We had decided to pick up the car on the morning of the 8th, the day we were leaving, instead of the previous night, as we usually do. As luck would have it, Sunday turned out to be one of the rainiest days of the year in Salt Lake City, and we were thoroughly drenched by the time all the bags were loaded into our cute little Mitsubishi Lancer . Wet and shivering, we drove to Logan City, to pick up Tapas da and Jayashree boudi. Boudi had cooked a huge amount of food, and we barely managed to fit everything into the Lancer's rather small trunk. After a change and a cup of java, we were back on I-15 North, headed up to Twin Falls, Idaho. There, we turned onto US-20 West, and reached West Yellowstone, Montana, at around 4pm. After checking in at the __________ Motel, we decided to head straight for the action.

The first thing that strikes you in Yellowstone is the amount of vegetation destroyed by the wildfire in the early nineties. Charred trunks are everywhere, and serve as a reminder of what happens when too much control is exerted on nature.

Our first stop was at the magnificient Firehole Falls (right), formed by the Madison river as it makes it's way west. The falls are on a scenic byway on the way to the Old Faithful area from Madison. Fly fishing is very popular on the Madison river, and we found many folks standing in knee deep water, catching dinner!

Driving further south, we crossed the many geysers that adorn the roadsides, and reached the famous Old Faithful geyser spot, hoping to catch an eruption. But luck was not on our side, and despite waiting for over half an hour, we failed to see the famed spout, and had to be content with witnessing a few other minor, but none the less awesome, eruptions. We watched the sun go down while sipping hot chocolate at the Old Faithful Lodge, and then headed home for the day.

9/9/02 - Grizzly!

On Monday morning, we decided to explore the Mammoth Hot Springs area of the park, and set off at around 8am. There was construction between Madison and Norris, so traffic was heavy, and it took us almost an hour to do the 14 miles. A few miles past Norris, we noticed a number of cars stopped on the roadside (which, by the way, is the norm in Yellowstone), only we couldn't see what they all seemed to be intently watching. A few enquiries revealed that a grizzly had been spotted in the plains west of the road, and we were thrilled at the prospect of sighting one of these elusive animals! Of course, there was the usual cluster of big-glass folks, hauling their 600/f4's, but there were also a number of casual photographers with their point & shoots, and so on. After about 10 minutes, we finally were able to spot the bear with our naked eyes. Enthusiastically, we followed it on it's hunt for food, and at one point, it came quite close to the roadside, which is when I decided it might be worth it to try and get a picture of the beast, since the longest lens I have is the 28-105/f3.5-4.5 :(. The result is on the right, and, as can be seen, leaves a lot to be desired. After watching the fella cavort for a while, we drove on towards Mammoth, finally reaching there at around 11:30 or so. We snacked on some sandwiches that boudi had packed, and set out ot hike the short and sweet trail along the Mammoth Hot Springs. Even though it was September, it was quite warm in the sun, and we were glad we'd brought water along.

Most of the photos I took on this day were on slide film, which I haven't had processed yet, so look for more pictures a few weeks from now.

After the hike, we drove down to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and hiked down to the Lower Falls, which is one of a pair of gorgeous falls inside the gorge :). On the way, we found this cute coyote posing by the side of the road! More pictures to follow in a few weeks.

9/10/02 - Yellowstone Lake, and a lot of driving

On Tuesday, we headed out towards the lake, again at around 8am. Bison seemed to be everywhere, starting with a huge herd that was crossing the road right as we entered the park. Then, about a mile down the road from Madison, we suddenly found traffic backed up, and soon realized why - there were bison all over the place! Ther must have been atleast 50 of them on the road, and more on the sides. I rolled down the window for a couple of shots, much to the anxiety of the others, and the noise of the power window did seem to attract the attention of the closest bull, which sort of looked at me in a don't-mess-with-me-mister kind of way, and I quickly rolled it back up. We waited for the herd to cross, and then made our way to the lake. We spent a lot of time at the lakeside, and then drove to the north-east corner of the park, in quest of the elusive moose, but it proved to be a wild-moose-chase, and we returned home exhausted, after about 7 hours of driving inside the park!

9/11/02 - Tetons on the way home

Exactly a year after the terrible WTC incident, we started on the last day of our trip. The plan was to drive through the Tetons National Park, and boy, were we glad we decided to take that route. Almost as soon as we entered the park, this is the sight that greeted us! The Grand Tetons, to me, were even more beautiful than Yellowstone, though nothing can beat the wildlife there. We drove on winding roads that went through lush green meadows, and it truly felt like we were in paradise. Unfortunately, we had no clue before we started our trip that this place was so wonderful, otherwise we'd have budgeted more time. Under the circumstances, we had to make do with about an hour and a half :(.







We encountered more construction the moment we left the Tetons, and after a long detour, finally got home at around 9pm, after which, we had to go return the rental car. Tired, but happy, we went to bed.