Ballooning over the Tetons

I had never seen balloons till I came to UK. Am not sure I remember the first citing of one, but think it probably was a zeppelin advertising something. Occasionally during the summer months I used to see a balloon in the morning or late evening sky. Sometimes it was an advertising balloon and at others I think there were people enjoying a ride in multicoloured balloons. Seeing balloons in the sky slowly drifting just high enough to get a good view over distances made me want to experience a balloon ride. Often on TV there were wildlife programmes where the filming is done from a balloon. Seeing large herds of animals across the African national parks on film taken from balloons provided wonderful views as did some clips from nature programmes. It all looks so quiet and peaceful with just an occasional burst from the burner of the balloon. What would it be like to just float above the ground and drift slowly passing the woods and fields and odd house or two?

My in-laws live in the west country and we often visit them. Some years ago we went there one weekend in August. It was afternoon as we drove up the motorway towards Bristol and saw the sky was filling up with balloons – small ones, large ones, different shapes, multicoloured ones – making a colourful site. There is a fiesta of balloons usually in the 2^nd weekend of August. It was good thing that I was not driving and so I could rubber neck at the balloons and enjoy the view for many miles. After that year we tried to go down every August so we could see the sky full of balloons. The sight of the silently gliding balloons tends to put a smile on my face and make me happy. I am not entirely sure why they have this joyous effect on me but certainly my mood improves on seeing balloons.

Often we have enquired about balloon rides and thought it is a bit expensive. It became one of the things I must do even if I have to save up specifically for it. The one summer we went on a trip to the Yellowstone Park and Tetons and Canyon lands. There were small trips to be made on the side like bicycle tour around the Tetons or even hiking for the day. Also there was a balloon trip at sunrise. This time we decided to throw caution to the wind and fork out the money for the balloon ride. After all I was not going biking or hiking! It was a chance to fulfill a dream. We had often talked about taking a balloon ride and here was a perfect opportunity.

We had to get up early and make our way to the site for about 5 am. It was fairly cool even in summer at we were at a height of 7000 feet. There were going to be 2 balloons taking off that morning. Up close seeing the balloon spread out in the ground makes you realise truly how big they are. Our balloon had large horizontal stripes of yellows and reds and greens. We watched the balloons being filled with hot air and rise slowly up pulling against the tether and the basket. The basket was large with the burner in the centre and room for people to stand around it in each quarter of the basket. The edge of the basket came up to mid chest level and so it felt safe. A strange experience of just standing there without being in some way tethered to the basket as it is in cars, planes and roller coaster rides.

There were 8 of us in the basket and the sun was just peeping over the horizon and the balloon was released by the ground staff. Am not sure what I expected but it certainly was not this smooth slow rise from the ground. I thought maybe it would feel like going up in a lift but it was not so…. did not feel any upward motion at all. Just looked down and found we were rising fast and the view opened up. The trees looked like shrubs, the ground was green with a stream meandering across the earth. We were hoping to see some animals as well, a coyote, herd of cows who am sure did not know what to make of this whooshing sound as the burner blaze sent hot air to raise the balloon. The pilot was interesting and telling amusing stories of his experiences as a balloon pilot. We passed over homes of some well known people. In fact one story he told was that Dick Cheyenne has a home there (we saw from afar) and one day he kind of flew his balloon too near his estate and next thing he knew was 2 fighter planes on either side of his balloon ….. appears he breached Dick’s air space!!

Then we moved further up the mountains right up to 11000 feet. The mountains tops were covered with snow still. The air was still and cold. The sun rise slowly turned the sky from gold to clear blue. The shadows of our balloon and the other balloon were clear and small on the ground, which surprisingly moved pretty fast. The speed of the flight was not discernible in the almost noiseless flight. We flew over Jackson Hole the winter ski resort which was empty at this time of the year. The hour just passed so quickly. It certainly is a joyous feeling moving over the earth in the quiet of the morning and see the view from a different perspective. It was sad to land… particularly as we did with a bump … I think the pilot was trying to avoid cows in the next field. I do have some photos which I shall root out and put up later. It is an experience I will never forget and would dearly love to repeat if I can. Maybe I might get lucky in OZ!

Yellowstone - Part 2 Geysers

The best is first in the blog..... the picture above is of one of the beautiful hot spring pool. The next lot of photos are of the best and biggest geyser of the Yellowstone National Park. It is called the Grande Geyser and errupts farily often, about every 12 hours or so. There is a plaque in front of every geyser givng the approximate time of next eruption. They said the show at teh Grande Geyser would be on at about 4 pm and a large crowd gathered and sat on the walk way and waited. It was nearly 5 pm and people were getting fed up and thinking of moving along. We thought maybe this is not going to happen and we should leave as well.

Just then it started bubbling fruiously. There is a little spout on the side and it goes off like a kettle boiling and whistles. Then the main spout goes off and its beautiful. The roar of the steam and heat from it as well as the strong sulhur smell with it was a show stopper. It spouted steam for a good 20 minutes. In fact it stopped and people thought that was it and started movign and it erupted again and again.










There are also so many small geysers and all have names too. I found these two I snapped really good. They are small but for some reason the droplets that are thrown up sparkle like diamonds and make you feel as it the geyser is laughing and dancing. There is such joy coming from these dancing drops of scalding hot water.






These are the photos showing the Old Faithful which is erupting every 90 minutes of so. While there is a grandstand for people to sit and watch this geyser the distance from which you see it a lot more than some of the geysers. It is most famous but to my mind and from teh phots you will agree that tis the Grande geyser that takes the prize!!!







Now this geyser below I do remember clearly. It is called the Castle. It erupts regularly and one just has to sit and wait by the side or lean on the wall opposite. The height of the steam was fairly impressive but nothing compared to the pictures you have seen of the Grande Geyser.








I just cannot remember the name of this geyser.. do you blame me? there are so many of them there and we sat and watched most of them blow steam. The smell of sulphur in the air was actually not too bad as it cleared my sinuses and dust and hay fever.




The next few photos are near I think Steam Hammer the largest of the geysers but it just kind of bubbles but its bubbling is nearly as powerful as an actual eruption of the some of the smaller ones we saw. There was a lot of talk about there being increased activity all around the park and there was an alert that a major shift of earth was expected and this would leave a huge hole in large part of western USA. Well we are a few years down the line and have yet to see any such disaster.




The beautiful colored hot spring pools dotted around the geyser park are truly awesome. I have never seen anything like this. The depth of the color in the clear water is amazing. We did spend a fair amount of time gazing at these sites.











These pictures below are the Monmouth Springs in Yellowstone. The colors were beautiful in the lake and the stalactites and stalagmites. The steam rising made the air warm and humid. The park has all these walkways built so people can get much closer to various geysers. The river apparently had changed course and so certain parts were closed.

Yellowstone - part 1 animals

-->I have been to so many places over the years that it is very difficult to actually know from where start. Then I realized that doing a travel monologue of each trip would be extremely boring and similar to what others put up on their websites or blogs. So I thought it might be better to do snippets of my travels - things I remember most along with some of the photos that I have collected.

In the last two weeks there has been a documentary series on BBC1 core of the Yellowstone. I have been watching it and reminiscing on my own experience of Yellowstone a few years ago. The visit to Yellowstone was part of a package trip that included the Tetons, Canyon lands and Moab. In fact this was my one and only camping trip. We stayed at a huge campsite when he got to Yellowstone. We were travelling in a minivan, with some other British travelers. A strange bunch we were, they will as a science schoolteacher, an art dealer in his wife, mother and daughter, the daughter was a PE teacher, there was another young man who was into taking in the walking, and couple of other people who I have forgotten. On the way to the camping site we came across these big herds of bison.

The first sighting of these huge animals was quite amazing even though it was at a distance. I had never seen animals of this size in real life. The van was stopped by the roadside and everyone jumped out eager for a good look at these magnificent animals. The countryside was green with rolling hills and a meandering river. The bison were gathered by the water with their young ones.

While we were exclaiming over the bison by the water suddenly a couple of them came up towards the road where we all were busy clicking the cameras. It was difficult to imagine that they could move at such speed.

One of them moved in even closer. Right next to our bus was a camper van with the Japanese couple and their baby in a stroller busy taking photographs. The bison seemed interested in the stroller but it came up to the road and walked across the board in front of our bus. Everyone assumed that it would carry on to the other side of the road. However it walked back and went past the camper van. The Japanese couple had just managed to grab the child out of the stroller and rush into the camper van, just as the bison came around the back of the camper van and stood right next to the stroller. From the photograph you can see the awesome size of the bison, the huge powerful shoulders with a couple of tons of weight that can do a good deal of damage to a baby in a stroller. It gave us an opportunity to see the animal at such close quarters.

After the first few herds the novelty wore off and we were on the lookout for other animals. We did see some herds of deer grazing peacefully in the afternoon heat.

The next animal we saw was a mother moose and her calf grazing in the long grass alongside the road. I had seen a large moose on an earlier visit to New Hampshire but had never seen a calf that young. As usual the bus stopped and everyone jumped out to take pictures. So many people talking and walking towards them made the mother nervous and she moved in front of her calf to protect it. Because the tourists kept surging forward she turned around and took her baby further into the undergrowth.

As we moved along we saw in the drying grass some antlers of deer sitting in the grass. Again it was nice seeing these animals so close and it seemed that the number of tourists passing through have made them comfortable with so many people wandering about.

The other scenery we passed on the way to the campsite was beautiful with hills covered with trees and a few waterfalls. Here are a couple of pictures showing the beautiful landscape.

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After a very busy day of seeing animals and the awesome scenery we made our way to the first night at a campsite. This was the first time I learnt to put up tent. It was demonstrated to us by our driver and we only had to follow the instructions. The first point was to choose the site where we would like to put a tent and spread out the ground sheet. In trying to be away from others we felt proud of picking the patch we did. In fact we had no trouble getting the tent up right. Then a stroll around the campsite was necessary to find out where the toilets were and what was being sold in the local shop. It was only when we lay down on our inch thick air mattress that we realised our folly. We had set up our tent on a slope. As we lay down it kept sliding to the lower end of the tent. As you can imagine it was not the most comfortable of sleep we had. The tiny pebbles under the mattress was another reason to have our sleep. We chose the next tent site it much more care.