Dinosaurs, Mountains and Giant Volcanoes!

Hello again everyone, I hope this post finds you all well.

So, from last time I wrote we were about to head off to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. After the relief of the Rockies we were back into the desert again, but totally worth it! Parts of Utah are chocca with Dinosaur fossils, and this particular site was part of a big excavation that they've preserved. It was part of a river plain that had a massive drought and so lots of dinosaurs died, and when the water returned their bones got washed down stream and concentrated in the muddy riverbed deposits. It was pretty awesome being able to touch a real dinosaur bone.

After Dinosaur and a night in a small town called Vernal, we carried on up to Jackson, Wyoming - just outside the Grand Teton. This campsite was really nice, we had a small cabin right above the Snake River. A shame I couldn't be bothered taking Pictures. Jackson also looked like a really nice town - again, its a shame we didn't have any time to look around, as we had to head up to Grand Teton NP to secure ourselves a campsite pretty early. We camped by Jenny Lake in the Grand Teton NP. It is VERY picturesque. We took the boat across the lake and hiked up to Inspiration Point, and a little further into Cascade Canyon, then back around the lake. We didn't see any bears, but we came across a concerned couple who had just seen a bear cub cross the path about 5 minutes before we arrived... we spent the rest of the hike talking and clapping loudly hoping not to run into the mother bear!

Inspiration Point looking over Jenny Lake

Cascade Canyon

Cascade Canyon

Ox Bow Bend

The following day we were off to Yellowstone National Park, in search of wildlife and hot springs.
Yellowstone is a very big park, and has several main areas of interest that are kind of laid out in a figure eight. We stayed two nights in three of the campgrounds, Grant Village, Madison, and Canyon.

Yellowstone NP is a caldera (volcanic crater, like Lake Taupo), also known as a super volcano due to the three MASSIVE eruptions (and several smaller ones) it has has throughout it's history. The oldest and largest super-eruption at Yellowstone the 2.1 Million year Huckleberry Ridge eruption, which erupted something like 2500km3 of material! This is compared to the large 26.5 thousand year Oruanui eruption of Taupo which erupted 1170km3 (two of the largest recent-ish super volcano eruptions). However it is different to the volcanism in NZ, as ours is due to the subduction of one tectonic plate beneath another causing melting of the overlying mantle wedge and the creation of a volcanic arc, where as in Yellowstone the volcanism occurs due to a hot spot in the mantle beneath thick continental crust.

Some welded layers with cooling joints (near the Tower Falls area)

I digress. The first day we had a look around Old Faithful, which is one of the main attractions in the park, and aside from the geyser has the worlds largest log-built hotel.

Old Faithful

Looking back over Old Faithful Inn and village

Castle Geyser

Morning Glory Pool

We then spent a cruisy day looking around the Yellowstone Lake area, and up to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Yellowstone Lake and West Thumb Geyser Basin

Yellowstone Lake and West Thumb Geyser Basin

Yellowstone River and forest fires in the background

Hayden Valley - look closely, the black smudge is a bear!

Hayden Valley with lots of Bison

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

On our way to the Madison Campground we looked at the Grand Prismatic spring - looks a bit like Champagne Pool at Waiotapu - it was a bit hard to see because it was a cold morning and quite steamy, but spectacular nonetheless. In the afternoon we called out to the town of West Yellowstone to go to the Wildlife Discovery Centre which has grizzly bears and wolves which can no longer be in the wild. They are impressive creatures, and I'm glad we didn't happen across any while we were hiking!!

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

1000 pound grizzly bear at the wildlife centre

Wolf (at the wildlife centre)

Grizzlies can climb trees (at least short ones to reach bird feeders!).

Chilling out in the river!

Mammoth hot springs is also a very pretty area, with some very cool travertine terraces. On the way to the Mammoth area we were privileged to see a black bear with her two cubs just off the side of the road. The babies were so cute!

Bison

We took a hike along the beaver ponds trail, unfortunately did not see any beavers, but we did see a couple of Coyotes!

Looking over the Mammoth Hot Springs area (hotel in the front, travertine terraces to the right).

Coyote

Beaver dam

Roosevelt Arch, north entrance to the park.

We were then going to take a horse ride (something I thought would be appropriate seeing as we're in the wild west), but we got rained out (twice!).

Moving on to stay in the Canyon area, we hiked up Mount Washburn to the fire tower for a view back over the valley, the Canyon and Yellowstone Lake - however it was a bit hazy due to the forest fires and the cool morning air. We did come across some big horn sheep on the way up too! We learned that the fire warden stays up there for the entire summer/fall season with no days off (or at least that is what the sign said...). Rough job! At least he has electricity I guess.

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

On the way up Mt Washburn - lovely morning!

Big Horn Sheep

View from the top - can't really see the Canyon (it's in the distance, looks like a lake but it's actually the canyon)

Pika

We took an evening drive out to the Lamar Valley, hoping to see some wolves, but to no avail. Shaun did hear them howling in the middle of the night though. We also saw some Pronghorn which was cool.
The most common animal we saw in the park were bison, commonly causing "bison jams". They are pretty big beasts, and a little unnerving when they are right on the side unsure of whether they are going to run out in front of you or not!

Pronghorn

Bison

We have now donated all of our cheap camping gear (seems a waste, but it's not like we could have taken it with us, plus still cheaper than staying at a lodge every night!), and have made our way back to Denver. Tomorrow night we're going to watch the Rockies play the LA Dodgers in baseball at Coors Field (apparently the stadium has their own brewery, lucky for me seeing as i've heard comparisons of the game to cricket!).

I'm looking forward to going to Chicago to catch up with Vic soon - It will certainly be nice to see another familiar face, and have a break from camping! All of this traveling certainly is exhausting... It seemed like a good idea when I was planning it! At least we don't have to drive anymore.

Missing you all (please keep in touch)

Catherine & Shaun