Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park / Sunday, August 9, 2009 -- We put 250 miles on the Jeep over the last two days. Yellowstone is an amazing place with vast expanses of dense forests, lush green valleys, high mountain plateaus, mighty rivers, cascading waterfalls, the giant caldera where geothermal action produces geysers, pools of steaming water with brilliant colors, and abundant wildlife.
On Sunday, we toured primarily the northern section. Heading in from the west entrance, we drove to the Norris campground where there is Ranger Museum to get a map. Then we backtracked a little and headed towards the Dunraven pass at 8,859 ft. At the top of the pass is Mount Washburn. We started up the trail to the top where it rises 1,200+ feet in 3 miles but quickly decided that it was not a good idea given our physical conditions :) . The views even from where we were are amazing. It was clear enough to see the peaks of the Grand Teton National Park and the entire Caldera region of YNP.
Continuing down the other side of the pass we observed parts of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, saw Tower Falls which is part of a smaller tributary stream feeding into the giant Yellowstone River. We miscalculated our route and missed seeing the famous Upper Falls of the Grand Canyon on this trip. Yet another excuse to come back another time!
The Lamar Valley was next. This is where the bison are. We saw herds of them relaxing along the river with a few somewhat close to the road, however none were close enough for prize-winning photographs with our 50mm lens. Better luck next time. We continued up the valley towards the northeast entrance to the park where we stopped for quick lunch before turning around. This end of the park heads towards majestic mountain peaks and is probably the least populated section of the park because it is so remote.
Near the north entrance to the park is the Mammoth Hot Springs and Park Headquarters. We checked out the Terraces there which were quite inactive from what I remember as a child. Much of the mound of built up mineral pools is dry now with only a small portion still active.
We were pretty pooped by this time and we pointed the Jeep back towards Norris and the Madison Junction and home.
Monday, August 10, 2009 -- Our second day in Yellowstone didn't start until almost 3:00 PM. We were just going to see Old Faithful and make a short day of it, but it didn't end up that way at all. As we headed for the Old Faithful area, we took in many of the side roads including Firehole Canyon drive, where the Firehole River goes down a series of cascades. Very impressive.
Then we stopped at the Lower and Midway Geyser basins and did the walking tours along the wooden paths. We got some good pictures on the Midway Basin with two posted shots of the Grand Prismatic Spring to Weather Underground getting ratings of 9 out of 10.
We had lunch at Old Faithful and then watched the geyser erupt, on schedule. Always a kick to watch.
Rather than turning back as planned, we continued east towards the huge and beautiful Yellowstone Lake and then headed northbound along the Yellowstone River and into the Hayden Valley where we saw some more bison. Along this route we also got some shots of deer and elk. Although we were in prime bear country, we never saw any bear.
Back at Canyon Village, we turned west towards Norris again and then home along the section of road which is under heavy construction. It was 9:15 PM and the road closes nightly at 10PM. We got stuck for about 20 minutes with about 100 other vehicles, waiting for the crew to flag us through.
Tomorrow, we head through the park a final time, this time in the motorhome with the Jeep in tow. Our next destination is Cody, Wyoming which is about 100 miles from our current location in West Yellowstone, Montana. The shortest route is directly through YNP.