There are four fires in Yellowstone, one in the Grand Tetons has several campgrounds closed as well as the southern entrance to Yellowstone. At the West Entrance two fires threatened road closure which made Mom a bit uncomfortable, but nonetheless we checked in! Mom will take the story from here!
Our first afternoon we went to the Visitor's Center in downtown West Yellowstone. A cute town that the girls must visit! We saw the movie Yellowstone at the IMAX and purchased tickets for two more movies. The Rangers didn't have a lot of new information about the fires so we planned on a 7:00am start!
As we left the rv park, the smell of smoke was pretty strong! Not long into the West entrance of YNP we saw 12 elk!
And big Granddaddy looking over his court!
Just down the road this lone bull bison marched down the highway! Soon we saw 3 more!
Our first stop was Fountain Paint Pot where heat, volcanic rock and gases, and minerals make for such unusual thermal pots. The Upper Geyser Basin's concentration of hydrothermal features provides clear evidence of Yellowstone's volcanic past with 3 major eruptions over the past 2M years. The volcano is still active and magma may be as close as 3-5 mi underground. Hot water rises through the surface to produce geysers and hot springs. At times the pungent smell of sulfur was overwhelming!
Next we stopped at the Old Faithful Visitor Center for a quick movie and then outside for the most reliable geyser and certainly most famous! Old Faithful, the first named geyser in 1870, came almost on the ranger predicted schedule and lasted for 4 min. It's height ranges from 105-185 ft, not the tallest in the park, but with displays every hour or so, everyone gets to experience it!
Next we hiked 6 miles of geysers and thermals of all shapes and sizes, here are a few...
Along the way we saw evidence of other wildlife but this young eagle was all we laid eyes on!
We decided to see one more geyser, Daisy at 75 ft, it was 30 min late but was a good one!
On the way home, who did we see...Mr Grandaddy again!
If we weren't getting up at 5:30am we'd go hunt a pretty sunset...for now the clouds will have to do!
Day 2 was another 7:00 a.m. start and we soon were seeing over a dozen elk!
We headed up toward Norris Geyser Basin and Mammoth Hot Springs. It was a chilly 29 degrees! Our first stop was Gibbons Falls...
The cold temperatures created lots of steam as we saw Norris Geysers in the distance...
We decided to head up to Mammoth and visit Norris later, along the way, a lone bull bison passed us! We later learned that because it is bison mating season they were all located together up at Hayden and Lamar Valleys, explaining the absence of them all over the rest of the park compared to last time. We will head up there later in the week!
Mammoth Falls weren't too remarkable but worth a quick snap!
Mammoth has a network of fractures and fissures that create the space for hot water underground to reach the surface, seeping out carrying minerals with it to create unusual colors. Hot water mixes with carbon dioxide to make a weak carbonic acid and dissolves calcium carbonate in the limestone rock. Where the heat comes from isn't clear, two theories are the large magma chamber under the Yellowstone Caldera or a smaller heat source closer to Mammoth. The result is travertine, the rock that forms the terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs.
Vickie, Sharon, and I enjoyed the features and the easier hiking day than the day before!
As we headed up to the Visitor Center in Mammoth, our elk count for the day grew to 36!
While Finn stayed home, Cooper went on this road trip...and he met a Golden...also named Cooper!
After a great lunch and a bit of 100th National Park Anniversary shopping, we came home and Finn needed a little cuddle time!
Tomorrow we will sleep in, do a little shopping downtown and head out for evening wildlife hunt!
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