(Circuit individuel de 10 jours en octobre 2002).
Superbe voyage. Les sites sont fabuleux. Les sentiers sont très bien indiqués. Septembre-octobre est une bonne saison pour visiter : il n’y a plus trop de monde, juste avant l’arrivée des premières neiges. Nous avons vu énormément d’animaux: ours, loups, coyotes, bisons, chiens de prairie, antilopes,…
Il faut absolument passer quelques nuits dans le parc.
Vol jusqu’à Billings, à 3h30 de l’entrée du parc.
J1: YELLOWSTONE - Mammoth Springs
Billings - Tower Jct: 250 kms - 3h30
- Tower Junction - Canyon : AR - 31kms - 35mn
- Tower Junction - Gardiner : 38kms - 40mn
- Tower Falls
- Canyon Area
- Inspiration Point
- Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
- Petrified Tree
- Osprey Falls
- Mammoth Hot Springs
The area from Tower to Roosevelt has been very good for watching black bears.
Moose have been seen in the area north of Roosevelt, from the Petrified Tree area to above Elk Creek. - nuit a Gardiner
J2: Mammoth Spring - Grant Village
- Norris Geyser Basin
- Gibbon Falls
- Fountain Paint Pot
- Geyser Basin
- Midway Geyser Basin
- Upper Geyser Basin
- Old Faithful area
- West Thumb thermal area
- nuit a Grant Village
1. OLD FAITHFUL and the UPPER GEYSER BASIN
- Grand - Usually erupts every 8 - 12 hours. The eruption lasts about 12 minutes. It will often stop after about 9 minutes and then restart after a minute or so. This second “burst” and any subsequent bursts are among the tallest if not the tallest of the eruption. Be sure to wait and see if there is a second burst.
- Daisy - Usually erupts every 90 - 110 minutes and is very predictable. The eruption lasts about 3 - 4 minutes. I like the view from the side away from Old Faithful.
- Riverside - Usually erupts every 5.5 - 7 hours. The water phase of the eruption lasts about 20 minutes and is followed by a 30 minute steam phase.
- Castle - Usually erupts every 9 - 11 hours. The twenty minute water phase of a major eruption is followed by a 40 minute steam phase. The first 15 minutes of the steam phase is relatively forceful and fairly loud so try to be close for this part. Castle sometimes has minor eruptions which last only a few minutes. When it has a minor eruption, Castle becomes unpredictable until it has its next major eruption.
- Great Fountain (located 8 miles north of Old Faithful on Firehole Lake Drive) - Usually erupts about every 10 hours in a series of distinct bursts that occur over a period of an hour. The first 10 minutes are the most spectacular.
- Old Faithful - erupts every 35 - 120 minutes for 1.5 - 5 minutes. The rangers say that 90% of their predictions are within +/- 10 minutes. The time to the next eruption is predicted using the duration of the current eruption. The longer the eruption lasts, the longer the interval until the next eruption. For instance, a 2 minute eruption results in an interval of about 50 minutes and a 4.5 minute eruption results in an interval of about 85 minutes. It is not possible to predict more than one eruption in advance. Old Faithful is deceiving. The benches around the geyser are over 300 feet from the geyser but with nothing to judge the distance by, I rarely realize just how big the geyser is until I get further away. I like the view from Geyser Hill. As with any geyser, watch the wind direction or you may only see steam.
2. GRAND CANYON
The canyon has a grand scenic scale that is spectacular. The colorful canyon walls and waterfalls are beautiful and worth exploring.
To tour the canyon first take the North Rim Drive stopping at each lookout and then cross the river and go out to Artist Point and take the short walk to the lookout. This will leave the most spectacular overlook until the last. The must-see lookout is at Artist Point.
3. FOUNTAIN PAINT POT TRAIL
This short 1/2 mile loop trail is located in the Lower Geyser Basin. On the short walk you get to see good examples of most types of thermal features
J3: Grant village
boucle: Geyser - Noris - Canyon - Lake - Grant
- Inspiration Point
- Artist Point
- Yellowstone and Upper and Lower Falls in the Canyon area
- Mud Volcano Area
- Yellowstone Lake to Fishing Bridge
To see: - Lamar Valley - wildlife - antelope, bears, bison, birds, coyotes, elk, mule deer, wolves
- nuit a Grant Village
J4: Grand Teton
Grant Village - Moran Jct - Jackson: 112km - 1h25mn
- nuit a Jackson (ville western)
J5: Jackson-Casper
(5h de route - 288 mi)
Jackson - Moran Jct - Dubois: 140 kms - 1h50
Dubois - Shoshoni : 160 kms - 2h
Shoshoni - Casper : 155 kms - 2h
Casper - Lusk : 160 kms - 1h30
- Dubois :
Une belle route separe Grand teton de Dubois en passant par Shoshone Forest.
petite ville cow-boy - nuit a Casper
J6: Casper
Casper - Edgemont : 265 kms - 3h ou Lusk - Edgemont : 100kms - 1h30
Edgemont - Hot Springs : 40 kms : 30mn
Hot Springs - Custer : 83 kms - 1h30 mn par SD 87- needles hyghway
- Mammoth Site : cimetiere mammouths
- Hot Springs : station touristique. sources chaudes: evans Plunge
- Wind Cave N Park : 20 km au N. US 385, circuits a pied (RANKIN Ridge nature trail), en voiture: SD 87.
- Custer State Park: grand parc naturel.
- Needles Highway beaux points de vue
- nuit a Custer
J7: Custer
Custer - Keystone : 42 kms - 30mn
Keystone - Rapid City : 35 km - 25mn
- Jewel Cave : Superbes grottes.
- Crazy Horse Memorial : sculpture 170 m ht
- Harney Peak : 2207 m belle vue
- Keystone: mine d’or Big Thunder gold mine
- Mont Rushmore
- Rockerville: cite fantome
- nuit vers Rapid City
J8: Rockerville
Rockerville - Deadwood : 78km - 1h
Deadwood - Spearfish : 26km - 25mn
Spearfish - Devil’s tower : 100km - 1h15mn
- Deadwood : Mt Moriah cimitierre Calamity Jane.
- Lead : station ski. + importante mine d’or (Black Hills mining museum)
- Spearfish : paysages magnifiques ballades dans les black Hills.
- Devil’s tower
J9: Devil Tower
Devil Tower - Buffalo : 200km - 2h30
Buffalo - Worland - Thermopolis - Cody : 330 km - 4h10
ou Buffalo - Sheridan - Cody : 294 km - 3h30 - WY 120
- Cody: - 85 km O. US 14-16-20
- plain Indian Museum (superbe !), Old Trail Town (3km O. sur Yellowstone Rd)
- Thermopolis: belle region de canyons, Hot Spring State Park (+ grande source thermale)
- Boysen state park - nuit a Cody
J10 Cody
Cody- Tower Jct - Billings : 430kms - 5h
dernier jour dans le Yellowstone avec de la neige !
- nuit à Billings puis retour en France.
Liens
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/1407/whattosee.html : page perso sur le Yellowstone
http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/ : Site du Parc du Yellowstone