Yellowstone - Day 3

Today was our last day at Yellowstone. We slept in, packed up the car, and were off to enjoy our final day.

We stopped in town and got some last minute t-shirts. Got our mochas to warm up...it was only about 50 degrees. And then we made our bear statue visits to add to our collection of Todd/Bear photos. (photo)

We entered the Park from West Yellowstone, then went north at Madison Junction again. We decided to do a middle loop, see some of the east side of the Park and then head south. We stopped at Canyon at the Upper Falls View. This is the other side of the river from where we stopped previously. You could see the headwaters and the top of the falls. (photo)

Heading southeast from Canyon to Fishing Bridge, the Park takes on a totally different look. Its just rolling hills of plains...and lots of bison. We stopped at Sulphur Caldron...a quick stop. This place is aptly named...it smelled worse than any of the other places in the Park. Its a large mud pot full of sulfuric acid that reeks!

Mud Volcano was the next viewing area. We stopped and walked the boardwalk loop and saw mud pots, fumaroles, and sprngs. There were two pretty cool features here. One was the Churning Caldron. It is a continuous bubbling mud pot that steams and creates a "beach" of sulfuric acid. The second feature was Dragon Mouth's Spring. (photo) This is a spring that comes out of the hillside from a rock cave. As the water and steam come out of the rock cave, it makes a roaring sound that reminds you of a dragon.

We continued east and then south. We drove over Fishing Bridge - nothing exciting. We continued south along the west side of Yellowstone Lake. We stopped along the lakeside and had some lunch.

The last geyser basin that we visited before we headed out of the Park was West Thumb Geyser Basin. This basin has a two loop boardwalk right along the edge of Yellowstone Lake. Black Pool was probably the most interesting site here. Its a large, turquoise pool right by the Lake. It was pretty cold and the wind was blowing...so standing by Black Pool and enjoying the warm, humid steam was a nice. (photo) As we were heading out, there was a crowd watching the middle of the boardwalk. A large, male elk had climbed into the center area and was center stage for everyone to take photos. (photo)

We left the Park at the South Entrance and went into Grand Teton National Park (next blog).