A natural wonder called Yellowstone

When I landed at the Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming, the appendage ‘hole’ to the name Jackson kept intriguing me. My taxi driver told me that ‘hole’ actually means a valley; the town of Jackson is located in a valley surrounded by Teton Mountains, a part of the Rocky Mountains range, which abuts Yellowstone National Park. As we drove to our hotel, the driver pointed to the fenced area to our left and said that it is the National Elk Refuge.

“What is elk?” I asked him. He replied that it is one of the largest species of the antlered deer family. During winters, thousands of elks can be seen wandering near the town. Another deer species called the moose is also found in abundance nearby. As we entered the town, the driver pointed out at arches made entirely from the horns of the elk and said that the surrounding forest range is home to many grizzly bears, bison, wolves, birds, and suggested that we take guided tours both to the Yellowstone and Teton Park.

Early next morning, we set off for our tour of the Yellowstone National Park. Our guide John said that the park covers an area of more than 8,000 sq km, and it can be broadly divided into three areas; the geothermal area comprising volcanoes & hot springs; the canyons & rivers, lakes & forests, and we could have a glimpse of all three.

Before the park, we visited Jackson Lake Lodge, a resort listed as a historic landmark, located in the Teton National Park. From this resort, one gets a panoramic view of the huge Jackson Lake with the snowclad Teton Mountains as its backdrop. We spotted a number of birds in this beautiful and placid lake. We then proceeded towards the geothermal area of the Yellowstone Park with the Snake River to our right. We saw Moose Falls on our way and soon we were at the visitor’s centre of Old Faithful Geyser. This area, known as Yellowstone Thermal Basin, consists of a volcano and several thermal springs. The most famous geyser is the Old Faithful, which is a cone geyser. Since 2000, it has been erupting regularly every 45 to 120 minutes.

At the visitor’s centre, we were told that the next eruption was at 11.20 am and we rushed towards the geyser and sat on the benches placed nearby. Exactly at 11.17 am, a gushing noise came from the ground followed by steam. Soon, the geyser erupted high like a fountain. We were told that the average height is about 150 ft. Later, we proceeded towards Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in America, and the third largest in the world.

Grand Prismatic is part of a several small- and medium-sized springs in the area. It is a deep blue-coloured lake of boiling water whose rim has layers of multicoloured earth. The myriad colours are due to microbial mats present at the sides of the lake. The mats change their colour depending on the season.

Since we visited in summer, the colours were predominantly orange and red. The water discharged from the spring flows down a rivulet nearby. The entire area had the smell of sulphur. We also saw Excelsior Geyser Crater a few metres away. It’s a dormant geyser now, but when it was active in the late 19th century, its eruptions reached 300 ft, and it was the world’s largest geyser.

Later on, we went to an area called Fountain Paint Pot, which has all types of geothermal formations. This small area has all four types of hydrothermal features of the park: hot spring, mudpot, fumarole and geyser. From the geothermal area, we drove to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This is the canyon through which the mighty Yellowstone river flows. The canyon is 39-km-long and is one of the most colourful in the world. The Yellowstone river makes a grand fall of 308 ft at a place called Lower Falls.

Later, we headed towards Lamar Valley, where we found a number of bison. Soon we drove towards the Grand Yellowstone Lake, which is the largest body of water in the national park. Covering 350 sq km, this lake, created by the Yellowstone river, is popular for many water activities like fishing and boating.

As the daylight faded, we drove back to our hotel in Jackson feeling satisfied after seeing all the attractions of Yellowstone. On the way back, we were fortunate enough to see a grizzly bear with a cub as well as a number of moose and deer.

Yellowstone, the first national park of the US, is an all-time favourite with visitors.