Yellowstone Travel Chronicle – A USA Travel Adventure

Yellowstone National Park – May 2009

Yellowstone National Park is a premier American West road trip destination – enticingly distant from any major cities.

People living in the cities of Boise, Denver and Salt Lake City are all within our same driving distance – slightly less than 600 miles, but for everyone else in the country (and the world), a road trip to Yellowstone works best as part of a larger itinerary that includes other destinations. However, for those on a limited time budget, a visit to Yellowstone Park is one of those travel vacations worthy of a “fly drive” travel plan – because this is a trip worth taking even if the park is the only place you visit. The town of Jackson, Wyoming – aka Jackson Hole – is a great starting point, and is served by the Jackson Hole Airport.

Although we could reach Yellowstone by car in one day, we purposely took our time and some detours along the way – partly so that we could spend our first night in Jackson about 100 miles from our final destination.  Jackson is a lively tourist town with plenty of good restaurants and reasonably priced accommodations.  As we were traveling in the heart of their off season, between winter skiing and summer touring, we did not bother to make hotel reservations.  This plan is not recommended if you are traveling during the high seasons.

As you travel to Yellowstone through Jackson, the best reason to start your day from here is a very special bonus called the Grand Teton National Park.  The Tetons rise abruptly from a wide, flat valley, a series of lakes at their feet, forming one of the most dramatic and beautiful mountain ranges on earth.

After entering Yellowstone Park from the south, the first of many thermally active areas is encountered at the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake.  Here the warm waters of thermal pools, springs, fumaroles, vents, mudpots, cones, and geysers appear along the banks and under the surface of an enormous high mountain lake.  This outpost of warmth keeps a small area of the lake free of ice, a feature well appreciated by the ducks on the scene when we arrived.
The apparent contradiction between the 8000 foot altitude and the presence of volcanic activity so close to the surface invites the image of a significant bulge in the magma below your feet, but the level of thermal activity is also enhanced by the lower boiling point.  The accepted statistic is that nearly sixty percent of all the geysers on earth are found in Yellowstone National Park, so there is clearly a bit of structural infirmity in the earth’s crust in this part of the world.