Landing in Yellowstone

My thing with Yellowstone NP goes a long way back. It's been many years that I long to get there, it's like in far-fetch goal. But the problem is that it's always far away and quite expensive to get there, and it's hard to combine it with another close by park. Take a look at the map and see how remote it is.

Yellowstone is the oldest and largest national park in the US. It holds around 10,000 geothermal features, these include: geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. Besides that the scenery is just amazing: canyons, mountains, valleys, rivers – you name it!

All the area is located on a "super volcano" that erupted 640 million years ago and sculpted the landscape. And I didn't even mention the wildlife in the park … bison is the most spread but there are bears, deer, moose, coyotes, wolves and I probably missed a few.

Where to land?

When planning a visit to Yellowstone, there are 4 cities that can serve as the starting point: Cody in the east, West Yellowstone in the west, Bozeman in the north and Jackson Hole in the south. The reasons I picked Jackson Hole was a) it is the closest to the park and b) you get to visit Grand Teton NP which is a must!

I landed in Jackson Hole (what kind of name is that any way?) towards the end of May which is the first week of tourist season. The minute you get out of the plane, you see this breathtaking view of snow capped mountains…

I waited for my suitcase which after a few minutes arrived with a small car. The airport is quite small so there's no baggage belt. I went to the car rental stand to get my card and got a brand new car !! :-$

I asked for a near-by place I could just have a glass of beer and enjoy the view. I drove about ten minutes and when I got there I realized the remote control doesn't lock the car #-o . I went back to the agency to switch battery or something but the customer rep decided to compensate me so I picked a different car, a Dodge Journey which is an SUV.

Now, that I was all set, I drove to Jackson Hole when these beautiful mountains, the Grand Tetons, surround me. The temperature is 19-20 Celsius, blue sky, open road, very few other cars, great car, great music – what more can I ask for?!

The next day I drove to Grand Teton