Yellowstone, Wyoming
Thursday, September 15, 2005
We had originally booked four nights in Yellowstone National Park but after two nights we checked out early. We were at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and were so disappointed in the accommodations and mostly the food options that we left. Ok, so you have the magnificent scenery and geysers and mud pits, etc. And buffalos, antelope and bears. But you also have tour buses, crowds, traffic, etc. The hotels are expensive and run down. And the food service is atrocious. Xanterra, a big corporation, seems to have a lock hold on a lot of the US National Parks concessions and they do a miserable job. We realize that it is hard to work with an inexperienced and highly seasonal staff and you have to truck stuff in, but PLEEZE, it is not all that remote. The big problem is that they try to do the fancy stuff in the lodge restaurants and it is all portion control, microwave, and goopy--totally inedible. How hard would it be to do simple grilled stuff? The average chain restaurant does a better job. If you can get off the beaten path in Yellowstone, or go in the winter it can be magnificent but if you are the kind to stay on the more established trails, then a couple days are probably just fine.
And don't forget that off the beaten path you need to deal with the bears. When I was last there, as a child, the bears were allowed / lured to come roadside and raid camp grounds and try to get food from the cars. These days they are in the more remote areas but they are still there. And the buffalos--are everywhere. They and the elk can be feisty in mating season and we saw a lot of folks acting stupid about proximity trying to get that perfect photo.
So much for Yellowstone. On to the Grand Tetons.
