PERU-BOLIVIA: 8th day

Yellowstone experience on a snowcoach

Let me start about the Yellowstone NP with some facts.
According to Wiki; Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km²), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years.Half of the world's geothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism. Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone. The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining, nearly intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone.

It has yearly 3million visitors only 100000 out of them in the winter season. The reason is that most of the roads are covered with snow and closed in the winter. The only possibility to get into the heart of the park is either to get on a snowmobile or a snowcoach.

From USA2012

I booked my trip on such a coach in the last minute, but it worthed every minute. It is a verry efficient means of transport doing 2-4 miles on a gallon fuel, meaning having a consumption of 60-120l on 100km!!! Nice ha?

I saw some nice wildlife like coyotes and bison. The second one is not only looking impressive but also tastes very well as I tried it the evening before. There are around 150 wolfs and more than 2500 bisons living in the park.

From USA2012

Head-and-body length of the bison ranges from 2 to 3.5 m (6.6 to 11.5 ft) long, the tail adding 30 to 91 cm (12 to 36 in). Shoulder height in the species can range from 152 to 186 cm (60 to 73 in). Typical weigh can range from 318 to 1,000 kg and they can be very angry....

From USA2012

Probably not so many pictures are taken about the two famous waterfalls of the park, the upper and the lower fals, wherein the taller one is 308 feet (94 m) high, or almost twice as high as Niagara.

From USA2012

Already mentioned the thermal activity in the park, which results not only in gejzers and hot springs but also creating very nice ice formations on the vegetation around. The so called rime frost is creating on the side of trees against the wind, wherein the steam coming from the gejzir is continously condensating and freasing. See some examples next;

From USA2012

normal frost is existing as well:)

From USA2012

The caldera of the vulcano of the last erruption is some 40kms in diameter and if there would be an erruption, which is anyway due in any minute (the last big one was 700000 years ago and the one before 1,4 million year ago), the size would be equivalent of 1000 times the size of the erruption of Mt S Helens a few decades ago.