Yellowstone NP - The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

We moved on from Flagg Ranch in the Grand Tetons today up the road to Fishing Bridge Campground in Yellowstone, a grand total of 43 miles. We set up, had lunch and then made a few phone calls to catch up with some friends. Then headed on over to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to take the South Rim drive. We needed something that would fill half a day since that’s all we had today.

Nice drive but, we got caught in a bison jam when we drove through Hayden Valley, a prime spot to see bison. Now, it’s amazing, the prairie is hundreds of acres wide, is covered with lush grasses - just what bison love but - they seem to want to stand in the road. Of course, no one said they were the brightest bulb in the candelabra but, why choose a hard asphalt road over a lush soft prairie? Well, they do get lots more attention: cars screech to a halt, Rangers arrive in twos and threes, papparazzi cameras are popping - maybe the bison think this is a red carpet.

We stopped at the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Cauldron on our way to the Canyon. Ummm. Love the smell of sulphur and these two thermal features have the sulphur smell down pat. These two areas are not as pretty as some of the areas that we have seen but they more than make up for this in action. Before you even see this area you can hear it and smell it.

As Shakespeare put it:

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn, and caldron bubble

Although I didn’t see any

Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake.

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog

Some of the features sizzle like water hitting a hot griddle.

Others bubble like my oatmeal in the morning.

Still others boil continuously like a grease filled frypan.

Others just burp and belch steam. Here’s one across the river just steaming to beat the band all by itself.

But they all smell like rotten eggs, feel like a hot blast furnace and steam is rising constantly.

Don’t let anyone tell you that the earth is static, that it is constant and unchanging. Yellowstone NP shows us that the earth is dynamic, alive, active and ever changing and this thermal feature is the epitome of this. Nathaniel Langford, who was the first Superintendent of Yellowstone when it was created as the first National Park, said:

When Jim Bridger, one of the most famous mountain men said that Yellowstone was a place where you could see ‘Hell bubbling up’ he might have been talking about this area. Other early explorers called this area the ‘most repulsive and terrifying sight.’ The first Superintendent of Yellowstone called it ‘a seething bubbling mass of mud.’ With such features as Black Dragon’s Cauldron, Mud Volcano, Sour Lake, Dragon’s Mouth Spring, it’s living up to its names.

Whew, time for a beautiful viewpoint and Artists Point is just the place for this. A few miles north of the Cauldron area of Yellowstone is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Artists Point overlooks the lower falls of the Canyon. As we were driving down the road to the Point, we saw this small black bear heading further into the woods - probably further away from the crowds with cameras.

Some think that this is the place where Thomas Moran composed his famous painting featuring the falls. His paintings were one of the pieces of evidence that Congress used to declare Yellowstone a National Park.

These are the lower falls and aren’t they gorgeous?

I especially like all the colors on the cliff sides surrounding it.

One of those places where you could just sit and watch the water coming over the steep falls. We did this for a while. Looking down the other direction is also beautiful.

Time to be getting back to the RV. But, even though it was a short day, Yellowstone gave us its all.

Of course, we had another bison jam on the way. At least these bison weren’t on the road - but people screech to a halt, run out of their car with cameras just the same. This mother might be nursing but it doesn’t prevent that large bull from trying to attract her.

Here are two younger males joustling with each other over who is going to get the next female who passes by.

Forget those two young bucks, I think this guy will get her. Look at those delts, that commanding presense. Yep, he’s the one.

As soon as he strolled onto the stage, they skulked off.

Sometimes, I think people get a bit too close to the bison. The guidelines are that you should get no closer than 25 yards from most wildlife and no closer than 100 yards from bears. Actually bison, though they look ungainly and slow, can run at 30 mph.

Grand Tetons NP - Back to Yellowstone

We decided to head up north to Yellowstone for the day. There are so many things to see and do in Yellowstone that we thought we’d take an extra day up there. We planned on visiting the thermal features in West Thumb and then heading over towards the Old Faithful area to see some of the things we missed when we were over there last week.

On the way up we saw stopped at the Lewis Falls. These falls are near Lewis Lake named for Merriweather Lewis though he never came closer than 50 miles of Yellowstone. It was named by the 1872 Hayden expedition ‘in memory of that gallant explorer.’

West Thumb overlooks Yellowstone Lake, the biggest lake at this high elevation in North America. We only saw the ‘tiny’ bay called West Thumb here. Wait until we actually see the Lake itself. But, don’t even think about swimming here - the water is about 45 degrees, enough to numb your toes. The bay itself was caused by a volcano about 174,000 years ago. When the volcano caused the earth’s crust to collapse, this bay was formed. Some of the thermal features are actually under water until the late summer and fall when the water level has fallen. But, the water is so clear that we had no trouble seeing them.

One of the more interesting geysers is called Fishing Cone, The tale that was told by the fur trappers and mountain men was that they could toss their fishing line into the waters of the lake, catch a cutthroat trout, swing the fish over to the geyser and cook it in the hot waters there, without having to leave the spot. Maybe or maybe not. But there have been many fishermen who have tried to duplicate this. It was called ‘hook ‘em’ and cook em’. Many even brought their own chef’s hats and aprons to be photographed doing this. Unfortunately, some of them got injured straddling the geyser and with all the tramping around the geyser edges got damaged and the Rangers had to call off the trick.

As we were standing there looking at it, the older gentleman next to us was reminiscing and told us that there used to be a long fishing pier here and that he used to bring his boat here, put it in and leave his truck and trailer on the parking lot right in back of us. Well, there is no long pier now and right in back of us is geyser territory. Although, we could see some piers that probably used to hold up the dock. But, one of the things we’ve heard about Yellowstone is that change is continual, one geyser might go dormant for years and then spout, that springs went dry but that other springs appeared, that nothing is guaranteed to stay the same. And, in this case, it didn’t.

Here’s Abyss Pool which at 53’ is the deepest hot springs in the park. It used to erupt up to 90’ high but has fallen silent until recently when it has begun to spout again.

We finished up at West Thumb and then decided to head on over to the Old Faithful area. On our way we passed Isa Lake which is on the Continental Divide and drains into both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Backwards. Because of its placement on the Continental Divide, its east side drains in to the Pacific and the west side into the Atlantic. Pretty cute trick but then Yellowstone is known for cute tricks.

Our plan was to eat our lunch and watch Old Faithful go off, if we were lucky in our timing and then head on over to some other features. As we walked over towards Old Faithful, we could see that an eruption was imminent - the crowds had formed. Sure enough, we were in time to watch Old Faithful again. While it was going off, the wind changed directions and the people in the front benches got an up close and personal experience with Old Faithful. Boy, did they move fast. Cute.

Then we were off for the Fountain Paint Pot region. Here you can see the ‘mud’ just a bubbling and a gurgling away. Plopping away like boiling oatmeal. Sometimes it is really soupy and sometimes it is more gummy.

On one of the signs by these mud pots was this recipe:

We also saw a fumarole: not as pretty as the pools but just a-growling and spouting off.

Next we headed over to the Midway Geyser Basin where some of the largest thermal features are: the Grand Prismatic Spring which is 370’ in diameter and over 121’ in depth. I could only get a small bit of this with my camera, even with its wide angle lens. But, take it from me, it is gorgeous.

The colors come from the microorganisms called thermophiles which live in the bubbling water called ‘Mats’. They are thick, a 3” section of this mat can have more microorganisms than the number of people on Earth. But they are so colorful.

The other large thermal feature at Midway is Excelsior Geyser which is pretty quiet these days but instead pumps out 4000 gallons per minute which then run down the bank into the Firehole River and raise the temperature of the river 3 - 4 degrees.

We finally checked out Black Sand Basin where we saw Cliff Geyser just a going to town. Continuously erupting for about 5 minutes.

I liked Opalescent Pool. The dead trees around it indicate that this pool used to be larger.

Yellowstone is truly a treat for our senses. You can hear the rush of water escaping from the geysers and can hear the gurgling and bubbling of the mud pots and pools surrounding you. You can see the spectrum of colors emanating from the pools and the vivid colors of the bacteria mats. You can feel the steam as it swirls about you as you walk among the pools and the droplets of water when a geyser erupts. You can smell the pungent aroma of the sulphur most of the time you are walking around the area. Maybe that’s not a ‘treat for the senses’ but it does add to the other worldly atmosphere of Yellowstone.

Beautiful sights and we’ve seen a lot. but it’s about 8:00, we’re hungry, tired and it’s about 40 minutes at the earliest that we’d be getting back to the RV - only to have to cook and eat. Hmmm - how about a hamburg in the Snow Lodge Grill, Gar? He didn’t have to be asked twice and we were in line. Believe me when I tell you, this was nothing special. The fries had been tanning under the heat lamp for a while, the bun had been drying on the counter and the meat had never seen a grill. Where is In ’N’ Out when we need it? But it was food and that was what we needed.

Time to head home. Oh, no. How did we get in back of the guy who wanted to drive only 35 mph in the 45 mph zone? To drive the last 35 miles will take us an hour. Oh, swell. Home by 10:00.