Wednesday, 18 June 2008

• USA Summer Road trip 2008 - Day 4 - Yellowstone to Salt Lake City

  Day 4 - Yellowstone to Salt Lake City

  Trip duration: 15 days (May 9th to 23rd)
  Total distance: 9000km/5560miles

  
  

  
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  And so I woke up to Day 4 to two inches of snow. Mid May and it was still snowing at Yellowstone! So instead of my original plan of leaving early for some sunrise pictures, I stayed at the inn and talked to dear Li-Ann for hours before heading out :P

  Because I wanted to have fun on twisty roads throughout the trip, I put summer tires on the MINI (I don't expect any other parts of the trip to contain snow), but that made driving in Yellowstone a bit trickier and dangerous than I thought. Fortunately, the roads were only wet without any snow cover.

  Only one road was opened in the morning at Yellowstone National Park, due to the need for snowplows to clear the roads. I was fairly worried because 1. I started the day 5 hrs later than originally planned 2. The road heading south to Utah was CLOSED at the moment due to snow

  Anyway, the road to the "Old Faithful" geyser was opened, and that's where I wanted to go anyway...

  A nonexplosive geyser on the way to Old faithful... It was so beautifully hued, I almost wanted to jump in there and take a bath :P

  The earth has an eye of green
  Looking upwards to the sky serene
  Feel its beating heart of steam
  A land stranger than my wacky dreams

  A couple steps away is another geyser, but I'd have to be a pig to want to jump into THAT!

  Mom and kid bison. Because of the snow drifts off the road, the bisons seemed to really like walking on the road this day, even more than normal.

  ... babies are so cute!

  And a close up "artistic" impression of a bison.

  
  And my old faithful subscribers would have seen this picture a couple days ago. I love taking pictures of reflective eyes :)

  Reminds me of little kids smearing their faces with icecream :D

  
  And if you're sick of bisons, hurray! This is the last picture I'll show you containing bisons, no more bisons!
  By the way, it is so comforting to see Canada geese in foreign countries :)

  A side note: The bisons ended up crowding the road and caused an one hour delay going to Old Faithful. If you've been following the story, now I'm reallllly feeling pressured, what if I can't keep up to my schedule and miss my stop at Salt Lake City?

  So, what the heck is this, I hear you asking... This is the famous Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park. So named Old Faithful because it has a rather regular time interval which it'll shoot steam up into the sky.

  So, a hundred or so of us stood/sat there, in the wind, in light blowing snow, waiting.... waiting and getting old, waiting faithfully to see some stupid hole in the ground to shoot steam in the air. According to the park wardens it was going to be a 10 minutes wait. But in reality I sat there for 45 minutes :P

  
  So there we go... Lasted for about 30 seconds, a totally non-spectacular picture due to the crappy weather.

  ready for a lame joke? okay, here goes, kids, skip this :P

  -start lame joke:

  While waiting, the old geyser kept coughing and spitting. After teasing all of us for half an hour, I thought... man, this is like watching a crappy porno movie or something, takes forever to get to the good part... :P Yes, men and their lack of interest in foreplay...

  -end lame joke

  Due to the delay by the bisons earlier and waiting for Old Faithful to do its thing, the road south was now reopened :D Now I'm heading south to Grand Teton National Park

  The hot (relatively) pavement evaporates the remaining snow and water.

  And then it snowed again... If this road isn't plowed regularly, snow would be like 4-5 foot deep!

  
  Grand Teton Panorama

  
  Grand Teton

  
  I remember seeing this mountain before on a website, and when I got there, I was like "wow, it's just like the pictures!" (which, honestly, is a stupid thing to say, I mean... what else would it look like really)

  Knuckles, that's the word which popped in my mind when I saw these mountains. Looks like knuckles sticking out from the ground!

  
  A huge gathering of deer, almost like a farm or something...

  
  And two Canada geese spitting/hissing/diving fighting. Fighting over what you say? Girls, of course!!

   
  On the way out of Wyoming and into Idaho/Utah!

  Bear Lake, Utah. Even though I was running late, I can't help but stop by the lake for a little while. What an incredibly pretty lake. It's like finding a huge gem. I was in love :)

  
  A huge panorama (if printed out it'd be like 7 feet long at 300 dpi!) of Bear Lake

  And it looks like Bear Lake is the playground/resort for the rich peoples, with a whole hill side full of expensive (and empty!) vacation homes and a marina...

  
  And to get to Salt Lake City, one must cross the amazingly entertaining Logan pass through the mountains! What a drive...

  The curves blended
  from one to another
  
  Flowing, twisting
  sensation intensifying
  
  A flick of the wrist
  Delicately balancing grip

  A wide grin on my face
  As the smooth pavement snakes away

  "Yes!" I proclaimed
  As the tires gently protested

  A little piece of driving heaven
  Deep inside these Utah mountains :)

  (wow, a poem about driving... weird)

  Normally on such fun roads I will forget to take pictures. But I thought, how am I going to talk about and remember such an amazing road without pictures! So I had to stop myself, just this once, and snap a couple shots.

  This road was awesome, tire screechingly good, amazing scenery... I was in love

  And then I'm out of the mountains. Looking back at Logan pass from the city of Logan, Utah

  
  A truly beautiful place. Like a crappier version of Calgary, rolling hills, lots of greens, and mountains in the back :) This part of the USA seems very clean and quiet. I liked it a lot.

  And here's the MINI enjoying the pretty sunset scene at Logan.

  Hiding away
  A temporary goodbye
  
  End of the day
  As it kissed the sky
  
  I like letting its gentle rays
  Melt into my appreciative eyes

  My golden sun
  My favorite star
  

  
  This part of the USA is also full of Mormons, with their pretty lawns and pretty churches and pretty statutes. Everything at Logan was so clean and pretty. Quite a change from the other side of the mountains earlier in the day. There's a beauitful tranquil quietness to this place.

  Lots of pretty churches here, I loved the sunset :)

  
  

  Night fell, but I had to go on, Salt Lake City is but an interstate away!

  
  It's 11pm and what do I do? Go take night shots of course :D The Utah State Capitol

  
  Prettily standing up on the hill in downtown Utah.

  
  And the famous downtown Mormon Church at Salt Lake City. The night, the moon, so quiet and beautiful.

  

  
  Isn't it amazing? With such beautiful buildings, you'd almost think what they believe in is actually real! :P

  And on that note, it was just past midnight, stupid me wrote the address down WRONGLY for the hostel I was gonna stay in... so I got lost and ended up sleeping in the car for the night... lol. Yes, it sucked... Maybe the Mormon God punished me for thinking blasphemous thoughts :P

  Next: Sunrise at Great Salt Lake, Arches National Park, sunset at Canyon Lands National Park

  Go back to previous road trip entries....
  Day 1: Montana
  Day 2: West Yellowstone
  Day 3: Yellowstone National Park 1
  Day 3: Yellowstone National Park 2
  Day 4: Yellowstone/Salt Lake City
  Day 5: Salt Lake City
  Day 5: Arches National Park
  Day 5: Canyonlands National Park
  Day 6: Capitol Reefs National Park
  Day 6: Bryce Canyon National Park
  Day 7: Cedar Breaks National Monument / Zion National Park
  Day 7: Nevada desert and Death Valley
  Day 8: Central California and Giant Sequoia National Monument
  Day 8: Monterey California sunset
  Day 9: San Francisco Sunrise panoramas and wallpaper
  Day 9: San Francisco downtown Part 1 of 2
  Day 9: San Francisco downtown Part 2 of 2
  Day 10: Alcatraz, San Francisco
  Day 11: California Coastal Redwoods
  Day 11: Northern California Coasts
  Day 12: Oregon and Washington
  Day 12: Wayne's house
  Day 13: Pike Place Market, Seattle
  Day 13: Vancouver sunset and night shots
  Day 14: Interior BC and Squilax Hostel
  Day 15: Suqilax Hostel and Alberta

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