Your Japanese word of the week is...

"fuukei" 風景 which means "scenery" or "landscape" which, of course, is a major focal point of the 1-week road trip I took to Yellowstone with my parents.

The 8-day trip took us from Vancouver through to Coeur d'Alene, West Yellowstone, inside Yellowstone, Livingston, Hungry Horse, Pincher Creek, Grand Forks, and then back home for a grand total of 3500km.  The driving, overall, wasn't too bad.  Past Seattle the traffic really thins out and you spend a lot of the four-lane highway by yourself with a fair bit of space around you.  There are some really fun windy roads on the way back through the Rockies but overall, just a nice, calm, quiet cruise through the north western US.

Nice, calm, and quiet thanks in no small part to the car.  Here it is at the north entrance of Yellowstone.

Travelling was Days 1 and 2.  For Days 3 and 4 we were actually inside the parking and that's where the real landscape viewing begins.  The park is almost unfathomably large and different areas actually look different.  As in, you could be driving through a forest and come out onto a huge plains area...  it really is that big.  And that pretty too...

One of the first stops if you enter from the west entrance are these basins of hot water, this one being the "Sapphire Pool".  There are actually quite a few basins in the area and they all look somewhat similar with different colours for each.

A bit further down, of course, is Old Faithful.  We actually skipped a few sights just to be sure we could see Old Faithful blow and then went back to see the ones we missed.  If I'm honest, all that "hurry up and wait" hyped it up to the point that when the water did flow, I was a bit cynical about it all.  That's not to say Old Faithful isn't great to watch because it is.  It's just that we skipped over some equally nice stops to see it.  And we were lucky we had time to go back but some people might not...

Sights like these thermal pools.  Looks of bacteria that thrive on the high temperatures live here and they give the pools and runoffs these colours.  Again, very pretty and entirely possible that, because of how close they are to Old Faithful, some people would skip it.  If you go, make sure to stop by these basins because they're worth your while.

And no trip to Yellowstone is complete without buffalo.  These are easy to spot- just watch for the crowds of people pulled over on the side of the road.  This one was a particularly huge traffic jam and so we jumped out and caught a herd swimming across the stream.  And for what people say about them being scary up close, they actually are.  I'm not sure if it's the cold, beady eyes or the fear of them charging, but as soon as they climbed up the banks, people started running haha...

There's also the Mammoth Terraces where years of calcium carbonate deposits have left the landscape mostly devoid of colour.  Even these dead trees stand in stark contrast to the paleness around them.

On leaving Yellowstone, we drove north towards Alberta and crossed Glacier National Park along the way.  Compared to Yellowstone it's not nearly as large or spectacular, but certain places (like the pine forest) are amazing at the right time.  And for all that Yellowstone is large and rather obvious about its sights, Glacier is a bit more subtle and takes a moment to be appreciate.  Such as this view of a lake just after a rainstorm.

And Glacier's not short on wildlife either...

Near Cranbrook is an old heritage town called Fort Steele.  If you like that kind of stuff, it's worth stopping by.  All the people are dress up and there are horse carriage rides and performances throughout the day.

We also stopped in Osoyoos on the way back, although this picture is still from Fort Steele.

Anyways, the trip was a nice way to cap of the one year I spent at UBC.  I'm all finished now so the next challenge is to find some work and put these new skills to use.

And Pacific Spirit Wado Kai, which starts again on Sept 14th.  We've got loads planned including new classes, new events, and a new Pacific Spirit blog.  Stay tuned for that!