Going East….to West-9

Journey to Yellowstone National Park

Map by Wikipedia

By Air By Road

Map by National geographic

Onward Journey (By Road) From Salt Lake City (Utah) to Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)

Return Journey (By Road)

We flew into Salt Lake City airport by midday. For once, I was not overawed by an US airport. It was not very glamorous but seemed functionally efficient. We had a long drive ahead of us to the Yellowstone National Park. We were in hurry to get going but I simply could not get past Abraham Lincoln’s statue at the airport without stopping there for a while. While making my journey to Yellowstone through the print and the electronic media I had got to know three great American Presidents better—Jefferson and the two Roosevelts but our physical journey to this national Park had taken us now near the fourth great President leaving out only George Washington from the list of all time great US Presidents. I wondered how long would it take for the U.S. to have someone who would be approximately close to the caliber of any of these great five.

We rented a car and set out for the downtown looking for an Indian restaurant since we knew we would not be able to taste Indian food for some days. We soon found one; it was called Tandoor and was run by a young Andhra lady who had switched over from her job in a biotech firm. In Bay Area in California, serving staff in most Indian restaurants is mostly Mexican. This was quite understandable since California has a large number of of Mexican immigrants. Solitary server in Tandoor appeared to be a Garhwali (Indian) but turned out to be from Nepal.

We brought some food stuff and fruits for the road journey and were soon on Interstate 15. This highway runs North and enters Idaho state; it turns East from Idaho Falls and enters the West Entrance (in Motana State) to the Yellowstone National Park. We had decided to take a scenic alternative –route 89 that breaks to the East and away from Interstate 15, goes via Bear Lake and enters through the South Entrance of Yellowstone after crossing Jackson and the Tetons. (see map above)

We stopped at Bear Lake. A small plateau overlooked the Lake and a strong breeze flowed while we looked down at the bluish Lake below. We had recently returned after visiting Chicago and the Lake Michigan and as I stood looking at the Bear Lake, I found myself, for the second time, envious of this Nature’s gift to North America –its massive Lakes. The scenic route becomes particularly noticeable as we cross the Bear Lake which also marks the interstate boundary between Utah (South) and Wyoming (North). The narrow road runs parallel to an equally narrow river. One finds many picnic spots en route and we also came across a roadsign that informed us that the river had served as lifeline for the Indians and also for the early settlers.

I have always loved looking out of a window—be it a moving car or a train: all other human senses have such a limited range. One can at least perceive a sizeable fraction of this world through one’s eyes. As a travelling young man, I remember deliberately keeping awake at night and simply looking out…..even though one could see only the shadows and the silhouettes. But one can perceive things without actually seeing them.

It was dinnertime when we reached Jackson town. All tourists coming from South have to pass through this town before entering Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park and National Elk Refuge. Jackson boasts of National Museum Of Wildlife Art and it also holds Grand Teton Music Festival. Wikipedia informs us that some celebrities like Harrison Ford, Nick Cheney and Tiger Woods maintain part-time residences in and around this town. The entrance to the town square, through which the road to National Parks pass, has a large arch of shed elk antlers and this was how the locals guided us when we asked for directions.

Night had set in when we reached in the vicinity of the Tetons. We could see the silhouettes of the peaks very clearly. We were now approaching the Yellowstone National Park. We reduced our speed in deference to the roadsigns posted en route. Moreover I have experienced a collision with wildlife once. I was travelling in an army vehicle at night when a deer, coming from nowhere, bolted across the road; my driver could not have seen it before it came on the road and his reflexive braking was not good enough to avoid the collision. The saddest part was that death was not instantaneous and the animal lay gasping for air for some time before breathing its last.

It was about 10:00 PM when we reached our destination—Grant Village.