A Day In Yellowstone National Park

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We had spent a week in Yellowstone at the end of September 4 years ago and I was anxious to see it again because it is my favourite of all the national parks. They are all beautiful and all very different but Yellowstone has it all, mountains, plains, desert area, geysers, hot springs, canyons, waterfalls and so much wildlife.
Today we would revisit many of the sites that we'd seen four years ago. First was a ride along Firehole Canyon Rd. It's a lovely drive in a canyon beside the Gibson River and has a great waterfall along the way. Then it was on to the Midway Geyser Basin where the Grand Prismatic Spring is found. It's the biggest and most colourful in the park and I was so happy to see that it was still there and just as colourful as I'd remembered. It's really spectacular.
The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world, next to those in New Zealand. It is approximately 250 by 300 feet in size and is 160 feet deep. The spring discharges an estimated 560 gallons of 160°F water per minute.
The vivid colours in the spring are the result of pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges of the mineral-rich water. The bacteria produce colours ranging from green to red; the amount of color in the microbial mats depends on the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoids. In the summer, the mats tend to be orange and red, whereas in the winter the mats are usually dark green. The center of the pool is sterile due to extreme heat. The deep blue colour of the water in the center of the pool results from a light-absorbing overtone of the hydroxy stretch of water. Though this effect is responsible for making all large bodies of water blue, it is particularly intense in Grand Prismatic Spring because of the high purity and depth of the water in the middle of the spring. At the spring it's impossible to get an overview photo because of it's immense size, but even photos of portions of the spring are breathtaking.
Our destination point today was the Mammoth Hot Springs but because of a road closure in the park we had to do the whole entire loop through the park to get there. The closure is on a critical piece of the road between Madison and Norris for those who are familiar with the route. It meant a 100 mile trip as opposed to a 35 miles trip to get to Mammoth. It didn't matter on the going portion of the trip because we wanted to stop and see the sites along the way, but at the end of the day, it would have been so nice to just do the 35 miles back. The circuitous route took us through the Hayden Valley. I'd forgotten just how beautiful it is. It's frequented by the bison and other wildlife but today the wildlife were hiding somewhere. We stopped to photograph one lone bison in the water. I'd seen and photographed lots before but not one in the water.
As you can tell, 100 mile trip to Mammoth was going to take a long time due to photo stops. The speed limit in the park is between 35 and 45 miles per hour and is strictly enforced. Occasionally we would see some fool speeding along and we just hoped that the ranger was waiting around the corner. The rangers had radar traps set up so not too many people got away with speeding. The speed limits are for wildlife protection. It's their park!!!
Artist Point came next. It's a viewing point above what has been called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and people claim that this is Yellowstone's most scenic view. The sheer walls drop 700 feet to the bottom of the canyon, and it's a great place to see the Yellowstone Lower River Falls. It has been well photographed by everyone who visits there including me, but I couldn't resist taking yet another photo this time. The sloping walls of the canyon are the most amazing colours, pink, yellow, light brown and spotted with trees.
To get to Mammoth on this route it's necessary to cross Mt Washburn on a pass through the forest. The views down into the canyons below were fabulous. Temps today had ranged between 51 and 70. Up in the mountains it was cool and warm in the valleys of course.
We reached Mammoth about 5:30pm. The Mammoth Hotsprings are the highlight here and four years ago I had taken some photos of the incredible colours of the terraces. I'd heard that the springs had changed dramatically, that the water flow was minimal and that the colours had gone. The size of the terraces and the area is still impressive but it must have been disappointing for those who came to see it today. We had seen it at it's best four years ago. The park ranger said that it is ever changing and it will probably change dramatically again some time in the future. I took comparison photos and the difference is evident.
Our trip back to West Yellowstone was long but a lot faster than the one going because by now the sun was getting very low in the sky and many times hiding behind the trees. There were no photo stops. The wildlife seem to come out at dusk and we saw quite a few deer and lots of bison. One huge bison decided that he liked the roadway to walk along instead of the grass so he was sauntering along at bison pace and holding up traffic going in the opposite direction from us. He was out for an evening stroll. On our last visit to the park, we had been held up for about an hour due to a whole herd strolling along the road. That's OK.....after all, as I said before, it's THEIR park we are just lucky visitors and need to respect that.
We reached West Yellowstone about 8:30pm, had some dinner and returned to the hotel. The restaurants are very busy from about 7pm until closing because like us, most people are just returning from their day in the park.
Tomorrow we return to see some of what we missed today. The park is huge and it really takes a good week to just see the major sites, but for us it was just a revisit and 3 days is enough this time.

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Photos

Grand Prismatic Spring
The colours at the Spring are unbelievable and look as if they have been painted.

Lower Yellowstone Falls
Taken from Artist's Point

Mammoth Hot Spring
Taken 4 years ago

Mammoth Hot Spring
This is how the spring looks now