Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park

As I am on the Extreme Solar Systems II conference in Grand Teton National Park, my colleague and I used the opportunity to visit the National Parks nearby.

We arrived in Salt Lake City on Sunday, September 4. We directly headed to the hotel to get some sleep, after we had a delay of about 1.5 hours as our plane had to be repaired in Atlanta.

Bison at Antelope Island State Park

Bison at Antelope Island State Park

Monday was Labor Day. After some shopping in the Tanger Outlets we visited the Antelope Island State Park which is the largest island in the Great Salt Lake. We saw a lot of Bison within flowers which looked like wild sun flowers.

On the next day, we went to Jackson Lake Lodge within Grand Teton National Park. We drove a nice scenic route along Bear Lake and saw a lot of famous towns including Paris, Montpellier and Geneva. After check-in at the hotel, we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset at Jackson Lake.

Sunset at Jackson Lake

Sunset at Jackson Lake

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring

Old Faithful

Old Faithful

The next days were dedicated to Yellowstone National Park. On our first day in the park, we visited many geysers in the park. We started at the famous Old Faithful, where we luckily arrived only a few minutes before the scheduled eruption. After the eruption we visited the other geysers and pools around the site and got luckier because Beehive Geyser erupted. Our next stop on this day trip was the Grand Prismatic Spring. We first visited Midway Geyser Basin to see it from the "ground" and then afterwards climbed on a nearby hill to get a better view on this colorful pool.

Boiling River

Boiling River

The second day was reserved for the Mammoth Hot Springs at the north entrance of Yellowstone. On the way, we visited some small geysers and took a detour to the Firehole Falls. We already knew the smell of rotten eggs when we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs from the geysers and pools we visited before, but the intensity of this stink was quite impressive.

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

Sadly, some of the terraces on Mammoth Hot Springs were dry but the rest of them were very beautiful. Afterwards we went to Boiling River, one of very few places where swimming in pools is allowed in Yellowstone. At this place, the very hot water of the Boiling River enter the rather cold Gardner River. Depending on where you sit in the river, you can adjust the temperature of the water around you from ice-cold to almost boiling hot. We enjoyed this bath for about an hour while watching elk which were grazing on the other side of the river.

On the third day in Yellowstone we visited a lot of falls throughout the park. We started at Tower Falls in the north and saw a lot of Bison flocks on the way there. We proceeded to the Upper and Lower Yellowstone Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The drove and walked to several view points to get nice views on this very impressive falls and a maybe even more impressive canyon. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Lewis Falls and Moose Falls which are also very beautiful, but look tiny in comparison to what we had seen before.

Lower Yellowstone Falls

Lower Yellowstone Falls

Cascade Canyon

Cascade Canyon

As our hotel was in Grand Teton National Park, we also wanted to visit this wrongly unknown park. So we drove to Jenny Lake on Saturday morning and hiked half around it. On the other side we climbed up the Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point and even further into Cascade Canyon. On the way back to the car, we used the boot shuttle over the lake as we hadn't had enough water with us. In the evening we visited Moulton Barn in Mormon Row, which is a nice old barn with a nice view on the Tetons.

Moulton Barn

Moulton Barn

Sadly I had left my tripod at home and so it was difficult to shoot pictures in the evening of Moulton Barn, so we returned early next morning. We were rewarded with a night sunrise and a stunning view upon the Tetons. After having breakfast back in the hotel we went for a hike around Two Ocean Lake. In the evening our conference started, so we went back a little earlier this day to install our poster and register.

One thought on “Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Park

  1. Gleich haben wir's geschafft.
    Nur noch 4 Talks und dann dürfen wir wieder für Getränke zahlen wie bei der Reception 😀

    Nochmal hier super-dolles Danke, dass ihr mich abgeholt habt - die anderen fluchen zum Teil jetzt noch nach einer Woche wie teuer das "Hotelshuttle" war.

    Gruß vom dritten Platz zu deiner Rechten,
    Rumil

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