We've always wanted see Yellowstone. We've planned it a few times but never made it. In the end, we felt that it was just not right to go back to India without seeing Yellowstone and so here we are heading east.Laura and Pamela said they would come too, which was great! We had a planning breakfast on the Sunday before which turned out to be more breakfast than planning. But wait : change of plan! First Laura drops out then Pamela. Laura's got a test on Friday and Pamela's got a new job. We find out on thursday night that Laura's test is only until 10 on Friday. Change of plan again; we are now leaving at 10:30 instead of 4AM and Laura and Rico will be coming with us.
We finally set out at 11. Boy, is it a long drive or is it a long drive! Two hours into the drive we stop for lunch and the road ahead seems daunting. We contemplate going to Seattle instead, but we are no wimps and we push on. Dinner at Boise is the high point of the drive. We find downtown which is bustling with the
prettiest girls ever, all tottering around on high heels. We decide on PF Changs which turns out to be the first of many good choices we make on this trip. The food is excellent and the damage is not so bad. Judging from the size of the diamond on our waitress' finger I somehow expected it to be a lot more expensive.
We drive on through the night and barring for one scary momemt when I fall asleep at the wheel, we reach West Yellowstone at 5AM. Whew! What goes east must come back west again and I dread the drive back but that is another day. We stay at the Kelly's Inn which is a pretty decent place if you ever come this way. We share a room only to find that Laura has multiple personalities - and they keep talking to each other all night long.
Yellowstone, here we come. We are up early (10) and head for Yellowstone. This place is awesome. It's like a Hollywood set : Boiling hot geysers at every nook and cranny where villians can threaten to push heroines into; wisps of steam billowing around for romantic tete-a-tetes; craggy peaks towering in the background; winding roads and fast waterways for the inevitable car or boat chase depending on which way you lean. Yeah, it's got everything you need for a movie. We make the loop climbing the zillion steps to the mammoth terrace only to find that there is a back road that you can drive there by. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is just that : Grand. We see loads of animals. Bison and elk are plentiful and it looks like the bison are on some new fertility drug; every one of them has a calf in tow. We see a black bear with a cub hiding in a tree and we are about to turn back when we spot the grizzly! He is am awesome sight and at 250 yards, it's about as close as I want to get to a full grown grizzly.
Yellowstone seems to be an India magnet. They come here by the hordes. There are groups of Indians at every stop and each group is large. At least the crowds would have thinned out in Bangalore by the time we get back wit
h so many of them in Yellowstone! A funny thing happens on one of the paths. I start talking to a couple from Boston and as we talk about the weather and the cold. And then he suddenly says "Did you notice all those guys from India. They had those heavy jackets on - they must be feeling cold". And he laughed. If I ever ha
d doubts before I have none now - it's time for us to be heading home, come July. In a similar vein, there was this guy who was talking to Geetha about her marathon efforts and what she wanted to do next. She said that she didn't have too much planned as she had just a few weeks left. He immediately became sympathetic and said, "Oh I'm so sorry, Why, are you dying?"
More of the same on day two. Add to it the attraction of the Old Faithful. The wife is impressed and I wonder why. After all, she has had an "old faithful" for the last twenty five years and I didn't think it counted for much in her books. Goes to show how little one knows of women! We drive south to see the Grand Tetons and what a majestic sight they are. As I look at them I realize why men climb mountains. The Tetons do that to you. They beckon you with a smirk daring you to climb them. Of course, once you get halfway up they will engulf you in sheets of snow and ship you away to slave labor camps in Tetonland.
Jackson turns out to be a cute little town. We stay at the Elk Country Inn. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do Jackson on a budget. We hear a lot about Billy's burgers which they say are the best burgers in the w
orld. In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. I have no doubt that people didn't lie and that they are the best burgers in Jackson but they have a long way to go before they are anywhere close to even being good. Stay away from that place. There is a Million Dollar Cowboy bar next door which has saddles instead of seats at the bar which looks promising but duty calls and I pass. That will be a place that I would want to go to the next time through. Speaking of which, I realize that I have not had a single drop of alcohol this whole trip. I must be growing old!
The road back is somehow not so daunting. We picnic at Shoshone falls near the city of Twin Falls. It's a beautiful and tranquil place and we are glad we stopped. Thanks Alan, for the tip. The girls are kind enough to let me sleep in the back while they drive back the whole way. Man! had I known that they were going to do this I would have started early on the beer.
One last point. The restrooms in Idaho are the best I have seen. They are spacious and squeaky clean. Are there just fewer travellers in Idaho or are they a super clean people?
Yellowstone, here we come. We are up early (10) and head for Yellowstone. This place is awesome. It's like a Hollywood set : Boiling hot geysers at every nook and cranny where villians can threaten to push heroines into; wisps of steam billowing around for romantic tete-a-tetes; craggy peaks towering in the background; winding roads and fast waterways for the inevitable car or boat chase depending on which way you lean. Yeah, it's got everything you need for a movie. We make the loop climbing the zillion steps to the mammoth terrace only to find that there is a back road that you can drive there by. The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is just that : Grand. We see loads of animals. Bison and elk are plentiful and it looks like the bison are on some new fertility drug; every one of them has a calf in tow. We see a black bear with a cub hiding in a tree and we are about to turn back when we spot the grizzly! He is am awesome sight and at 250 yards, it's about as close as I want to get to a full grown grizzly.
Yellowstone seems to be an India magnet. They come here by the hordes. There are groups of Indians at every stop and each group is large. At least the crowds would have thinned out in Bangalore by the time we get back wit
h so many of them in Yellowstone! A funny thing happens on one of the paths. I start talking to a couple from Boston and as we talk about the weather and the cold. And then he suddenly says "Did you notice all those guys from India. They had those heavy jackets on - they must be feeling cold". And he laughed. If I ever ha
d doubts before I have none now - it's time for us to be heading home, come July. In a similar vein, there was this guy who was talking to Geetha about her marathon efforts and what she wanted to do next. She said that she didn't have too much planned as she had just a few weeks left. He immediately became sympathetic and said, "Oh I'm so sorry, Why, are you dying?"More of the same on day two. Add to it the attraction of the Old Faithful. The wife is impressed and I wonder why. After all, she has had an "old faithful" for the last twenty five years and I didn't think it counted for much in her books. Goes to show how little one knows of women! We drive south to see the Grand Tetons and what a majestic sight they are. As I look at them I realize why men climb mountains. The Tetons do that to you. They beckon you with a smirk daring you to climb them. Of course, once you get halfway up they will engulf you in sheets of snow and ship you away to slave labor camps in Tetonland.
Jackson turns out to be a cute little town. We stay at the Elk Country Inn. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to do Jackson on a budget. We hear a lot about Billy's burgers which they say are the best burgers in the w
orld. In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. I have no doubt that people didn't lie and that they are the best burgers in Jackson but they have a long way to go before they are anywhere close to even being good. Stay away from that place. There is a Million Dollar Cowboy bar next door which has saddles instead of seats at the bar which looks promising but duty calls and I pass. That will be a place that I would want to go to the next time through. Speaking of which, I realize that I have not had a single drop of alcohol this whole trip. I must be growing old!The road back is somehow not so daunting. We picnic at Shoshone falls near the city of Twin Falls. It's a beautiful and tranquil place and we are glad we stopped. Thanks Alan, for the tip. The girls are kind enough to let me sleep in the back while they drive back the whole way. Man! had I known that they were going to do this I would have started early on the beer.
One last point. The restrooms in Idaho are the best I have seen. They are spacious and squeaky clean. Are there just fewer travellers in Idaho or are they a super clean people?
Links to other travel posts:
