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Day 6: Grand Teton and Yellowstone

We woke up to the alarm but were out of the bed only half hour later. The fatigue due to continuous minimal sleep nights started to catch upon us I guess. Also, this was a motel room and nothing around was enticing enough to re-invigorate us. We got ready, grabbed some bagels and muffins from the complimentary breakfast and once again were on the road by 7:15. Theoritically it was supposed to be an hour and a half drive. But due to construction almost all along the way, we were considerably delayed and reached the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center only at 10. This was a pretty interesting visitor center with quite a few attractive multimedia displays. We researched various attractions and activities in the park and decided to head for Jenny Lake.

Right next to the Jenny Lake Visitor Center was a trailhead and a boat dock. One can either ride the ferry that shuttles between the visitor center and the other end of the lake or rent a canoe and do the job themselves. For someone who would rather stick to land, there was a trail that went around the lake to the dock on the other side. We decided to hike this was and rent a canoe on our way back. Only to realize later on that the current is pretty strong in one direction and hence the canoes are rented only one way :-(. But it was too late and we were already more than half way to the other dock. From this dock there was another trail that went into the mountains. My friend and I decided to explore this trail as well while my friend's wife did not. So she headed to the dock and the two of us took to the trail. It was a decently steep hike but a beautiful day. The Sun was shining bright and the trail was nice and cool with the shade of the trees. We passed Hidden Falls and went a little further and ended up at an open area with an overlook to the falls and some . From here, the trail got steeper and we had no idea how long it was and where it was going to take us, so stopped there. "My husband went into the mountains along with the rock climbers to do some photography." I overheard a woman. Then I saw a group of people  facing the mountains and pointing to something over there. I  looked into the direction of curiosity and found the "rock climbers". It was interesting sight to see how a bunch of beginners were being trained by pros. My friend and I spent a good half hour there and headed back. On our way back we saw signs to "Inspiration Point". This was a diversion from our way back to the dock but I did not want to let go after coming all the way. I asked my friend to go and accompany his wife while I decided to make a quick trip to the Inspiration Point. After a short while into the climb I realized that my friend could not let go the opportunity either. He was right behind me. This was a very steep climb (I don't exactly remember the altitude we gained or other specifics) and also very narrow. At some points, people going in one direction had to let go the ones going the other way first. It was tiring and definitely had an impact on the knees but not a big trade-off once we reached the top. The view of the lake was absolutely astounding. It did not have enough room to hold a lot of people at the same time. But everyone seemed to have managed their way. Things did not turn out to be all that good as the weather seemed to change. The sky got darker with thick rain clods and one could feel the inevitable thunder storms approaching. The rain itself was not to worry about but after the rain, the climb down would have been dangerous. The rocks slippery and the valley dropping down a thousand feet or more would have been a free ride to the dock at the bottom. Somehow we managed our way down to the more flat trail. By now, the nature had no mercy and it started to pour. We finally reached the dock and was greeted eagerly by our third teammate. While waiting for the ferry to take us back to the visitor center, we ran into a couple from Vancouver. They were extremely friendly and nice people. We had a very long conversation with them ranging from present life in New York (the husband was from NY) to various languages and different places to visit. They were excited to know that my friend was moving to Portland and invited him and his wife over to their place whenever they visited Vancouver. At last our ferry arrived, the rain stopped.
After getting out of the ferry on the other side, we went to the visitor center to get some information as to where we would find a restaurant or a cafeteria to grab some lunch. The answer was Dornan's, just South of the first visitor center we stopped at. The route was Teton Park Rd. South all the way to US 26/89/191 and then a small distance from there. "Jeez... traffic congestion even here?" my friend exclaimed looking at the long line of cars in front of us on the bridge across the Snake river. "Hey! wait a minute while I get down of the car." I said opening the door and jumping out of it. For a second the other two inside did not understand what I was doing then they realized that all the others cars were slowing down for wildlife viewing. There were two moose hanging out in the sun helping themselves to some green grass and fresh water. After crawling, running into bushes, slipping and falling and spending about 45 minutes, I managed to take around a hundred pictures expecting at least a tenth of them to come out good. Once again our biological clock started to set off it's alarm indicating it was time for lunch. We went to Dornan's, grabbed something to eat and got some ice cream. It was 6:00 PM and we thought it was a good idea to head for Yellowstone. Driving through the entire length of the park, it would take us around an hour to reach Yellowstone's South entrance and four more hours from there, we were expecting to be there at the cabin by 1 AM latest (we were not planning to drive non-stop right?). Not bad, we spotted some Elks in Rockies and Moose here but we wanted to see a Bear. This trip would be incomplete without one. Lucky enough we did run into one pretty soon. As we were driving, the bus in front of us stopped right in the middle of th road. We didn't know why till we saw a Black Bear crossing the road. It was too late before I could get a shot of it and freeze the moment in my camera's memory. But still, it made our day and we were on our way to country's first national park.

 We reached the South end of Yellowstone at 7. We got the park map from the park ranger at the entrance and wanted to figure out the route we were going to take. There was only one road initially that one could take. This was 22 miles long and ended in Grant Village. From there it forked into two roads, one heading North-East (let us call this road1) and the other North-West (road2). One could take either of them to go to Mammoth Hot Springs (where we booked our cabin). Road1 went along the Yellowstone lake to the Lake Village. From there it headed almost North along the banks of the Yellowstone River to Canyon Village. Then it proceeded to Tower-Roosevelt and finally Mammoth before exiting from the North entrance of the park. Road2 on the other hand covered Old Faithful, Madison and Norris before joining road1 at Mammoth. My friend has already been to Yellowstone once before and suggested we take road1 so that we could cover Old Faithful the next day. Without any debate we headed North-East. Initially it was all pines on either side of the road, half of them burnt down from earlier forest fire(s). "This Yellowstone lake seems to be pretty big" I exclaimed looking at the size of it on the map. Once we crossed Grant Village and turned onto road1, the lake started to appear on our right. As we went further, we could see how enormous it was. From some places we couldn't see the other end of it. The sky started to fill up with thick clouds once again. The Sun was setting, the clouds were dark, the lake was blue, there was a colossal cloud of something rising into the sky (most probably a newly erupted geyser or a forest fire?) and lightnings were piercing through the clouds. The entire scene was absolutely marvelous. We made quite a few stops along the lake before we reached Lake Village. By now it was 9:15 and once again our hunger sensors started to signal. We decided to continue till Canyon Village and get something there to eat. By now it was dark and we couldn't see much. I think this sometimes helps as nothing grabbed our attention and hence drove non-stop to hit the food courts just before they shut the doors. First we wanted to dine at a nice restaurant but unfortunately they were closing pretty soon and there were no tables left. This is normal in Yellowstone during the summer months. Then we rushed to the cafeteria next door. I got a paella and some flavored yogurt with cereal on it. It costed about 12 bucks with taxes. The serving was generous and the food tasted pretty good for the price. After satisfying our hunger, we headed straight to the cabin. I decided to drive really slow for a couple of reasons. The roads were winding and there were no lights save the car's headlights. We were in the domain of the beast's natural habitat and hence had no idea when what is going to show up in the middle of the road. Finally we actually "wanted" something to show up because it was quiet and this might sttract some nocturnal creatures to explore the surroundings. Our primary goal was to spot as much wildlife as possible. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" My heart skipped a beat. As I was turning along with the road at a sharp curve, all of a sudden there appeared a huge dark object right in the middle of the road. I stopped and slowly proceeded towards it. Soon enough the object revealed itself into a Bison. I slowly crossed onto the other side of the road and passed him without arousing his curiosity. My slow driving paid off. We reached the cabin at half past twelve and called it a day.