STEAMING BLAZE OF COLOUR

The oldest national park in the world and one of the largest in the USA is the Yellowstone. Here we met one more time with dear friends from back home. We met Thomas and Ellen some years ago in Australia and since then we already experienced a couple of adventures together. They travel a year with the backpack around the world and we’ll spend the next few weeks together in the USA. Afterwards, the two will fly on to French Polynesia to dive with humpback whales

COLORFUL

The joy of reunion is great and after an update of our travel itineraries we immediately set off to explore the park. Already at the entrance there are steaming waterholes and stones in all possible colors to admire. The earth is bubbling, boiling and hissing everywhere around here. This is probably because most of the national park is situated in an ancient volcano crater. It also explains the sulphurous yellow stones and the foul odor in some places. Many of the hot springs shimmer, thanks to the bacteria which live in these temperatures in red, brown or yellow. A highlight of this natural splendor of color is the famous Grand Prismatic Spring. Its deep blue but boiling hot water is surrounded by a fire ring of living bacteria.

WILDLIFE

There are also a lot of animals to marvel at! Besides does and proud stags with huge antlers, we find coyotes and a badger and at night we hear wolves howling in the distance. But most impressive are the large herds of bison grazing on the huge meadows. One morning while we sit comfortably at the breakfast table in the middle of nowhere and drink our cup of coffee, a group of these magnificent animals cross the river right in front of our nose. Of course, the photographers leave their warm bread rolls behind and stalk as close as possible.

During our hikes through the Yellowstone we can’t stop to marvel around. The canyons shimmer in all sorts of colors in the evening sun and make it look like a beautiful watercolor painting and therefore the waterfalls with the rainbows in their haze almost become a side issue.

We can hardly get away from this park – rightly it is described as spectacular and attracts millions of tourists each year. But many more parks are waiting for us on our way south and so we get into our mobile homes and set off to discover them.