The desert is yellow, the woods are green, the sea is blue and the mesas at the Monument Valley are all red as blood. What colour could the Yellowstone National Park have been you will ask you when you on your way to this oldest of all north american National Parks and you see a lot of dying trees along the road. Is it this yellow like his name? Grey? Brown? Or something else?
Okay, you would be surprised because but it is all different. The Yellowstone National Park is certainly the most diverse National Park in the USA and he has all the colour all the other parks displays in one. The same thing you can expect as the inhabents of the park. Nowhere are so much of them and nowhere are so many types and varieties that are so easy to see,
Because of the diversity of animals, the valleys in Yellowstone are called the Serengeti of North America. The park also has mountains, canyons and lakes and everywhere it steams and bubbles. Just a riminder: The Yellowstone NP is double the size of the huge and endless Grand Canyon NP. And he has the same size like the isle of Cyprus or Jamaika, tree times the size of Luxemburg and eight times the size of Hongkong. You can get lost in this vast territory.
But no fear, it is the same thing as everywhere in the US. Everything that attracts tourists is excellently developed. Nice roads with fine street signs leads you to all the attractions. You have parking lot near all view points, short walking paths to the highlights and ranger in reach when you have problems or questions or both of this.
It is easy to notice that you are in the middle of a huge volcanic crater – the Yellowstone National Park is an UNESCO World Heritage Site made on the top of a vulcano that one day could be the reason for the end of the world as we know it, like Michael Stipe sings in the classic REM-tune. The Yellowstone volcano is nearly 17 million yeras old and a so called "super vulcano". The magma chamber of the vulcano is about 60 km long, 35 km wide an 10 km thick. This chamber heats up underground water deposits and let geysers like the Old Faithful spray hot water to the surface.
At an altitude of over 2.000 meters you will feel that hot water and cold air in midsummer isn`t a unusual combination here. In the morning the peaks of the mountains around the NP were snow-covered, the air has 7 or 10 grad celsius and you have to take a jacket with you before you start your tour from Mammoth Hot Springs. The small town is the head quarter at the north-entree of the park where the most of the visitors come by.
On our stay in the morning the sun unfortunately doesn't wanted to show itself to us completely, but it gets better even the day goes on – the deeper you´re in natures wonderland the brighter the colourfulness of the up to 70 degrees hot springs...
to be continued
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Potato Chip Rock: Cliff of thrill
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Salvation Mountain: The man who made a hill for god
Bombay Beach: The fine art of deep depression
Anza Borrego Desert: Meet the monsters made of steel
Joshua Tree: Holy trees under a blood red sky
Area 66: The last secret of the aliens
Ghost Town Oatman: Where the mule does rule
Route 66: On the road that kicks
Grand Canyon West: No-pics allowed of this beauty
Grand Canyon: Scenic views into the abyss of earth
Graveyard of giants: The Jurassic Park at the Navajo Trail
More than monumental: The heart of the wild west
Arches NP: The biggest bow you've ever seen
Zion Canyon: Ice-cold feet in narrow waters
Bryce Canyon: God's glowing stones
Las Vegas: Home of Bad Luck
Red Rock Canyon: Road under the ocean
Death Valley: The dry throat of the desert
Mt. Withney: High on thin air
Mono Lake: Eating flies on a salty shore
Golden Gate Bridge: 80.000 miles of steel wire
Sequoia: Beyond the everlasting trees
Yosemite NP: Crazy climbers at El Capitan
High Sierra: The wonder of the Sierra Waves
Alcatraz: Into the home of horror
Richfield: Where Easy Rider is alive
Alabama Hills: Blue skies over Hollywoods West