Day 13 – Saturday, August 1 (Yellowstone 2 – Yellowstone Lake, Canyon & Falls, more Geysers, and Mammoth Hot Springs)

We got up early today for what (we hope) will be the longest touring driving day of the trip: just over 200 miles (at 35-40 mph!). Because of the sights, we weren’t concerned about the driving distance or the time, though. Vicki had planned an ambitious schedule for us – the only thing we decided to forego was the half-day hike she had planned for us to take to the top of Mt. Washburn.

Yellowstone is truly a huge park. Eli saw in a guidebook that the park is either a little bit larger, the same size, or a little bit smaller than the state of Delaware =) There are five 5-30 mile entrance roads from all points of the compass and the northeast that connect with two loops of about 60-80 miles, set on top of each other (a north and south loop) like a figure eight. Our trip took us around the outer edge of both loops (we entered from the 22 mile south entrance road), along the “Grand Loop”, following the edge of Yellowstone Lake on the south to within a mile of the north entrance to the park, in Montana. Big, big park.

What struck us all as we traveled today was the extraordinarily diverse topography of the landscape, which took us from forest-bounded mountain rivers to steaming geyser basins on a wide lakeshore, to cool pine forests, vast canyons and waterfalls, and flat, open prairies, all within a few miles of each other. Driving south from Mammoth Hot Springs, we watched the late afternoon sun set the sheer rocky cliffs of 8600 foot Bunsen Peak on fire as we switchbacked our way along a gorge, before emerging though the “Golden Gate” into an open grassy plain so instantaneously that it seemed like magic.

We started the day walking another boardwalk over a steaming West Thumb Geyser Basin along the West Thumb Bay of lake Yellowstone (the steep-sloped, deep bay had been formed by a volcanic eruption 25,000 years ago). Then Vicki steered us toward a pretty mile hike to a natural bridge (by Bridge Bay), where we saw scads of chipmunks. Along the way, we stopped for three elk to cross the road.

From the top of the lake (Fishing Village), we traveled a few miles north to Mud Volcano, a geyser that blew itself apart in the late 1800s, and listened to the huffing and puffing of the aptly named Dragon’s Mouth, an underground geyser that you could hear through the mouth of a cave. Just before the Mud Volcano stop, we took some pictures of a couple of bison grazing on the far shore of the Yellowstone River. As we drove north through Hayden Valley, we saw a herd of bison so large that I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, until I ran off the road briefly =) Turns out, that’s a big problem driving through Yellowstone.

We followed the river north to Canyon Village, where we crossed it to drive to Artist Point to gasp at the lower falls. Though Joy and Eli were not fond of my efforts to get a couple of family pictures, we were all suitably impressed by the 300 foot waterfall cascading into the 1000 foot canyon. The Yellowstone River, which feeds the falls, starts just south of the park and flows 600 miles to the Missouri River in South Dakota – it’s the longest undammed river in North America. The 20 mile long “grand” canyon of Yellowstone is another new addition to the park, only 10-14,000 years old.

After stopping to walk to the brink of the 100 foot high upper falls, we found a quiet picnic spot under the tall pine trees. We continued north beyond the caldera boundary, through the 8859 foot Dunraven Pass and had to settle for a view of (as opposed to a hike to) 10,243 foot Mount Washburn, the highest peak in the park. Vicki pooched her lips and said she might as well have brought her sandals instead of her hiking boots. We’ll get her a suitable hike soon! Just past the Tower-Roosevelt junction, we stopped to see the petrified tree, frozen in time in a lava flow 50,000 years ago. There were three trees, but souvenir hunters carried away two of them before the park fenced in the last one. Eli got pretty angry about it!

Our next stop was Mammoth Hot Springs, the park headquarters, where we watched elk graze in the yards of the former army housing buildings. After poachers took over the park, the government literally called in the cavalry. Their presence in the first national park is the reason why the park service wears uniforms. After walking the boards of the lower hot springs terrace (the springs have ceased flowing since 1988), we changed into our bathing suits for one of the best parts of the trip.

Just north of Mammoth Hot Springs, the 170 degree underground springs flow into the frigid Gardner River. We crossed into Montana and walked a half mile to the junction of hot springs and river to join others basking in the natural hot tub for nearly an hour. It may have been Joy’s favorite part of the trip. After tubbing (naturally), we changed and enjoyed Huckleberry ice cream before driving the 90 miles back to our camp, past more bison, elk, and geyser basins than you could shake a stick at.

Long, but wonderful day.

Day 11 – Thursday, July 30 (Yellowstone 1 – Old Faithful, the Upper Geyser Basin, and Mystic Falls)

We slept in today after going to bed after midnight last night. After a perfunctory breakfast of yogurt and coffee, we headed north into Yellowstone, through 25 miles of road construction which allowed us to take our sweet time and get lots of pictures of the Lewis River. Our main goal for the day was to see Old Faithful, and the famous geyser (known as the Statue of Liberty of the West) did not disappoint us. After wading through the crush of people near the geyser, we hiked a mile to an observation overlook where we watched Old Faithful, Grand Geyser, and Castle Geyser erupt simultaneously.

We walked back down into the maddening crowds for a foray into a cafeteria and gift shop (where Joy spotted some nifty stickers for the pop-up) , then we drove to the Upper Geyser Basin, also known as Biscuit Basin, where Vicki had picked out a 4-mile hike to Mystic Falls for us. I was not prepared to be as fascinated as I was with the sight of water bubbling out of the earth from bottomless pools of water colored opal, turquoise, and sage. We walked on a raised boardwalk through the Biscuit Basin through a landscape unlike anything I have ever seen before, gaping at the boiling water bubbling up from the cauldron below, and then embarked on our hike to the falls.

After the unearthly landscape of Biscuit Basin, the trail to Mystic Falls through a reforestation of Ponderosa Pines (so much of Yellowstone forests are recovering from the great fire of 1988, which destroyed over a third of the park) guided us through much more familiar territory. We hiked along a river for awhile before rounding a bend that revealed the Mystic Falls – where we stopped to gape and take a bunch of pictures. The falls were beautiful and wild, but what made them unique for me was the steam vents that bordered them at intervals.

We continued to climb to the top of the falls and kept ascending to the top of a ridge that gave us a panoramic view of all of the geyser basins toward the south. Along the way, we ran into an Italian woman who was looking for her husband, who had ventured off into the scrub pines along the ridge to take a leak and then had not returned for 20 minutes. She was beginning to get worried, she told us. Just as I was beginning my search for the man, Vicki remembered seeing a fellow who was calling out a woman’s name as he hiked down the trail. She described him to the woman who was very relieved to know her husband was probably just ahead of her on the path instead of lost in the woods.

Even though we had only driven 50 miles into the park, road construction for the first 25 miles made for a 90 minute return trip, and when we got back to the van at 6 pm, we decided to return to our trailer and have supper. Vicki cooked ham on the grill (it’s bear country) and after supper, we enjoyed s’mores and songs by the fire (our first since starting this trip).