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FALL 2018 ISSUE 02 / VOL . 03
The high plains of Grand Teton National Park are famously celebrated in song —“ Where the deer and the antelope play .”
Norris is less visited than its sisters to the south , but is every bit as spectacular . With no company save the cheerfully erupting geysers , I followed a boardwalk out past the Ledge Geyser to reach some algae-laden streams colored the same bright green hue as a blackjack table . I passed a noisily bubbling pond aptly named Crackling Lake , and went the long way round to reach Little Whirligig , the cutest miniature geyser around .
My next stop on the Yellowstone circuit was the obligatory gawk at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River . I rode along a one-way road , parking my bike in a nearly empty lot to walk to Grandview Point . The canyon always looks stunning , but slightly illusory . How could those colors be real ?
Restless , like a gambler on a losing streak , I felt an urgent need to move on . The lower geyser basins were calling and I could deny them no longer .
Old Faithful was gushing as I rolled off the cloverleaf at the most famous attraction in Yellowstone . But there are other geysers more faithful than Faithful , bigger , more frequent , so I didn ’ t bother to wait for it to go again . Instead I wolfed down an Old Faithful Inn chicken burger and headed north , betting on the come that I would catch an eruption of one of the less famous ( and less crowded ) geysers .