Day 2 in Yellowstone

July 21 -  We headed out for Yellowstone at 8.  We wanted to beat the rush at the gate.  We took a new route today.  We still had to go the same way for the first 14 miles into the park, then we turned and headed north.  There’s a lot less traffic in that direction than heading to Old Faithful. 

Norris Geyser Basin

Gibbon Falls

The first stop was Gibbon Falls on the Gibbon River.  It was a beautiful waterfall in a colorful rocky valley.    A little further up the road we stopped at the Norris Geyser Basin where there is a small museum and information station manned by a ranger.  There’s a big walkway you can go all around the basin.  The one right in front of the building was really spewing some steam and lots of smaller ones up close.  Bill walked part of the way down.

A couple of miles up the road is the Museum of the National Park Ranger.  It’s manned by a former ranger who works there each summer.  The building was built as a barracks for when the Army was patrolling the park.  It has a beautiful huge fireplace and a small kitchen and the rest are barracks rooms.  They have a couple of good movies showing on the history of the national parks.

Virginia Cascade

From there we proceeded to the Virginia Cascade.  It is further north on the Gibbon River where the water flows over a flat expanse of rock rather than a sharp drop as in a waterfall.  From the distance it’s difficult to see that it is all rock all of the way down.

The traffic on this route has been wonderful in comparison to what it was on our last visit.  We were told that attendance for Yellowstone is up 17% over last year for July.

At Canyon Village we went to the Visitor Education Center and checked out some of the gift shops.  We found the pricing better here than at Old Faithful for the same items. 

From Canyon Village we were headed to the North Rim Drive to see the Lower Falls of

Traffic stopper!

the

Lower Falls

Yellowstone River when I saw a lady along a pull out and then I saw a buffalo on the ridge to our right.  I told Bill to pull over, pull over and he thought something was wrong until I pointed to the buffalo.  We got out to video and take photos and Bill thanked the lady for stopping to see the buffalo and she looked and said she hadn’t even noticed it.  Then she got out her camera and then all the traffic started jamming up along the road, all thanks to me and my keen spotting!

Frontal view of Lower
Falls

We proceeded to the turnoff for the North Rim Drive and it was a one way road with very

What a crack!

little parking at the 2 viewing points.  The falls were beautiful and the valley below spectacular.  If you were energetic enough you could walk down a mile of trail for a really close up view but we passed on that.  Instead I decided to get a different photo of a crack!  Bill could not believe I did it, and I swear it was the first time but I had that little devil on my shoulder telling me to do it, so I did!

The loop took us back to Canyon Village and we were due for lunch before the crowds got any worse.  The cafeteria was not as large as Old Faithful but the food was very good.  I had another Noodle bowl with lime cilantro and Bill had a Bison sloppy Joe. 

Upper FAlls

Time to head out for the South Rim Drive to see the Upper Falls!

Valley wall

  Now those were even better and we had heard they were.  We were a good distance away but the falls were so majestic and we could see them spill right in to the river and its flow through the valley.  The rock color here is where the name “Yellowstone” came from.  The Native Americans used the name long before it was a park.  The walls of the canyon above the river are mostly yellow but some are more oranges and rusts from iron oxide.  There were some spoiled chipmunks running around looking for dropped bits of people food.  I think they would make great pets.

Some of the herd

As we drove through Hayden Valley we were able to see

The loner!

herds of buffalo on both sides of the road.  At first they were pretty far off, but as we got further into the valley some were much closer to the road.  Bill never got out of the car but I did.  I was careful not to go more than 6-8 feet from the car even though they weren’t right by the road.  I have been told repeatedly what a buffalo can do to a person and I didn’t want to have that experience.  I’m a risk taker, but I’m not stupid!

Once passed the buffalo we stopped at Sulfur Caldron, which was OK but nothing really spectacular.  A bit further down was Mud Volcano which bubbled some and had a lot of steam.

Osprey nest up close

Our next stop in Yellowstone was the worst as far as traffic. 

Yellowstone Lake

There was road work being done on the entrance to Fishing Bridge where they have another museum.  We didn’t stay long as the museum was mostly exhibits of the various small wildlife in the park.  It sat on the bank of Yellowstone Lake which is huge.  When we left there and headed south back around Old Faithful and to our starting point we could see the lake for miles and miles around.  We did see some elk in a meadow right beside the road but there was no pull off and it was in the construction area so no elk photos today.

So blue

On the way south was West Thumb, home of the West Thumb Geyser Basin.  There was a platform walkway around the various springs.  At first we didn’t see anything that great but then we saw some with beautiful colored pools of water due to the different minerals deep in the openings.  Some had small amounts of steam rising and some just looked like they had given out. 

OK, now we were getting tired.  We had expected to be

Painted baby

home around 4-5 but that was not going to happen.  The traffic wasn’t bad until we made the western loop back to Madison Junction where we go left to West Yellowstone.  There was either wildlife on the roadsides or something but it was slow.  We did stop in front of the Holiday Inn for a photo of one of the painted buffalo calves and then at the entering Idaho sign, one point of the Continental Divide.  Then it was home!  It was a great day and we got to see more than we expected when we left.