Trip to Yellowstone part 2

The next morning I stared the day with a delicious and powerful “ranch breakfast” which was more like breakfast, lunch and dinner all in one…


In my way to the Grand Teton National Park I drove about 70% of the length of Wyoming, which I found to be one of the most beautiful states that I’ve seen. In the first part of the drive everything was so flat and infinite that contemplating that landscape I sensed a similar feeling from the one you get when looking at the greatness of the ocean, like if it never ended. It was so beautiful… almost no cars in the rode and suddenly a whole bunch of wild horses make the scenery even better!

After a while driving I finally could see the white peaks of the mountains far away and while getting closer to the rockys the landscape was slowly changing and once in the park instead of horses I stared seeing Elk and Dear everywhere.

The Tetons are absolutely magestic and I got lucky with an amazing sunset as well. The only downside to this story is that while taking a picture with my tripod (which is a little unstable since missing a part of a leg) the strong wind blow it away and my camera broke L. Luckily I was only a few miles from Jackson Hole, a “big” city in the area where I got myself a new camera and also spent the night.

Since the southern entrance to Yellowstone was closed for the season, the next morning I had to cross the mountains into Idaho and bordered the park into Montana. The drive was the most scenic one of the whole trip, amazing mountains and forests covered with snow, totally worth it!

The next morning I followed all the instructions from the people of the night before; had a “mountain breakfast” and after entering the park went straight to this apparently very well kept local spot in the river call the Boiling River. It doesn’t even appear in the parks map and you need a bit of a hike to get to it. It’s a hot spring right in the Yellowstone River, which becomes a perfect natural hot tub when its 100-degree water meets the very cold one coming down in the river.

Of course I didn’t bring a bathing suit to this trip, but since no one was around underwear was the way to go and enjoy the wonderful and relaxing bath while watching the snowfall.

Later on some Local hunters joined me and shared their whiskey and cigars. It was beyond perfect!!

I also visited mammoth hot springs; which is literally indescribable with words so here are some good shots. Also the headquarters and some other points of interest.

After a late lunch in the town of Yellowstone I stared heading back to Livingston hoping to make it all the way to Bozeman, a college town where I was planning to spend the night. But my plans changed when I got trapped in the worst blizzard I’ve ever seen in my life and got of the road twice. With visibility "0" and very scared it took me about 2 and a half Hours to drive the 6o miles back to Livingston and get to the bar of the night before where the news made clear that I was gonna be stock there at least until the next morning.

But the real problem stared when I found out that I wasn’t the only person stock in that town; a lot of truckers and drivers in general had to stop there due to the weather and all the hotels were sold out. I was terrified since I knew that with that temperature even with my sleeping bag I would freeze sleeping in the car. Luckily “again” all the people from the night before offered me their houses and I ended up sleeping in a cozy house, warm and in good company.

The next day, I drove down to Utah along a portion of the Oregon Trail under very bad weather conditions. The roads were very icy and the problem was that I wasn’t driving a four wheel drive but instead a small Chevrolet cobalt with a great fuel economy but not design for going up and down the mountains during the winter. Still the scenery made the danger absolutely worth it.

Down the road, I discovered my now favorite town in Montana called Ennis and once in Idaho, in my visit to St Anthony, a new adventure stared when getting the car stock in the most breath taking and snow covered sand dunes, from where I got out once again thanks to the help of wonderful people who pull my car out of the sand.

BTW, that car that I rented worth nothing by the time I finally returned it, the next morning at the Salt Lake City airport, where I caught my plane to San Antonio, TX to join Esme and her family in the Thanksgiving celebration!!
Last night in Salt Lake, beautiful, clean and very organized city!!