So starts the events of our trip...
Today was our first day at Yellowstone Park. We awoke to a chilly morning; it was quite a shock to have such cold weather, since it has been so nice back in Washington. We drove around to find the corner espresso stand, so we could start our day out in proper Washington fashion with our coffee to go (or Chai tea in my case).
We entered the Park from West Yellowstone in Montana and quickly passed the small, wooden park sign that says 'Entering Wyoming'. We followed the main road to Madison where we got our first wildlife sighting, a coyote. At Madison junction, we decided to head north and do the 'north loop' for the day.
Our sites and photos of the day started with Gibbon Falls, a wide flowing falls right along the main road (photo).
We then stopped at the Artists Paintpots. This is a short walk and then boardwalk around some mud pots.
We then continued our drive north to the Norris Geyser Basin. This is a great spot with a number of walking loop boardwalks and trails through a number of hydrothermal features - vents, hot rivers of water, geysers, etc. We did one of the loops where we enjoyed the warmth of the steam and the smell of the sulfur. We also encountered 'geyser spit' as we walked closely alongside one of the steaming geysers. We then took a short trail to two more geysers. The Steamboat Geyser put on a small show with 3-8 feet water spouts. After an hour or so there, it was back to heading north (photo).
Along the road, we enjoyed the scenery of the Park. We took a quick photo of Roaring Mountain, and a number of bison along the roadside. We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs and had a quick bite to eat...we were starving after all the stops, walks, and photo shoots.
Mammoth Hot Springs have pretty much dried up, only two of the 'steps' still had water running. However, the 'white steps' are still intriguing to see (photo). There were lots of elk in the town area of Mammoth, including a large male that had maybe 10 points (I think that's how its said). We headed east to continue on the loop. First stop along here was Undine Falls. We followed the road to Tower, where we stopped at an overlook of Tower Fall. This is a small waterfall with some great rock features/spires alongside it. In this same area is Calcite Spring, which is a large calcite hill alongside a beautiful river.
We then headed south, and stopped to take photos of a bull moose alongside the road. He was laying down in the woods just relaxing, but we were able to get some decent photos. I had hoped to see a moose...so this was great. He was laying down, so we did not get to see his height, but it was amazing to see him out in the wild. Next stop was Canyon Village. We had hoped to take the Canyon Loop down to Inspiration Point, but the road is closed for construction. So...we continued south across the Yellowstone River for a different view of the 'yellowstone grand canyon'. We took a side road along the River to Artist Point. There is a lookout here to see Lower Falls. There were a ton of people here, so we took some photos and went back to the road to head to Upper Falls.
We parked at the Upper Falls lot and there were two overlooks to get some photos, then we decided to take the South Rim Trail for a walk down to the falls. What we found was Tom's Trail. This is a steep trail that heads down towards the river. Eventually, you are walking on steel grate steps down, down, down (~325 steps) to an amazing overlook of the Lower Falls. It was worth the hike...the water spray created a great rainbow, the falls are a deep green right were they start to fall, and the rock hillside showed various colors - white, yellow, red. A wonderful sight!
It was starting to get late in the day...so we headed west toward town. We saw a number of bison and elk on the way back. It was dinner in town, buffalo steak and potato, and another night in West Yellowstone.
2 comments:
Looks like a fun start to the trip!
Your site brought back lots of fond memories from my trip to Yellowstone. It was awesome to get so close to the bison and elk. I also saw a brown bear and her 2 cubs, what a traffic jam!!! I remember the smells from the geysers, something that can really get strong. Once I saw turquoise steam from a blue and red pool!! My trips were in late June, so it was not as cold as you had it. What a great trip, I hope to read of your further adventures.
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