A great day to be at Yellowstone!

July 24 – Time to play tourist again!  We didn’t get an early start since we’re not really in a race to see it all in one day.  However, when we reached the traffic light in West Yellowstone before the entrance to the park there was some back up.  Bill was a little antsy about it as we’ve heard horror stories of 2-3 hour waits to get in.  Not the case today.  One line was the “Express” lane for pass holders and return ticket holders.  The odd thing is they didn’t even want you to stop and prove you are a pass holder or return ticket holder, the ranger was flagging everyone right through.  Bill tried to find out about getting a Senior pass and she was slightly rude since we actually stopped.  We found out, for all of my readers, that August 28 this year, the price of the now $10 for life Senior pass will increase to $80.  We both have a pass but in the event we lose one or something, we thought it would be wise for us to each buy another one.  We’re not sure if they register them or not so will find out before we end up getting our old ones cancelled.  You have to be 62 so I got my last summer.

It was really a great day in the park.  A little traffic back ups in a couple of the parking areas but other than that we enjoyed beautiful weather, a picnic lunch, and wonderful sights!  We chose the northern loop today, which is one of the roads less traveled.  Actually the traffic itself is not bad all, it’s the stops and “villages” where you rejoin the masses.

Gibbon Falls

Our first stop was Gibbon Falls, a beautiful and brilliant falls with

an 84 foot drop.  You can’t get as close as some of the other falls, but it’s still a site to see.  Back on the loop road traffic stopped so we knew there was a wildlife sighting.  Sure enough, there was one male bison resting along the road.

A little further up the road is Artists Paintpots.  The parking was a bit dicey so Bill let me out thinking I’d be back shortly while he found parking.  Well, I had my walk for the day!  It was 3 tenths of a mile to one site and 6 tenths to another.  It was warm out and I didn’t bring water and

Blood Geyser

the dryness of the air quickly dries my nose and throat, therefore, I knew I was only going to the first stop.  It was a little disappointing but Blood Geyser was pretty nice.  To go either direction to another site was 3 tenths a mile more and I really didn’t want to make a mile walk and have Bill wondering if I fell in.

At the intersection to go west or north, we went west where our

Virginia Cascades

first stop on that section of loop road was Virginia Cascades.  These are more narrow falls that cascade 60 feet down from Gibbons River.  It is one of the 45 named waterfalls along the paved roadways of the park.

There wasn’t a picnic roadside area along the way so once we reached Canyon Village wes topped for lunch.  We visited the restrooms and the visitor center and then scoped out a spot at one of the 4 large picnic tables right outside the VC. Three of the tables were pretty much filled and the 4^th had one young lady working her phone to death so I asked if we could share the table.  She said sure, she was just waiting on friends.  As soon as we sat on the opposite side, an Asian man sat beside her without asking, then his wife sat by me but asked.   Then another Asian man claimed space on the other side of the young woman and called his grandson over and so the lady left and sat on the concrete leaning again a stone pillar.  We enjoyed our picnic from our new collapsible cooler we received last summer for volunteering at Sherando Lake.  Perfect size!  The comedy at lunch was the Asian family was spread out at 2 tables and for lunch they were slicing Spam out the can and wrapping it with white bread.  The teenage grandson took one bite and gave it back to his grandpa, then got his dad to get him a hot dog, which he ate with no condiments.  I’m not sure which was worse!

Second level of Upper Falls with the blowback

We packed up the cooler and took a short detour to see the Upper Falls and Lower Falls.  The road to the Lower Rim to see the Lower Falls was backed up onto the main road, therefore we chose the “road less travelled” , the Upper Rim where we got the parking spot right beside the walkway to the falls viewing area.  Since we were so close you could almost touch the falls, we missed seeing the 109 foot drop all at once.  The Lower falls is the tallest in Yellowstone at 308 feet but we’d seen it and Bill didn’t want to get hung up waiting.  The Upper Falls has a tremendous rushing current over the first drop and as the fall space narrows the second drop is even more forceful creating a huge misting blowback which is beautiful.  I think if the sun was in the right spot you’d get another nice rainbow.

Once we had our share of photos, we walked up the hill to the car and back on the loop

road going north.  As we came around a bend I saw the most glorious field of yellow and told Bill to take the next pull off.   I had no idea it was a major pull off but we got a spot and I took some of my favorite photos of the yellow fields and scant forests edging their way to the top of Mount Washburn.  I later learned this is the most popular day hike in Yellowstone.  We could see several groups of hikers zigzagging their way up the hill.  If only I were in better shape!

As we rounded the corner of the road where Tower Falls is, I immediately recognized the gift shop as where we got great ice cream our last time here.  Some things are burned into the brain, even at my age! 

Tower Falls with its guards

We found a good parking spot and decided to earn our ice cream by walking out to the falls first.  The fall plunges 132 feet, but what is different is the landscape.  The pinnacles surround the falls like guards on duty.  The area along the Yellowstone River flow has some unusual rock formations as well.

The line for the ice cream was long and the prices

Strange formations

were pretty steep, not unlike the falls!  I didn’t want to spend $3.25 for one scoop.  I saw refrigerated items along the back wall of store and thought maybe there was a freezer one but, alas, no.  But my eagle eye spotted the corner of an independent ice cream freezer where I landed huckleberry ice cream sandwiches for .99 a piece.  While I was at the register paying for my find, a man asked where I found them and he was on his way to scoop some up for his family.

Petrified Tree

It’s a short drive to the Tower-Roosevelt area which speaks for

Teddy Roosevelt as it’s more rustic with horse back trail riding. You can take a stagecoach tour from there as well.  The hotel sets way back off the road and you have to drive in to see it.  There’s a small Park office along the main road.  Not far passed Tower-Roosevelt is a fairly long turn off to see the Petrified Tree.  On the road in Bill was complaining about how much money was spent to build the road to see ONE petrified tree.  But that’s not all we got to see.  He let me out at the tree as it sits high on the wall of the mountain and he planned to turn around and pick me back up.  I took my photo of the tree and turned around to face the valley below as I noticed down at the end where Bill was

turning around there was a crowd gathered.  That could only mean one thing:  wildlife.  I was so excited that I got to take some great photos of a black bear and her cub.  They were too far away at first and once they started moving in my direction the grass was so tall at times I couldn’t see them.  Then just for me, they emerged onto a dead tree along the ground and baby followed mama up and very carefully back down another log.  Shortly after, they hit tall grass again and seemed to be heading on down the valley where it was much more wooded and “private”.  Bill got to see them but there were some later comers, who were pretty disappointed.   Wow, bison, elk and black bear, it was a great day! 

It really is Mammoth

On the way to Mammoth Hot Springs we passed turn offs for 2 more water falls, but Bill was “falled” out.  We stopped as soon as we sighted “Mammoth Hot Springs” for a photo and upon entering the village there was a herd of elk but no where to stop.  The village was much busier than when we

Right in front of Mammoth

visited there 2 years ago.  It looks like there were renovations going on at the local hotel but it didn’t deter people from hustling and bustling around.  When we drove passed the springs I took another photo of one section up close and on the way we went.

We passed another herd of elk but again, there was no place to pull off so close to the

Butt shot

village.  A few miles further away I spotted a huge herd of elk, most of which were back in behind some trees in a field but Bill turned around and I got out to see what I could get on my camera.  It started raining or I would have walked in a bit but I zoomed as best I could with my camera and got a few decent shots.

We u-turned again and headed on our merry way, and until it wasn’t quite so “merry”.  There was road construction and we were stopped 20 minutes or so.  Bill opened the

windows and turned the car off and eventually cars came from the opposite direction.  He counted 74 vehicles passed us.  I kept my trusty camera in hand and searched the trees and shrubbery along my side of the road for any sign of wildlife, and there she was.  A little fawn who looked right at me and waited just long enough for me to get a great photo.  Bill got to see her too and then all there was only a butt shot left.

When our turn finally came we could only drive so fast as the road was packed gravel and some broken pavement on and off.   It was several miles before we hit the “good” road.  We could see where we ran into the same issue 2 years ago, The road was really nice and wide.  It’s a slow process with such a short season for major road work.

Since we had bypassed Norris Geyser Basin this morning with the hope that the afternoon

Second from the left is Bill

would be less crowded, we made our last stop in the park at 4:30.  We didn’t stay long as we felt some big rain drops and didn’t want to get caught without our umbrellas for the walk back to the car.  The geysers that are viewable from the initial walkway aren’t terribly spectacular but the basin itself is very large.  There are walkways all over and there were people on most of them.  Even as we left and were back on the main road I could see more of the basin through the trees.

Traffic moved along nicely until about half way from the Madison intersection to West Yellowstone.  Then there was another small herd of elk but again, no where to park.  In many places where cars used to pull over, the park service has put logs along the road or cut up logs and done a crisscross display along the road.  I know the theory is to keep cars from stopping so traffic doesn’t bog down and it works well in most areas. 

We got home about 6 which was nice and we had a truly awesome day!  I did do one post but after heating up the last of the lasagna and making a salad for dinner, I was ready to just chill!