Grand Teton National Park.

    2 and half hour later, we arrived The Mural Room at Jackson Hole Lodge for lunch. For the first time during this trip, we were eating our lunch indoors. The restaurant has an amazing view of the Grand Teton Mountain, and the food was fantastic as well!

    On our way to Jackson Hole, we stopped at a beach area right by Jackson Lake. Steve and Evan built the strangest cairn rock art. While others built theirs as a single column to show their rock balancing skills, these two built theirs with 2 columns, with rock bridges between them. I guess you can say it showed their rock bridging skills. LOL! People tend to leave others’ rock arts alone, I wonder if their creation can withstand storms, and stand there for some times to come. By the way, the view of the mountains across the lake was breathtaking!

    On our way to Signal Mountain peak, a coyote ran towards us on the road. We stopped our car to gave it space to pass us, but this guy had a different idea about how to handle this encounter. In order to establish its dominance, or maybe it just really had to go, it looked us right in our eyes, squat down, and pooped!! We were shocked and started laughing. It finished its business, stood up and ran away. We decided to call it Joe.

    As we continue to drive towards Jackson Hole, a sudden rain shower arrived but the sun was still in the sky. The already magnificent mountain peaks were covered with golden mist. We were thinking the Misty Mountains of Lord of Rings must’ve looked like this.

    Jackson Hole is very touristy! The streets were full of people and the restaurants were packed! It’s clear the tourism in America has made its comeback.    Read more

  • TravelerYellowstone National Park 2021
    Day 7

    Grand Teton National Park: Day 2 (final

    July 23, 2021 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    First stop today was Jenny Lake. Queuing for the boat ride took a while but the ride was worth it. So glad for wearing our jackets and long pants since it was cold on the lake in the morning.

    A short easy hike later we arrived at Hidden Falls; a much longer and uphill climbing at the edge of cliff later, we arrived at Inspiration Point, a beautiful vista hilltop that overlooks Jenny Lake. Saw a very unhappy woman going downhill on this dangerous hike in her flip flops. She was so nervous her legs were shaking. Don’t recommend doing that!

    Jenny lake is gorgeous from any angle, but from the Inspiration Point under the morning sunshine, it was very tranquil. The boat on the water left a golden wake behind it, creating the only waves on the calm lake.

    The trail by the lake is 2.5 miles, I was surprised to see many young kids walking on it. There were 2 girls, who were about 5 years old, left impressions on me. One girl was walking with extreme confidence, calm and determined, eyes straight ahead. Her mother was trying to catch up to her, with a big smile on her face. Then there was another girl, walking with a frown on her face. Her mother said encouragingly:”you are such a good hiker!” The girl immediately screamed:” I AM NOT A GOOD HIKER!” Proceed with loud sobbing. The poor mother… she has a long road ahead of her!

    Almost at the end of our hike, I noticed a small trail led to a tiny rocky beach by the lake. We decided this was our final picnic spot. The gentle waves rippled on the rocks, the imposing mountains casted long reflections on the water surface, kayaks dotted on the lake. What a perfect spot for us to have … instant ramen noodles 😂. One kayaker who passed our spot said to her partner:” Hey, the noodles look good!” LOL!

    We then drove to the Jenny Lake Scenic Drive, and noticed the Full sign by the road for the picnic area, we patted ourselves on the back for making the right decision picking a much better place to eat.

    After a few more stops in the park, we drove back to Jackson Hole, therefore concluded our amazing trip to the National Parks.

    We had such a good time on this trip!!    Read more

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