Day 19: Idaho (september 22)

Una buena ducha, un buen desayuno y listos para nuestro siguiente destino: el parque nacional Yellowstone! La idea es acampar dentro del parque, aunque a mi la idea no me gusta demasiado, hay osos grizzlies que según dicen no son tan amigables como los osos negros :-(

A hot shower, a nice breakfast and we are ready to go to our next destination: Yellowstone National Park! The plan is to camp inside the park, although Idoia is not very fond of that idea since there are grizzlies in the park, and they are not as nice as black bears. 

Un pequeño detalle, como os habíamos comentado en el post anterior, lo vasco está presente: 

One small detail, as mentioned in the previous post, the basque influence in Elko is clear:

En nuestro camino a Yellowstone hicimos dos paradas en Idaho, gran descubrimiento! Las cascadas Shoshone y el parque de Craters of the moon (Cráteres de la luna). El paisaje de Idaho es mayormente plano con granjas a tutiplén y tierra bastante seca por la sequía, así que encontrarte de repente con acantilados y agua por todos lados es algo increíble.

On the way to Yellowstone, we decided we would make a few stops in Idaho. What a great idea it was! We stopped at the Shoshone Falls and at Craters of the Moon National Park. The landscape in Idaho was at first similar to the midwest, and pretty dry from the drought they are experiencing. But then all of a sudden you run into canyons, rivers and mountains, completely unexpected for me, as in my ignorance I assumed Idaho would be pretty boring.

La primera parada, las cascadas de Shoshone, conocidas como las Niágara del oeste. La pena es que por la fecha que es y la sequía que están sufriendo aquí, las cataratas estaban bastante secas. A pesar de eso, nos encantaron, así que no descartamos volver en primavera. 

The first stop, as mentioned above, was Shoshone Falls. It is known as the Niagara Falls of the west, and it did not disappoint. Unfortunately, the falls were pretty dry (due to the time of year and the drought) but it was still fantastic. Definitely a trip we would like to do again come springtime.

Como ya indicaba el cartel de la entrada, estaban bastante secas.

Compramos esta postal como recordatoria para volver en primavera / We bought this postcard as a reminder to come back in the spring

De ahí partimos al parque Craters of the moon, otro cambio de paisaje importante! Debido a la hora que era ya, tomamos la decisión de acampar en el mismo parque. Se trata de un parque pequeñito con una carretera circular en la que te bajas del coche en los puntos indicados para dar pequeños paseos. Nos recordó mucho al parque de los Arcos naturales en Utah por ser un parque pequeño con todo super bien indicado y de una belleza totalmente inesperada.

The next stop on our trip was Craters of the Moon, another huge change in scenery. We arrived there after the visitor center closed, at about 5 PM. Since we still had another 3 hours until Yellowstone, and we wanted so spend at least a few hours seeing the park, we decided to camp at Craters of the Moon. The park itself was amazing. We were so happy to decide to stay there. It is entirely formed by lava, with black rocks and sand everywhere. The park itself is pretty small, with a loop which wraps around the park by car, and several little stops on the way. It was exciting to camp with such a unique scenery!

Así que nada, elegimos una parcela y nos dispusimos a montar la tienda, todo un reto porque hacia un viento infernal.

Setting up the tent was difficult since there were extremely high winds, but we managed to keep it down with the help of several lava rocks.

Ya con la tienda montada, fuimos a investigar un poco el parque... Nos dio tiempo a recorrer todo el parque en coche y pararnos en los puntos indicados. Había varias cuevas que ver, pero se necesitaba un permiso, así que pensamos en levantarnos pronto para hacerlo por la mañana. 

Once we set up the tent, we went to check out the park before sunset. We had just enough time to check out all of the different stops, with the exception of the caves. In any case, to enter the caves you need a special permit, so we figured we would give the caves a try the following day before heading out.

Durante casi todo el trayecto nos pareció que el cielo estaba de un azul precioso, suponemos que por el contraste del amarillo de los campos y luego el negro de la lava del parque. Y ya cuando vimos el atardecer con esos colores nos pareció uno de los atardeceres más bonitos de todo el viaje, las fotos no le hacen justicia. Recomendamos este parque, sin lugar a dudas, si algún día os pasáis por esta zona.

The sun setting over the mountains and black landscape was just beautiful. The pictures do not do it justice, but it was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. On that note, we HIGHLY recommend visiting this park if you are every in the area. A jewel in Idaho for sure!