Rockies Caravan - Part 7 - Yellowstone NP - STR-2021-33

Saturday, 4 September

After our sunrise visit to the T.A. Moulton Barn (see last blog post), we continued north on US 191, through Grand Teton NP and into Yellowstone NP.

Before getting into Yellowstone, we had our first wildlife sighting, a black bear foraging about 40 yards off the road. Perhaps an omen for another epic adventure.

The plan for today was to meet Darrell & Brenda at the Old Faithful parking lot, where we would park the RVs and adventure in the park in their Honda CRV. With our sunrise start, we had about an hour head start, so we could stop at some of the lesser known sights that most visitors probably don't visit. We hoped with our early start, there would be parking for Sprinty as the parking areas were pretty small.

Before our first stop, we saw a moose feeding about 25 feet from the road. Our first stop was Lewis Falls. The parking area for Lewis Falls was very small - by arriving early, Sprinty was just able to fit into a pull-in spot.

Lewis Falls

Lewis Falls

Our next stop was the Grant Village Visitor Center, which was closed despite the NPS web site saying it would open at 8am. We settled for a stop at the General Store for some swag - Kris picked up a nice ball cap.

We then stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin and walked the loop around the geysers, springs, and fumaroles.

Blue Bell Pool

As we continued to Old Faithful, we made three crossings of the Continental Divide. With a little time before meeting up at Old Faithful, we stopped at Kepler Cascades - again made possible as our early start enabled Sprinty to get a parking place.

Kepler Cascades

Kepler Cascades

While at Kepler Cascades, we got a text from Darrell and Brenda that they had just arrived at Old Faithful two miles away. Partly because cell service in Yellowstone NP is only near the major points of interest - in between, there is no Verizon coverage for making calls or texting.

We got Sprinty parked next to their rig at the Old Faithful parking lot. Before we headed out, we checked the projection for the next eruption of Old Faithful. It was about to erupt, so we joined the hundreds of people on the viewing deck.

Crowd gathered to watch Old Faithful

We continued north (clockwise) on the Southern Loop with a plan to explore all the features on the right as we went north, and the ones on the right as we returned south back to the RVs.

First up was Firehole Lake Drive, a one-way loop that prohibited RVs, buses, and trailers. 

White Dome Geyser

As we continued on the loop, we saw a bison chewing it's cud right by the road.

Young Hopeful Geyser

After a stop for lunch at one of many picnic areas, this one being right on the Firehole River, we continued north and turned into Firehole Canyon Drive. Another one-way loop that does not permit RVs, buses, and trailers. We stopped to enjoy Firehole Falls.

Thinking we still had a lot of day, we continued north to Gibbon Falls. While the parking lot did not restrict RVs, the lot was full and Sprinty likely would not have been able to stop.

By now it was 2pm and we decided to start back to the RVs. As we made our way back, we stopped at Midway Geyser Basin and did the short loop hike.

We continued on the hike to Grand Prismatic Springs. With the trail, the people and the low angle, there was no good way to get a good photo. We settled for a smaller prismatic spring that was stunning.

As we looped around the trail, we talked to a Ranger about the best place to view Grand Prismatic Springs. As expected, she pointed to the overlook trail that was a branch off the trail to Fairy Falls. From others' adventures, we knew that was the best view.

Our patience in trying to get a parking spot at the Fairy Falls trailhead was rewarded, and we hiked the 1.6-mile trail to the Grand Prismatic Springs overlook. The views were worth the effort.

Grand Prismatic Springs gets its vivid colors from the sunlight. The brilliant blue of the water is caused by sunlight being scattered by mineral particles in the water. The spring often appears to have a blue haze hovering over it caused by the steam reflecting the blue from the water.

Being it was now after 4pm, we decided it really was time to retrieve our RVs and make our way to campground for the night which was an hour and twenty minute drive from Old Faithful under the best of conditions.

Just as we approached Madison Junction, traffic came to a crawl. Initially, we thought it might be a 14-mile backup to the park's west exit. It turned out to be just a bison jam about 2 miles west of Madison Junction.

Two bison feeding almost 100 yards from the road caused a 2+ mile traffic backup, adding over 45 minutes to our travel.

Arriving in West Yellowstone, MT, just outside the west park entrance, after dinner time, we made a quick stop for a bite to eat before proceeding to our campground for the night, the Redrock RV Park in Island Park, ID. It was a nice campground by a lake, 5 miles outside of Island Park, which has a population of 286.

Traffic today was as expected, especially for a holiday weekend. One of the major choke points was at Old Faithful exacerbated by the bridge being under repair. And parking around Midway Geyser Basin where the number of people looking for parking exceeded the available parking by a factor of 10, resulting in lots and lots of vehicles parked along the road. Maybe a benefit of not seeing more wildlife from the road was not having more animal jams.

Sunday, 5 September

The morning started with loading the bus at 8:30am for an all-day bus tour of the southern loop in Yellowstone.

As we arrived at the park entrance, traffic was backed up for about a mile, even with four entrance station lanes operating. As we drove into the park, we saw a herd of elk. Surprisingly, the herd did not cause an animal jam - maybe because they were so far from the road and everyone was anxious to get into the park.

After we turned south at Madison Junction, just before the turnoff for Fountain Paint Pots, we encountered a huge heard of bison on the east side,of the road and associated bison jam.

The bus dropped us off at Fountain Paint Pots where we walked the half-mile Fountain Paint Pots, one of the most complex and dynamic hydrothermal areas in Yellowstone. Here they had geysers, hot springs, humaroles, and mud pots.

While we were on the trail, we heard horns blaring in the distance and looked north to see the herd of bison had decided to cross the road. 

Back on the bus, we headed for Old Faithful. Along the way, one of the group captured a photo of a bison walking along the road.

We arrived at Old Faithful just before an eruption. We joined hundreds of others to watch it from a different point on the viewing platform than yesterday.

Waiting on Old Faithful

After lunch, we walked one of the Upper Geyser Basin loops.

Pump Geyser was bubbling away

The colors of the different features were just stunning.

The Old Faithful Inn, built in 1904, was an amazing building. We enjoyed the amazing interior built to recreate a forest indoors.

The tour continued around the south loop in a counterclockwise direction. Steve, our bus driver, wisely stopped at a pull out along Yellowstone Lake for people to get out and stretch their legs. Our next stop was Artist Point at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. A short trail provided a glimpse of the 20-mile canyon and the Lower Falls.

While the bus was able to drop us off at the Brink of Upper Falls, the view, while impressive, was not very photogenic. The bus driver tried to take us to Inspiration Point via North Rim Drive, but the road was closed by park rangers. Perhaps just as well - we later learned that the best view of the canyon and waterfall was from Artist Point. So he drove on and substituted a stop at Norris Geyser Basin. Norris Geyser Basin is where Steamboat Geyser is located, the tallest geyser in Yellowstone. We had just enough time to walk a portion of Back Basin.

Steamboat Geyser was exhibiting some small eruptions.

And we enjoyed seeing some other features.

As we headed back to the campground, about a mile after we turned west at Madison Junction, traffic came to a near stop. While crawling along, we saw a bison walking down the road. 

While we got pictures from the bus, some secretly hoped that was the end of the traffic backup. Nope. Turns out there was a 12-mile traffic backup due to a messy car crash near the park exit. Traffic added over an hour to the travel time back to the campground. Even though the delay added to a long day, we were glad Steve was driving and not us.

A very long day filled with adventure. The bus tour was enjoyable as our bus driver, Steve, was experienced with navigating the traffic and knowing where the bus could access. We could focus on the scenery and looking for wildlife.

Monday, 6 September

The morning started with coffee and honey buns at the campground covered patio. We then car-pooled to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, MT. Our caravan provided the entrance tickets and tickets to the IMAX Theatre next door. We got sorted out in time to catch the 10am Yellowstone movie. The 32-minute movie was well done. I think we got more out of the movie having spent most of the last two days in the Park. It was interesting to see the same features in the different seasons through the magic of a movie presentation.

After the IMAX movie, we went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. Again, we got lucky and arrived at the grizzly bear area just as they let three grizzly bears out for feeding and play. All three of the bears had been relocated to the Center because they had learned to obtain food from people, mostly due to poor bear precautions by people - such as not cleaning up scraps, leaving trash around. Bears learn to associate food with people, and become a nuisance. And either have to be put down or they get relocated to the Center.

While the bears searched for food the staff had put out, what was super interesting was to watch the bears play. For almost an hour, we watched them wrestle, splash in the water, and chase each other. Definitely not the behavior we expected from fenced in animals.

There were also wolves, otters, and raptors on display.

The Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center was a great place to visit. While the caravan provided two-day tickets, we found a couple of hours was enough.

After a bite to eat, we checked out some of the dozens of souvenir shops in West Yellowstone. Kris particularly enjoyed revisiting Eagle's Store which began as a pioneer family business founded in 1908. The store is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was built between the years 1927 and 1930. Kris visited Eagle's Store 48 years ago.

We enjoyed a quiet afternoon back at the campground where the two Darrell's spent some time troubleshooting Darrell (H)'s heater which was not working properly. While we went back to the RV park and had a relaxing afternoon, some of our group went back into Yellowstone NP. Their feedback was that the park was a lot emptier, probably only 10% of the people we saw there yesterday.

We finished the day with a pot luck dinner under the campground covered patio followed by live music provided by the campground.

Tuesday, 7 September

Today's itinerary was to reposition to Cody, WY. The suggested route was to travel through Yellowstone NP and exit through the east entrance. However, we wanted to visit Mammoth Hot Springs and the Albright Visitor Center near the north entrance. From that location, Google Maps routed us to exit via the northeast entrance (Silver Gate, WY) and drive part of the Beartooth Highway, then take the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. Darrell and Brenda had ridden the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway on motorcycles and highly recommended it. A side benefit of this route was driving through the Lamar Valley, one of two areas in Yellowstone that are famous for watching wildlife.

To allow ourselves plenty of time for Mammoth Hot Springs, animal jams, and any other spur of the moment ideas, we decided to depart at daybreak. We pulled out of the RV park just before sunrise, so we got to enjoy the sun coming up as we made our way to West Yellowstone and the west entrance to Yellowstone NP.

We had hoped to checkout Artists Paintpots as we made our way to Mammoth Hot Springs, but like some of the other roads, the sign said no RVs, buses or trailers. We arrived Mammoth Hot Springs about 8:30, which worked out great for getting a parking place for Sprinty.

We later learned that by the time Darrell and Brenda came by just over an hour later, there wasn't anyplace for them to park their truck camper and Toad.

The Upper Terrace Drive was another one of the roads marked no RVs, buses or trailers. Sprinty considered declaring himself a van, but Kris put her foot down. We had to settle for just hiking the Lower Terrace Trail.

The early morning lighting resulted in some shadows making good photos a challenge. Kris managed to take some great photos.

Here is the best of Darrell's photos

Our visit to the Albright Visitor Center was short with two small rooms of exhibits. The drive through Lamar Valley did not disappoint. Many of the pull outs had people parked that had clearly been there since sunrise. They had camp chairs and long lenses (telephoto camera lenses, telescopes) set up to watch the wildlife. We saw several herds of bison and a herd of elk - alas no place to pull off and too far away for us to get photos.

Near the east end of Lamar Valley, we saw a group of bison walking towards the road - it was obvious they were going to cross the road right in front of us. We lucked out to have a place to pull off to safely watch and get some pictures.

After we exited Yellowstone NP, we saw a cowgirl herding cattle right down the road towards us.

The Chief Joseph Scenic Byway was stunning - and that was even with the smoke/haze. We definitely want to do this drive again without the smoke and haze.

We stopped at the Sunlight Bridge over the Sunlight Creek, which flowed several hundred feet below. We walked over the bridge and marveled at the canyon rocks and the creek below. Absolutely gorgeous. Reminiscent of Royal Gorge in Colorado and New River Gorge In West Virginia.

Sunlight Creek Canyon - looking north

Sunlight Creek Canyon - looking south

The terrain is the result of the Beartooth Uplift as explained by one of the interpretative signs.

Once in Cody, we picked up mail (sent to General Delivery), picked up some parts at the hardware store for a small Sprinty project, briefly toured Cody, and checked into our campground, the Ponderosa Campground.

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Some relections on our short visit to Yellowstone NP. Yellowstone is an intoxicating mix of man, nature, wildlife, and geology. It is so large, so vast, it just isn't practical to try and see it all in a short period of time. To even try to see and do everything will leave you worn out and frustrated, especially with the volume of traffic due to the popularity of the park. Best to pace yourself and enjoy what you do get to see and just plan on coming back again. And again.

We expect to return. We learned a lot about the park, it's opportunities and look forward to making the most of future visits.