Our fascination towards visiting National Parks continued as we continued our journey to the nearby Mount Teton National Park in the neighborhood snaking through the topsy turby mountain roads. On the way we stopped by the sparkling blue and beautiful Lake Lewis. The Chinese leader Mao famously said "Let thousand flowers bloom". If he saw this lake in Yellowstone looking at its surface he would have said - "Let thousand stars glow".
The song "America, the Beautiful" echoes a lot after visiting Yellowstone. I would count it as one of the prettiest on earth. On our way to Mammoth Springs inside the Park we stopped by at Gibbon waterfall. It is a relatively small Waterfall with waves of water gurgling down the hill forming a stream into the Yellowstone river traveling to an unknown destination. I couldn't stop remembering the following Mukesh number from Sanjeev Kumar's movie "ANOKHI RASTA"..
"TAAL MILE NADI KE JAL MEIN,
NADI MILE SAGAR SE .
SAGAR MILE KAUNSI JALME,
KOI JAANENA".
Transliterated,
"Spring falls into river,
River goes into the sea.
To which water the sea merges into,
No one ever knows, ever sees".
We came across a lot of flora and fauna. The entire Yellowstone is filled with Pine trees, but they are smaller in size compared to those we see in Georgia which are taller, larger and bushier. We saw a big family of Bisons nonchalantly munching grass. The head of the family, a big burly bull Bison with balls size of coconut swinging like a pendulum behind him was blocking the road with the stranded motorists taking pictures of him. The Bull Bison who must have fathered several bastards all his life stood like a champion, remaining unmoved, then melted away after having the fill of his photos taken. We saw couple of Elks munching foliage and a Coyote pooping close to a pool formed by a hot spring. I am so jealous of the animals in the wild. They lead a wild life without stress. They just eat shit and fornicate without bothering about life's blues.
At Mammoth Spring we saw sputtering water heated by underground Geothermal power of volcanic lava perennially constipated. The water of the hot spring seemed to be boiling enormous amount of bluish white sapphires eager to blurt out to open in quest of freedom. The water rolled down the walls of huge reddish-yellow walls of stones creating a spectacular view to capture in mind and camera.
The highlight of our trip was the helicopter ride which enabled us to have an Eagle's eye view of the Yellowstone river snaking through and the enormous number of dwarfish pine trees pointing their arrow like green needles to us above 800 feet up in the air. The snow clad mountains were basking under summer sky with white, fleecy clouds trying to kiss them. The clouds of smoke emanating from the numerous geysers and hot springs gave a mystic hue to the horizon.
Heard a new word "Tourons", which means tourists who are morons. No long ago a drunk touron picked up a fight with a Bison and was saved from being gored by an alert Park Rangers. Another came accompanied by a chicken and tried to cook it inside one of the steaming hot pools, only to be fined $200 by the Park authorities. He could have given it to me and I could have gladly cooked him a nice chicken dinner for half the price of the finest. A lady once came with detergents and tried to give her cloths a hot wash before the bystanders reported her to the authorities. Moral of the story - "Don't wash your dirty laundry in public".
It was our last day well spent at Yellowstone Park. We added 4 new states to our kitty. Now we have covered 47 states in the USA. Only states left to visit in America are North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. Now happy to get back to my the lap of my home state of Georgia, to its sweltering heat and humidity.
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