Into Yellowstone at Last

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After getting fuel in our vehicles in Bozeman, we headed east on I-90 to Livingston and Hwy 89. We drove south on 89 past small ranches and beautiful vistas to the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park at Gardiner. After stopping at the visitor center, we found rv parking and dropped our camper and B&G’s rig and rode in the van to the upper terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs. After walking the boardwalks around the hot springs and the travertine terraces, we drove back and got the campers.

We stopped at Roaring Mountain with its hissing steam vents, before heading to Norris Geyser Basin. The geysers and hot springs are really something, the smells a bit unpleasant, but the colors and boiling waters or mud are fascinating.

We then headed to our campground at Bridge Bay near Yellowstone Lake. After setting up the campers, we loaded into the van again and set out to do some sightseeing. First we drove through Lake Village, then Fishing Bridge and out to Lake Butte overlook. From there we could see the Grand Tetons some 90 miles away. Yellowstone Lake is beautiful, a deep blue, and 35 miles long. The altitude at its surface is about the same as some of the glaciers in Alaska.

We stopped at LeHardy Rapids and spotted some of the cutthroat trout that swim upstream through the rapids to spawn. There was a white pelican waiting for one of those trout to swim past him.

At Sulfur Caldron, while Gena and I looked at the boiling acidic muck, Kerry and Bob walked on down the road to see what the flashing lights and crowds of people were about. It turns out there was a large grizzly bear about 200 yards up the hill. We went to Mud Volcano and saw boiling mud pots with names like Dragon’s Mouth, Mud Volcano and Mud Caldron.

We then came back to the campground and had supper. After supper a mule deer with velvet antlers strolled through the campground, posing for pictures. We saw an abundance of bison/buffalo today, and they seem to grow them pretty big in Yellowstone.

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Photos

Travertine Terraces
Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone NP

Porcelain Springs
Norris Geyser Basin, Yellowstone NP

Big wooly bison
Yellowstone

Yellowstone Lake
from Lake Butte overlook, Yellowstone

White Pelican fishing
at LeHardy Rapids, Yellowstone NP

Mule Deer
relaxing in the campground

Comments

[peggy]

this looks like a scary end of the world landscape doesn't it?