Yellowstone National Park
A day spent in Yellowstone National Park can seem like a day spent a world apart from the nearby town of Jackson. But the town and the park are profoundly connected: both belong to the 18 million-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, where the original boundaries were drawn by nature, not man.
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The trip from Jackson to the south entrance of Yellowstone is a 64-mile drive along one of the most beautiful highways in America. It’s best to enjoy Yellowstone at a leisurely pace. This park is huge – about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined – and its sights are many. There are hundreds of geysers, steaming hot springs and other thermal features, pristine mountain scenery, glorious waterfalls, rivers and lakes. And some five dozen types of mammals live here, including elk, bison, black and grizzly bears, bighorn sheep, coyotes and grey wolves. The smart approach is to start out early in the morning and plan on a long day.
Many of Yellowstone’s attractions can be visited via figure-eight “Grand Loop Road.” After following the Lewis River, with views of a deep canyon, Lewis Lake, and ample evidence of the cataclysmic fires of 1988, the highway links up with the Grand Loop beside Yellowstone Lake, the biggest mountain lake in North America (the word “biggest” crops up a lot in descriptions of Yellowstone). Steam rising from the banks around West Thumb offer the first evidence of the geothermal activity in the region.
Turning west from West Thumb takes you to Yellowstone’s most renowned attraction, Old Faithful. It isn’t the biggest of the more than 200 active geysers in Yellowstone, but it can be counted on to erupt roughly every 80 minutes, shooting thousands of gallons of water up more than 100 feet. Many other impressive displays can been seen on short walks here and at Norris Geyser Basin to the north; some can even be observed from the road as you continue your drive.
Driving all the way to Mammoth Hot Springs and back makes for a long day, but it’s worth it if you have the energy and time. Mammoth’s travertine terraces once again highlight the fact that you are in a place unlike any other. The terraces are created as hot water rises from deep beneath the Earth. The water carries dissolved limestone which it deposits as it cools at the surface. The different colors vary according to the types of algae and bacteria living in the waters.
The power of water is visible in a different form in the park’s many waterfalls. Some believe there are cascades that have not yet been discovered in the park’s 2.2 million acres. Turning east from Mammoth will take you to one of the finest: Tower Falls, an elegant 132-foot column of water.
From Tower Junction you may continue east into Lamar Valley, frequented by some of Yellowstone’s most famous residents, grey wolves. Or you can head south, over 8,859-foot Dunraven Pass and on to yet another of Yellowstone’s not-to-be-missed sights: the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The park’s biggest waterfall can be viewed here. Lower Falls crashes 308 feet down to the river. The best vantage point for taking in both Lower Falls and the canyon is the aptly named Artist Point, but a half-mile walk leads down to the dizzying brink of the falls.
Vast, varied and beautiful, the park is a place where one can return again and again and always discover something new.
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