Yellowstone 2011-Part Two
We spent some time in Mammoth looking at the hot springs and visiting the Minerva Terraces which have shades of green, red and orange, created by the bacteria in the water. There is also a 45 foot high cone, known as the Liberty Cap.
We went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This was very impressive, especially as the day time was sunny and bright. The snow was melting and the water fall, which does become frozen in the winter, was in full flow down through the yellow rocks from where the Park gets its name.
The Park Rangers were very informative. We were impressed by the lady at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, as she spoke about many different aspects including the view which was a particular favourite with artists and it was easy to see why. One Ranger explained that Yellowstone was a huge volcanic crater about 30 miles wide, although this wasn’t fully appreciated until people could see it from the air. He told us how it was formed and was still in this process, it was a very interesting talk which lasted about three quarters of an hour.
Yellowstone National Park, the first national park, runs into the Grand Teton National Park, a beautiful area of high snow covered mountains, where the weather was warmer.
From there we progressed to Salt Lake City via Pocatello in Idaho. Having been in all that snow Salt Lake City was lovely and warm, although the receptionist at the hotel said it was the first warm day they had that year. We visited the Mormon Temple, having got into conversation with two ladies who were very willing to show us around the building. The Temple itself has a huge statue of Jesus and massive paintings depicting biblical scenes such as Adam and Eve (though they looked like they were in an English Country Garden) and Moses.
From Salt Lake City we drove to Las Vegas to stay for a few days, a break from all the fantastic scenery we had been absorbing. We took lots of photographs of the fountains at the Bellagio during the evening and watched the Volcano ‘erupt’ at the Mirage. We don’t go much for the gambling side of things, we put 20 dollars in the machines, but lost the lot!
We then went to my favourite US National Park, Yosemite, staying outside the Park, down by the Merced River. The weather was lovely and sunny with a pleasant refreshing breeze, ideal for walking around. One of the hotels in the park served a lovely cheese cake, so we went there for lunch two days in a row.
We took the car back to the depot as we were due to fly home from San Francisco in a couple of days. A car is not required and is expensive to store at the hotel garages. We stayed in a hotel in Union Square and used the cable cars to go to up and down to Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39. It is normally bedlam in the water near Pier 39 with the sea lions pushing and shoving each other and arguing all the time, but this time there did seem to be a lot less of them. I did wonder if the harsh American winter had anything to with this.
Our hotel ordered a taxi for us to go to the airport in the late afternoon and they kindly stored our luggage for us after we had checked out of our room. They also very helpfully did our flight check-in on-line for us as well. This hotel on a previous occasion took some post that needed to be sent within the States and wouldn’t let us pay for the postage. I was impressed by this, as the staff member who took the letter from was insistent that we should not pay for this!
We flew back in Upper Class and had a peaceful time in the airline’s lounge before boarding the flight. We enjoyed a nice meal and a glass of wine, and then slept the journey away on the flat beds - a great end to a great holiday.