Today was geyser and hotspring day at Yellowstone. We visited all of the hotspring sites between the west entrance and Old Faithful. We then stayed for an Old Faithful eruption and had lunch. While the skies were still clear it was colder and windy so while it was good picture weather it was not good hanging around outside weather.
Hot springs near West Yellowstone.
Mid-afternoon we decided to head over to Mammoth Hot Springs as Ton was not going to let her friends see Yellowstone without seeing where our son Dylan worked as a ranger. We did not have the best light for Mammoth but it is still pretty spectacular.
One of Tons favorite photos.
We returned to our campsite well after dark tonight and whipped up a quick meal.
Cannot leave Yellowstone without a shot of Old Faithful.
Today was critter chasing day. The plan was to head over to Grand Teton NP and see what critters we could see. To facilitate that we rented a car for our stay in Yellowstone. Elephant costs .35$ per mile to drive, and we figured that the cost of the rental car would mostly be offset by the miles we saved not driving Elephant and we would gain the flexibility of being able to squeeze into smaller places. It turned out to be a good decision.
Noi is a professional photographer and ran her own travel magazine in Thailand. She asked me what the big five were in Yellowstone. I did not initially understand her question until she explained to me that there were a big five animals you should get photos of in the Serengeti. Ton and I did not know if there was an official big five list for Yellowstone, but we made one up consisting of Bison, Elk, Wolves, Moose, and Bears.
Bison on a river crossing.
We were not more than a few miles into the park when we crossed our first animal off the list as there was a large herd of Bison. After about an hour of photos were shot we headed on down the road towards Grand Teton. On the parkway between Yellowstone and Grand Teton we got to cross another big five off the list. There was a grizzly contentedly grazing right next to the road despite the considerable scrum of humans about fifty yards away shooting pictures. So far a good day.
Not sure who is watching who, the crowd did not phase this guy.
The weather was fantastic today with clear blue skies and highs in the sixties. Grand Teton was spectacular and we enjoyed a really nice lunch in the park.
Grand Tetons from our lunch spot.
Finally on the way home in addition to some more Bison we were able to get some nice shots of an Elk herd crossing a river. As well as watching some stupid human behavior as a clearly agitated Elk was being ignored by one guy who was so concerned with his photo that he risked getting attacked.
The Bull in this photo was very agitated with some people who were too close.
The plan for the day was to go to Yellowstone and stay at Hardy Campground. When we woke up in the morning we decided that we had not done Little Big Horn Justice so we decided to detour there on the way out of town.
We checked out the movie the Park Service has which is well done in trying to present the story from both sides. Then after the movie there was a Ranger talk which was also excellent. We ended the visit with a walk up to the last stand site. Our little detour cost us half a day and it was almost noon before we took off for Yellowstone.
We busted along as fast as we could but it was not as fast as we would have liked as there was a considerable wind blowing the entire way which meant we were moving along considerably slower than the 80mph posted speed limit.
We finally arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs around 3:30 pm, only to see that Hardy Campground had closed that day for the season. With a 60% of 1 to 3’ of snow forecast we had a choice of staying at Mammoth Hot Springs and risking the park service closing the road across the park for part of the day, or heading for West Yellowstone and staying in a commercial campground. We opted for caution and headed over to West Yellowstone.
Scout in a commercial campground in West Yellowstone.
We decided to start our return trip west to Portland by heading due east over the Beartooth Highway. This drive is absolutely spectacular and you really must include it in any trip you take to Yellowstone. It is one of our favorite drives in the US. A lot of better writers than I have described it so I am going to pass. All I can say is make sure you do it at least once.
The views on the Beartooth Highway are really spectacular.
After coming down from the Beartooth we jumped on the interstate and headed west towards Bozeman. The place we had picked out to stay was full, so we continued heading down the interstate until we came to Three Forks where we ended up in a commercial campground.
Our day started by joining our son Dylan for breakfast at the Youth Conservation Corp camp just outside Mammoth. Dylan has been a Ranger at Yellowstone for 4 years. This year he is working with the YCC which brings in about 80 high school aged kids for the summer. The kids get to experience Yellowstone and also help out with projects such as trail maintenance and putting in Bear boxes.
At breakfast we were able to meet some of the students and some of Dylans fellow rangers. At breakfast Dylan told us he had to do some last minute work for 3 or 4 hours and he would join us for lunch.
We decided to head out to Lamar Valley again while we waited for Dylan to join us. We stopped and took a short hike out into a field to get a look at a herd of Bison. We were following all of the rules staying the proper distance from the herd, but someone forgot to tell a bull Bison the rules. On our way back to scout we came around a curve with a steep hill to our left and a creek with a 5 or 6 foot drop on the right and ran into a bull Bison about 20 yards in front of us well inside the 100 yard minimum the Park Service recommends for safety. Ron decided to retreat towards the creek figuring we could jump down in the creek bed if the Bison took offense. As we moved down toward the creek Ton grabbed Ron just before he stepped on a snake. At this point the bull pointedly ignoring our little show sauntered on past and went on his way down the trail.
Bison grazing in Lamar Valley taken from a safe distance.
Deciding we needed Park Service supervision we headed back to Mammoth and picked up Dylan. We went to lunch in Gardiner just outside the park entrance, and then headed over to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Dylan opted for home Thai cooking for dinner and invited one of his co-workers to join us. Ton made some of her famous Larb, and we enjoyed a nice dinner while hearing about Rangering with teenagers.
We were going to try to make it to Mammoth Hot Springs Campground because it is the closest one to where our son is working at the park this year. He told us that they are having record visitors this year and if we wanted to get in the campground we needed to be there before 10am. So we got up early and headed into a very rainy cold day. We forgot just how big Yellowstone is, the drive from Grand Teton to Mammoth Hot Springs on the north side of the park was 104 miles and took nearly 3 hours because of the typical tourist traffic and some much needed road work.
When we got to the Mammoth Camp Grounds we found that there were plenty of camp spots still available, probably because of the miserable weather forecast 50 degrees and raining all day. We had some time to kill because Dylan was working all day so we began by checking out the new visitors center, and all of the stores at Mammoth. Of course given the weather we were joined by a lot of the other visitors.
During a break in the rain we went up to the hot springs and it seemed like they were flowing much better than the last time we were there. Ton took lots of pictures, and then we decided to head out to Lamar Valley as it was not raining too hard at that point. In Lamar the Bison were out in force and despite the weather there were plenty of people out.
Mammoth Hot Springs. One of our favorite spots in the park.
The park is indeed the most crowded we remember. It seems that the Chinese have discovered Yellowstone and must be contributing a great deal to the record number of visitors.
We had not spent much time in Grand Teton NP so we decided to spend a day exploring. We got up early as the campgrounds fill up early. The traffic in Jackson Hole was noticeably busier than the last time we had visited two years ago.
When we arrived we parked in the parking lot near the visitors center by the lake. Ton ran into the visitors center, and Ron was going to move Scout to a better location when another Malayan Tiger drove up. The Johansons were from Seattle and had their Malayan for about a year. He had done a lot of work on his truck so it dwarfed scout. They were quite nice and we exchanged stories about our trucks until we had to leave for a Ranger Walk.
Two Malayans and their owners.
We took in a nice ranger walk focusing on the lakes and the mountains in Grand Teton. As usual the Ranger was extremely knowledgeable and did a great job. We also attended a talk on Bears. Our plans to walk down to the lake for sunset photos was wiped out by a rain storm.
