Mormon Town: Salt Lake City.
The Traveling Alpaca is a finger puppet from Peru that brought us endless hours of entertainment. Its travels throughout Peru are well-documented through countless pictures of the Traveling Alpaca climbing the mountain from Aguas Calientes to the peak of Machu Picchu, wading in the river, dancing during a dinner show and exploring churches in Lima. In this blog, the Traveling Alpaca offers to you its travel reviews and restaurant recommendations. The Traveing Alpaca: I travel. I eat. I burp.
The famed Grand Tetons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Teton) to the south of Yellowstone feature beautiful vistas, reflections off the lake and hints of glaciers which were once much larger. As we drove through the one-lane highway, we managed to snap a number of pictures, one more beautiful than the last.
After lunch, we drove through Roosevelt Country (http://www.americanparknetwork.com/parkinfo/ye/sights/index.html), named for the former President and known for its vast wildlife. It certainly did not disappoint. We saw deer, elk, buffalo and even a bear!
Heading north from the Lower and Upper Geyser Basin (http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/tours/oldfaithful/index.htm), we drove through the section of Yellowstone called Mammoth Country (http://russell.visitmt.com/categories/moreinfo.asp?IDRRecordID=9645&siteid=10). Mammoth Springs was also spectacular, although it was much more impressive on the postcard depicting it. We stopped for lunch at the Mammoth Dining Room (http://www.travelyellowstone.com/mammoth-hotel-dining-room-terrace-grill-175.html), where we enjoyed some delicious (albeit overpriced) sandwiches and salads.
We next headed to the Lower Geyser Basin (http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/lowergeyser.htm), which was quite a sight to see – the color of the water was amazing, and you could really feel the heat emanating from the water at the larger spring.
First, we visited Old Faithful Geyser (http://www.nps.gov/archive/yell/oldfaithfulcam.htm), since it was less than 30 feet from our cabin. As luck would have it, it went off less than two minutes after we walked over for breakfast. We managed to get in plenty of pictures before the camera battery died (oops, forgot to recharge it), then we rushed back to the room to leave the camera on the charger in preparation for the pictures we intended to take the remainder of the day.
Seriously, Yellowstone is gorgeous (http://www.nps.gov/yell/). Probably among the top five most beautiful place I have visited. And I’ve been all over Europe and the Caribbean, through the South Pacific and to Central and South America, so that’s really saying something. Thank goodness Teddy Roosevelt set aside this parcel of land for a national park so we could all enjoy it (http://www.yellowstone-natl-park.com/arch.htm).
Yellowstone is divided into “countries” with are so divided based on their shared characteristics (http://home.nps.gov/applications/hafe/hfc/carto-detail.cfm?Alpha=YELL#). We stayed in a cabin in Geyser Country (see below), so we started there.