Autumn's fireworks ... Old Faithful.Credit: AFP
Amid grizzlies, grazing moose and mating elk, Susan Gough Henly explores the Wyoming wilderness.
YELLOWSTONE and Grand Teton national parks are among the most iconic regions of the American Rockies, whose key attractions of geysers and grizzly bears, elk and moose, mountain lakes and soaring peaks are so popular that millions of people visit during the summer months of June to August, clogging the roads with cars and campervans.
Visit in the autumn, however, and you avoid the crowds and are treated to hillsides splashed with crimson mountain laurel, golden aspen trees quivering in the cool breeze and bold green conifers. And that's not all.
Autumn is elk-mating season, when bull braying resounds through the forest and bulls round up harems of cows, often close to settlements where the grass is sweet. Grizzlies, wolves, coyotes and bison are also visible, stocking up on food for the winter ahead.
While most visitors seem content to drive from one viewpoint to the next, by far the best way to enjoy this landscape is to get out of your car and into the wilderness in the company of knowledgeable guides.
We begin our adventure in Jackson Hole, named in 1829 after fur trapper David Jackson. As with his compatriots, he called the deep valleys rimmed by high mountains "holes". Jackson was his favourite place to "hole up". Today, Jackson Hole is a US version of New Zealand's Queenstown: an adrenalin hub for hiking, rafting, climbing, fly-fishing, horse riding and snow sports. Arches of elk antlers adorn the central square, the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar has cowboy saddles for bar stools, while a slew of high-end resorts and restaurants cocoon the well heeled.
We stay at the eco-style Hotel Terra in nearby Teton Village. The Terra is serious about its environmental standards, with recycled steel, recycled roof shingles, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems and organic products used throughout the hotel. Its restaurant, the Osteria, offers sparkling fresh Italian cuisine with a deft touch.
We take a guided hike through golden aspen groves to Ski Lake in the Bridger-Teton National Forest with naturalist guide Jill LeBlanc, from Hole Hiking Experience. She introduces us to the remarkable natural history of the region, explaining how aspens reproduce by cloning so that all trees in aspen groves look alike; which plants bears eat for various nutrients; and how moose have adapted to survive without hibernation during winter.
North of Jackson lie the Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, which straddle quite distinctive landscapes. The Grand Tetons (loosely translated as "the huge tits"), were named by a French fur trapper for obvious reasons. The youngest range in the Rockies, the Grand Tetons thrust 2000 metres off the valley floor without any foothills.
The 9000-square-kilometre Yellowstone National Park, by comparison, is home to half the Earth's geothermal features, such as geysers, hot springs and fumaroles. The world's first national park, created in 1872, it sits high on the 2500-metre Yellowstone Plateau.
The uber-wealthy Rockefeller family is intimately connected to the Grand Teton National Park, having bought up thousands of parcels of ranch land last century to create the park. The last Rockefeller donation, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve, was officially opened in 2008. We visit its state-of-the-art visitors centre and enjoy a circuit trail to Phelps Lake, listening to the sounds of elk bulls at dusk.
We also marvel at moose and elk along the roadside between the preserve and Jenny Lake to the north as we drive towards Yellowstone National Park.
In the wetter south-west section of Yellowstone, where the largest lakes are found and the rolling hillsides are covered in lodgepole pine, we take a two-day kayak trip with Jeff Palmer, of Snake River Kayak and Canoe, who offers fascinating insights about the back country as well as the latest kayaks, wet-weather gear and camping equipment.
We kayak in a swirling fog across Lewis Lake to the eerie sounds of elk bulls bugling and the high-pitched calls of cows. The sun breaks through the clouds as we stop for a picnic on golden grassland alongside the river that joins Lewis Lake with Shoshone Lake, the largest back-country lake in the lower 48 states of the US.
Fortified with chocolate and tea, we reach our spectacular campsite on a beach of obsidian pebbles rimmed with red vine maple bushes.
The Shoshone Indians used to make spearheads from the super-hard obsidian and, no doubt, drank sweet water from the nearby spring, just as we do. Over a hearty spaghetti dinner, we watch the sun go down and marvel at a landscape unchanged in 5000 years, as Jeff explains that this is the largest northern temperate ecosystem left on Earth.
Millions of stars illuminate the night sky. The next morning, we can hardly believe that snow is falling. That's autumn in Yellowstone for you. It melts by the time we have finished our steaming oatmeal and packed the kayaks.
Our final base of adventure is the Lodge at Mammoth Hot Springs in the heart of the Fort Yellowstone historic district near the park's northern entrance. An alpha male bull elk, with an enormous brace of antlers, has rounded up his harem to camp on the juicy grass beneath our bedroom window so we have dress-circle seats to view their mating rituals.
Northern Yellowstone is drier than the south, with yellow rocky canyons, open meadows and a diverse forest of spruce, Douglas fir and aspen. We join 10 other adventurers on one of Yellowstone Association Institute's trails, exploring the park's geology, flora and fauna on guided hikes and driving trips. Shauna Baron, our able guide, has spent the past few seasons studying the park's newly reintroduced wolf packs and she is a wealth of information on wolf cubs, elk, bison, pronghorn sheep and moose.
On our first day, Shauna takes us on a spectacular hike in the northern ranges through the wide open meadows of Snow Pass, where we hear coyotes calling from golden aspen groves. We then walk through a conifer forest alongside an 1880s horse-drawn wagon trail. Finally we descend through a geothermal area, with its ancient juniper trees and huge white-and-golden mounds of still-growing travertine limestone formed by minerals from the hot springs deep in the earth's surface.
At dusk we hop in a mini bus to explore the wildlife-rich Lamar Valley. Armed with telescopes and Shauna's superior knowledge, we discover three wolf pups, a large male grizzly bear, a bull elk and his harem atop an exposed cliff, coyotes and herds of bison right on the road and a young bull moose drinking at a nearby pond.
Over the next three days Shauna explains the remarkable geothermal activity in this, the world's largest super volcano. We visit Norris Geyser Basin, home of the tallest active geyser on Earth. We trek along the shore of the magnificent Yellowstone Lake, with views all the way to the Grand Tetons, and hike the Midway Geyser Basin, enjoying the splendour of the massive 100-metre-wide Grand Prismatic Spring.
Of course no visit is complete without seeing Yellowstone's famous geyser, Old Faithful, which erupts every 90 minutes or so and shoots thousands of litres of boiling water about 40 metres in the air. The best viewpoint is the deck of the Old Faithful Inn, a National Historic Landmark and one of the few remaining log hotels in the US.
The Rockies are about nature on a grand scale - the geysers, the mountains, the animals, even the rough-hewn lodges all feel somehow larger than life. People gather to marvel at such majesty but crowds can diminish the experience. Fortunately there are plenty of opportunities to slip away. On our last day we do just that.
At the 45th parallel, halfway between the equator and the North Pole, we had heard whispers of natural hot springs that mix with the waters of the Boiling River. No road signs, no crowds. We wander down to the pools created simply with piles of river rocks and jump in. What better way to say goodbye to the wilderness.
Trip notes
Getting there
Qantas, United Airlines and V Australia fly to Los Angeles, with connecting flights to Jackson Hole. 133 133, flightcentre.com.au.
Staying there
Hotel Terra Jackson Hole has rooms priced from $US229 ($250) a night. +1 307 739 4000, hotelterrajacksonhole.com.
For accommodation in Yellowstone National Park: travelyellowstone.com.
For accommodation in Grand Teton National Park: nationalparkreservations.com/grandteton.htm.
Touring there
Hole Hiking Experience offers guided tours ranging from four hours to all-day trips. +1 307 690 4453, holehike.com.
Snake River Kayak and Canoe's two-day trips are priced from $400 a person. +1 307 733 9999, snakeriverkayak.com.
The Yellowstone Association hosts five-night "lodging and learning" tours, from $2485 a person. +1 406 848 2400, yellowstoneassociation.org
Further information
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