Grand Teton National Park: Tuesday we took a day trip north to Yellowstone National Park. We were revisiting old haunts and enjoying the brilliant but chilly sunshine. We first visited “the Stone” as a couple 45 years ago, in our first RV - a Class C motorhome.
Yellowstone is huge, certainly the largest national park in the lower 48 states. Yellowstone Park roads describe a lopsided figure 8, with feeders exiting in all four directions: east to Cody, west to West Yellowstone, north to Gardner and Bozeman, south to the Tetons and Jackson.
The upper and lower loops of the 8 each make a nice day’s drive. Today we redid the lower loop for the nth time.
Since our first visit, few years have passed when we didn’t visit Yellowstone at least once. The same is true for Jackson Hole and the Tetons.
It’s no accident a couple of CA natives picked this region for a summer home that became 15 years ago our residence of record. It’s been a love affair with northwestern WY.
We saw Old Faithful geyser do its thing this afternoon, from the roof of the portico of Yellowstone Inn. The Inn is this amazing old wooden building made of logs, shingles, and lots and lots of whimsey, wrapped around a field stone fireplace plus chimney that towers through the lobby atrium perhaps 5 floors before reaching the roof.
This late in the season fully half the tourists we saw today were from China, spending their trade surplus to see our sights. Virtually all were traveling by tour bus, as most are as illiterate here as we’ve been in China. I wonder what they make of the U.S., what their guides tell them about the sights?
