We had been watching the weather forecast for Yellowstone for a while. Now at the end of September there is a big high pressure system up there that promises sunshine and warm temperatures.
On Tuesday, September 28th, we pack the car and start driving north. HWY 15 takes us to St. George (about 450 miles from San Diego) for the first night. On the second day we cover another 550 miles and arrive in Idaho Falls. From there it’s only about another 100 miles to Yellowstone West, where we want to stay at the Moose Creek Inn for the next few days. Dan and Brenna, the owners of the Inn, are welcoming us with an open heart and with their flexibility help us to extend our stay from day to day.
Eventually we spend five full days from sunrise to sunset in the Park. It is gorgeous, the weather is perfect and we loose our hearts up here. We have a hard time leaving again. But, tell ourselves that we can always come back – and we will, maybe even in winter!
On the way back we take the time to visit Page and the south rim of the Grand Canyon, which is also very impressive, but in a different way. While Yellowstone is alive and you can go in and experience it, the Grand Canyon is static and you just watch it from the outside (maybe the experience is different if you start walking down into the canyon, we don’t know). Never the less we indulge the beauty and fascination of the canyon and Marco can take some top shots as the weather is still perfect.
Further south we spend our last day of “vacation” in the mountains of Arizona, we drive along the Mogollon Rim and then head towards Phoenix along Theodore Roosevelt Lake and over the Apache Trail. This is high desert pure with lots of desert plants and cactuses. Once again very different but still beautiful.
The whole trip (3,750 Miles – 6,000 km) was amazing and we can conclude that we definitely start missing the seasons in San Diego and might consider moving further north, where the landscape is greener and offers more variety.
You can find our detailed daily reports under Road Trips – USA 2010.
