Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is America’s oldest National Park. It covers a huge area of land. Most of the sights are drive-able along a 100 mile loop road. We drove most of it but did manage to fit in a little hiking as well.

Geysers and Hot Springs and Mud Pots, oh my!

The star of the Yellowstone show is the thermal action, the superstar being Old Faithful. It is currently erupting every 90 minutes, give or take 10. The area definitely has the most infrastructure as it is the second oldest area of the park. There is a grand lodge, a viewing platform that rings Old Faithful and a boardwalk around the surrounding geyser basin. We waited with the crowds and watched Old Faithful blow sky high for a few minutes.

Afterwords we walked around the lower basin area a bit. While not as regular, the other geysers in the area were also beautiful and we saw one erupt for a good 10 minutes.

You had to stay on the boardwalks for obvious reasons.

The road itself the Old Faithful area is pretty entertaining. It is a large loop that was originally designed for stage coaches, which couldn’t make sharp turns. The traffic pattern has long outlasted the limitations, so if you miss the area you’re shooting for you still have to drive all the way around the loop.

We headed north from Old Faithful to see prime examples of the other two classifications of thermal activity, hot springs and mud pots. Hot springs occur when there isn’t a restriction on the water flow, so the heat bubbles up instead of exploding. Mud pots occur in wetter areas where the surface turns into a boiling pot of, you guessed it, mud.

Backcountry Adventure

With the weather on our side, we did an overnight trip into the Yellowstone backcountry. There are hundreds of miles of trails in the park, including an 80 mile loop in the southeast section that puts you in the most remote spot (furthest from a road) in the lower 48. We, however, opted for a slightly easier 6 mile in-and-out trail that took us to see some pretty cool thermal features for our quintessential Yellowstone experience.

By hiking into Yellowstone, we were hiking into bear country. Not only are mild mannered black bears prevalent, but the park is also home to a thriving population of grouchy grizzlies. While we were getting our permit, a ranger informed us that there had been grizzly sightings in that area recently. As we set up camp, a father-son team walked by. They informed us that they had to detour around a rather large grizzly the day before on the trail we had just hiked in on. Yikes! The best we could do was store our food properly, make some noise while hiking and completely put it out of our minds in an effort to sleep.

The next day we hiked another mile or so into the park to see a less visited geyser basin.  This one was made up of mainly hot springs, of all sorts of awesome colors.

After exploring a bit, we headed back to camp, packed up and hiked back towards the car.  We were spending the night at the campsite closest to the car in an effort to get out early the next morning.  On our way there, we saw definite evidence that a bear had been through the area recently, though from its size it looked more like black than grizzly.

Our second campsite was nearby Lone Star Geyser.  This is a pretty cool geyser, but less famous than Old Faithful because it goes off every 3 hours and you have to hike in to see it.  There had been a stagecoach road and then later a paved road put in, but they’ve since let it deteriorate into a hiking/biking trail. That evening after dinner, we meandered over and were treated to a 5 minute eruption. A bit disappointed after having read the stories of 25 minute eruptions in the log book, we went back to camp and tucked in for another night.

The next morning, however, as we were rounding the corner on our hike out, we saw Lone Star erupting much higher and stronger.  We stuck around for about 15 minutes and then had to get going, but the geyser was still going strong at that point.  It was pretty incredible.

Our backcountry adventure provided us with a uniquely Yellowstone hiking experience.  We do have to admit though, that when we saw the car we both felt a sense of relief.  The idea of encountering a grumpy grizzly bear had hung over the whole trip and it was a weight off the shoulders to be back in an arena where our protection was a little stronger than a hiking pole.

Continuing Education

Our first stop out of the backcountry was the National Park Service Ranger Museum. Housed in a building dating back to the period when the army protected the park from intruders, it’s a quaint museum staffed by retired rangers. It covers the history of the National Park Service and the ever evolving role of the Rangers. It was a cool stop after having met and been helped by so many Park Rangers on this trip.

Our second museum stop was an exhibit focused on the super-volcano that powers all of Yellowstone’s thermal action. Long story short, when the Yellowstone caldera blows the western US won’t be a very nice place to visit. They also had a huge diorama, a visitor center prop for which both of us are suckers. (Ben says “BEST EVER!”)

Volcanic soil + thermal action + water = sweet canyon

The Yellowstone Falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, to which our photos do not do justice.

Conditions are subject to change

We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs on our way out of Yellowstone. The pictures we had seen looked pretty cool, but current conditions were not the best. A large hot spring has built up a truly mammoth series of plateaus over many years. Unfortunately, the spring wasn’t really flowing while we were there, leaving lots of blank area on the normally colorful walls. The structure itself was pretty cool.

Wildlife on Display

Bison? Check.
Elk? Check.
Pronghorns? Check.
Moose? No.
Bear? No.

We saw tons of bison, elk and pronghorns, but we are sad to report a lack of moose. We are, however, happy to have escaped without a bear sighting. We were told at the Old Faithful visitors center that there was a grizzly that had moved back into that area, nicknamed “Elk Killer” for all the elk he had taken down last winter. Quite glad we didn’t run into that guy or one of his siblings on the trail.

Chao Wyoming

Yellowstone was a pretty cool National Park. In the most basic sense, we can check it off the list.  It is a place however that would not rule out coming back to in the future.  While we weren’t super excited to be in bear country (serious grizzly country), the thermals were pretty interesting.