Park 24: Yellowstone
National Park, WY: We set aside two
and a half days for Yellowstone and needed every minute to begin to appreciate
its 2 million plus acres. We entered
through the west entrance and drove directly to the Canyon Village area to
check into the “frontier lodge” where we had a small cabin for the first night.
Our second night was a small splurge in a lakeside room of the historic Lake Yellowstone
Hotel along with dinner in the dining room overlooking the lake at sunset.
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| Spacious frontier cabin rooms |
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| Up close and personal with bison |
Yellowstone’s history began only a blink of an eye ago in
earth time, about 640,000 years, when a cataclysmic eruption left a 45 by 30
mile caldera, a collapsed crater, similar to Crater Lake and Santorini, but
much, much larger. What remains are hydrothermal
areas teaming with hot springs, boiling mud pots, fumaroles, and geysers. What is amazing, though, is the plant and
wild animal life living in these extremes.
In our walks and drives, we encountered bison, elk, deer, antelope, mountain
sheep, and bears - several times rather close!
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| On the brink of Lower Falls |
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Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
and Lower Falls |
Yellowstone’s 142-mile Grand Loop Road forms a figure-8 with
roads from the five entrances around the park intersecting the Loop. The highlight
of the north loop is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River with its Upper
Falls (109 ft drop) and its Lower Falls (308 ft drop). The park has trails that take you to the
brink of each fall for a dramatic and breathtaking view. Further around the north loop is Tower Fall,
Mammoth Hot Springs, and Norris Geyer Basin.
No extended hikes were done our first full day because of the raw, wet
weather.
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| Old Faithful |
We awoke our final day in the Park to bright sunshine. We drove the south side of the Grand Loop
past Lake Yellowstone and over the Continental Divide twice to reach Old
Faithful and its geyser basin. During
the day we were fortunate to see Old Faithful erupt three times from differing
viewpoints around the basin. The three
mile boardwalk next to Old Faithful took us weaving through the world’s
greatest concentration of hot springs and geysers. We visited more geyser areas on the south
loop and late in the day were astonished to catch the Great Fountain Geyser
erupting (approximately once every 11 hours) simultaneous with the adjacent White
Dome Geyser!
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| Great Fountain Geyser eruption |
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| White Dome Geyser eruption |
We completed the Grand Loop and proceeded to the south entrance
for the short drive to Jackson, WY. Fortunately
for us, our first glimpse of the Tetons was at sunset – but that’s a story for
another day!
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| 5 o'clock rush hour! Look carefully! |
Odometer: 10,783
miles.
