Month: September 2018
Location: Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park
It was an earlier start than usual since I had over 2-hour
drive ahead of me. But first, there was
a matter of breakfast and the choice for this morning was, ‘Bubba’s Bar-B-Que Restaurant’.
Now, typically, something with “Barbeque”
in its name would not have been my choice for a meal, let alone breakfast. However, it was close to my hotel and the
reviews said that they did breakfast well.
The interior was what you would expect a “Barbeque” place to be, with rolls of paper towels and lots of
sauces. I ordered something called “Bubba’s Big Biscuit Sandwich with Scrambled
Eggs and Sausage” and yes, it was big.
It was also something that would have to do as far as food was concerned
for the rest of the day. With that taken
care of, I was ready for my long journey. One thing that I would not require was my “GPS” because the entire drive was on –
you guessed it – “Route 191”. I would be starting in Jackson and going past
the airport and the entrance of ‘Grand
Teton National Park’ and barring a left turn a 3rd of the way, it
was a straight shot. Even the left turn
was on the same route. Never have I ever
driven so much on a trip and yet stayed on the same road.
‘
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| There it was |
Yellowstone
National Park’,
while not the biggest park, its up there when it comes to the area – over 2.2
million acres of it, spanning over multiple states.
It was the very first “National
Park” in the country, if not the world.
It is also above a “Super Volcano”
which can take out most of the US if it goes off. What that does is give this park some
remarkable “geothermal” features,
none more famous than the “Old Faithful”
geyser, which by itself attracts millions of visitors. Erupting every 44 to 125 minutes, it is a
sight to see and so naturally, my first stop.
Even though I would be entering the park at the south entrance fairly
soon, it was another 30-minute drive to get to my destination. As soon as I entered inside the park, the
topography changed, from the plains that I had gotten used to seeing, to
forests and cliffs. That was to be
expected since this is after all the caldera of the volcano. When I had mentioned to one of my colleagues
that I was visiting this place, they had said that I better hope that the
volcano doesn’t go off when there.
Seeing the scale of this place, it may be better to be here than suffer
the environmental consequences later.
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| The field of geyser's |
I arrived at the “Old
Faithful Visitor Education Center” parking lot and it was huge – one of the
largest lots that I have seen for a visitor’s center. Even with that, I had to park a long way off
and it took me 10 minutes to even find the right building on that campus. Once I did, I went inside and saw that the
lobby was quite empty. That was because
I was right on time and through the big window at the back of the center, I
could see “Old Faithful”
erupting. I rushed outside and was lucky
to get a couple of pictures of the 100+ foot high spray, which lasted for a
couple of minutes and deposited thousands of gallons of water – which reportedly
is as hot as 200 degrees F. As the
eruption subsided, the crowd dispersed, and I came back inside to chat with the
“rangers”.
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| Boardwalk through the geyser's |
There was a sign which updated to the next forecasted
eruption, which was over an hour later.
A couple of programs caught my eye, one was starting soon next to the “Old Faithful” area, educating people on what
makes the geyser tick. Then there was
another program in an hour just down the road called, “Black Sand Walk” and for which I would need to drive. I decided to start with the educational piece
outside and joined a group of folks and a lady holding a poster board. The board has some information and pictures
explaining how this geyser worked and it was fascinating to learn about the
science behind this phenomenon, which is caused due to pressure being built up
in underground caverns and the heat from the gallons of magma underneath. She told us that this wasn’t the tallest
geyser, but the most predictable one and thus the popularity.
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| Looks like a hot tub, but quite deadly |
After this short tutorial, I walked around the “Old Faithful” and into a boardwalk area
that traversed the smoldering field of geyser's.
The smell of sulfur was prevalent as was the heat around me. However, everything was at a safe distance,
because even though some of the pools looked beautiful and coral colored, the “pH” of this was same as an acid, which
could cause irreparable damage were one to be exposed. They had done a good job designing the walk
and there was another path leading up a hill and which presented a nice vantage
point to view the eruption. I however wanted to do the other program, and so walked back to the center and my car to
drive to “Black Sand”. Well, that turned out to be tricky, since
they had asked us to assemble at “Black
Sand Parking Lot” and for the life of me I couldn’t find the place, which
was supposedly less than a mile away. I
went around in circles, twice returning to the starting point and finding
myself on 2 separate roads going to different locations. I decided that this wasn’t going to happen
and might as well leave, before stumbling across a sign pointing to my
destination and a small group of cars.
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| Those mountains in the back are actually solid magma |
Luckily for me, there was one spot available and I grabbed
it. I joined a group assembled around a “Park Ranger” and he was going to be our
guide for the hour-long excursion. Well,
the excursion was going to be just around the boardwalk that was in this area
and while we wouldn’t be travelling far, we would be visiting several small
geyser's that were around us. The
gentleman guiding us was a seasoned “National
Parks” professional, having worked in several before. He was also good at engaging people,
especially one kid who was in our group.
We stopped at different spots and he would tell us about that geyser and
what gave it its unique color and characteristics. One of interesting things which he kept
emphasizing was that this was a dynamic park and the topography kept shifting,
meaning geyser's could spout anywhere. In
fact, the boardwalks were designed around them and had to be frequently
moved. One more reminder that we had
magma below our feet.
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| Once again, don't be fooled by these colors |
Some of the geyser's were pretty with bright turquoise color. But again, not to be fooled, as inviting as
these pools looked, they could strip someone down to the bone. Our guide told us about a Bison who had strayed
into the area and gotten stuck in the soft sand. All that was left of it was the carcass. He was also receptive to questions and there
were several about the wildlife in the park.
They track every animal carefully and control the population, well with
limited resources and all of that. So,
what happens if there is an increase in population? The answer to this wasn’t exactly what we
were expecting. The park does a “controlled
hunt”, where they sell licenses and then drive the herd to a bottleneck where
the population can be “controlled” by
hunting them. Sounded barbaric to me and
I suggested sterilization, which is much more humane. But hey, I wasn't quite eating salad last night.
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| That empty patch on the slope was due to fire |
The Bison weren’t the biggest problem, that would be the
Grizzly Bears. He told us about a Bear
who was standing on a boardwalk not too long ago with her cubs. If there is one thing you do not do, is
approach a Bear, especially where there are cubs around. We talked about fires – there was a section
where you could see an empty patch on the hillside, where trees had been cut
down to prevent the fire from spreading.
Managing a park isn’t easy and that’s why they charge us those
exorbitant prices at the entry. Speaking
of mountains, it was clear that we were in a valley with distant cliffs on all
sides. I asked if this was the caldera,
and yes it was. But there was more, much
more. The actual caldera extended for
tens of miles on either side – almost covering the entire park - and the cliffs
were just the places where magma flow had solidified. This gave us a new perspective on the term “Super Volcano” and yes, if that thing
goes, good luck to us all.
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| There was more to this park than just geyser's |
It had been a very informative tour and while there was much
more to explore, it would take days - as I found some people in the group were
doing – and I had to get back. So, after
a quick stop at the center to look at their museum and exhibit, I left for
Jackson. I would have liked to have seen 'Old Faithful' one more time, but the timing wouldn't work out. It was as long of a ride as can
get and good old “Route 191” was
getting a bit tiresome. At one stage I
saw several cars pulled on the side of the road and while the views around us
were great, I couldn't understand why all the people were suddenly interested. That would be because there was a big herd of Bison grazing and
this is once in a lifetime opportunity to see that in real life and take
pictures. Well, for people who are crazy
about wildlife and again, I am not.
Going to a Zoo is not my idea of a fruitful day and so I kept on
driving, arriving at my hotel 2 hours after leaving ‘Yellowstone’. It had been a
short visit, but what a privilege, to have been to the premier “National Park”, the one that gave birth
to that term.
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| My dinner spot for this evening |
There wasn’t time for much rest, but after a brief respite,
I left to visit a place across my hotel, called ‘Gather’. It was a decent
place that had some dinner crowd and made a decent “Old Fashioned”. But I was
just biding my time till I ended up at ‘The
Rose’ for 3rd night in a row.
I entered the now familiar lounge and it felt great. Some of the guys recognized me and I started
a conversation with a couple of them – Riley and Doug. I mentioned that while they had a
good-looking list that I had ordered from the last couple of nights, tonight I
wanted to order “off the menu” and asked
for a “Rum Old Fashioned”. That excited Riley, because there is nothing
that a mixologist loves more than to do their spin on a classic. It was delicious and seeing that I liked Rum,
he offered me a tasting of an “unaged”
version that was funky and an acquired taste.
But I appreciated the discussion and enjoyed my last night here. Another in a set of bars that I look forward
to revisiting in the future.
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| I was definitely getting these |
My next stop was to revisit my new friend Seamus at ‘FIGS’.
Like last night, it was great chatting with him as he worked his craft, and he
took upon the challenge of bettering the “Rum
Old Fashioned” from the one that I had before. My last stop of the evening was for dinner at
‘Snake River Grill’ which was in a
very busy shopping area and was quite full.
I had made reservations though and so was seated on time. I ordered a cocktail called “Spike’s Paper Plane” and looked at the
menu. Having looked at pictures of some
of the things on offer here, I definitely wanted to try the tower of their ‘Branding Iron of Green Chile Onion Rings’. The server looked at me suspiciously since
that is something that is to be shared, but hey, it was my last night
here. With that and the main course, I
was in no shape to get dessert. Well,
that didn’t last long since below the restaurant was ‘Haagen Dazs’ and I had to get my favorite, “Belgian Chocolate in Waffle Cone”.
Now I could return to my room and call it a night.
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| Waiting for my brunch at 'Persiphone Bakery' |
I had the entire morning free and the only thing that I had
scheduled for the morning was brunch. I
had to vacate the room though, meaning that I had to move my car. Fortunately, this was Sunday and so parking
in downtown Jackson was free. That
didn’t mean there was a lot of it, and I found a spot around the
park in the main square. I soon
discovered the reason why, because everyone was in the area to eat. I had picked a local “French Bistro” called ‘Persephone
Bakery’ and there was a line out of the door. This was going to take a long time and
typically I would have found an alternative.
But I had nothing else to do and some time to spare. So, I waited and eventually reached the
counter. I ordered “Egg Sandwich with Ham” and a side of “Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Hash”.
They said that it would take 45 minutes at least and so I got a “Pumpkin Latte” to tide me over. Their coffee pickup was bit strange though,
where unlike other places that announce someone’s name, here they placed the prepared
coffee on a shelf and it was your job to find it, no matter that it can stay
there getting cold.
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| Those ski slopes must look awesome in winter |
The café itself was small, but there was a large garden at
the back with some tables and chairs. I
found one and waited for my food to be delivered, which took as much time as
they had said. But it was good and with
the weather being nice, for once, I did not mind the wait. I still had some
time, so I walked around, looking at some of the novelty stores and admiring
the view of the mountains, especially the slope that looked ever imposing on
the town. Once again, I was convinced
that this would be a sight to behold in winter, when its covered with snow and with the skiers coming down. I returned to my car
and drove back to the airport. Once
again, our boarding was outdoors, meaning I got one last look at the ‘Teton’ before leaving town. What a place! I had enjoyed my visit; with 2 “National Parks” and a charming town
with good food and some capable bartenders.
Not to mention, “the world’s best
waffle”.
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