Day 63 - What An Amazing Day!

Trip Start May 19, 2008
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65
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Trip End Nov 08, 2008

Flag of United States  , Wyoming,
Sunday, July 20, 2008

The roads through Yellowstone form a rough figure of eight and so today we took the northern loop. As most people were seeming to go anti-clockwise, we went clockwise in an effort to avoid the crowds, at least until later on. Only a couple of hundred yards out of the camp-site we came to the Mammoth Hot Springs area visitor centre. Although you are forbidden to get closer than 25 yards to the wildlife (100 yds for grizzlies and wolves), there are plenty of elk mooching around on the grassy areas around the various buildings quite unbothered by the people and the traffic all around them. We even saw one use the pedestrian crossing!

Bypassing Mammoth Springs until later we headed for the Tower-Roosevelt area, crossing the 45th Parallel for the fourth time this trip. Honestly it's worse than buses! First point of call was a petrified tree which is still upright, as opposed to the logs of Petrified Forest N.P. There were three examples some years ago, but now only the partial remains of one is still present, thanks to people taking a "little bit" away with them.

Next stop was the Tower Falls, a waterfall where the water of the Yellowstone river falls 132 ft into the Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone. From here we climbed to 8850 ft and the Dunraven Pass, passing distant bison on the hillside below. As we began our descent down the other side, we rounded a bend to be confronted by chaos. Parked cars on both sides of the road, people out of their cars and the moving traffic trying to make its way through the mess. Elk
Elk
 In the middle of it all was a ranger, and as we passed we asked what was going on. To which she replied "Grizzly bear". Well we couldn't believe our luck. Although the Grizzly population is reasonably healthy in Yellowstone, the park covers a vast area and it's a rare treat to actually see one in close proximity. So we pulled into the first available space and jumped out armed with camera and binoculars. What an amazing experience! It was incredible to watch while he foraged in the grass and generally just wandered around, doing bear stuff. He was approximately 300 yds away up on the hillside and seemed quite oblivious to the commotion he had caused below. After watching him for around 20 minutes, it began to rain and he headed further up the hillside and over the ridge.

Next stop was the Canyon area visitor centre, newly refurbished and very impressive with all kinds of high-tech exhibits relating to the volcanic nature of Yellowstone and volcanic activity around the world. Although we knew that there is a lot of geo-thermal activity in and around Yellowstone, what we didn't know before we got here is that three tremendous volcanic eruptions occurred in this area between 2 million and 640,000 years ago, the latter of these creating the Yellowstone Caldera, a huge crater more than 45 by 30 miles in size and covering more than half of what is now the continental US in volcanic ash. The other thing we hadn't really given any thought to, is what is causing all this geo-thermal activity. Well in fact Yellowstone is a volcanic hot spot in much the same way as Hawaii is. Grizzly In The Wild © MFox 2008
Grizzly In The Wild © MFox 2008
 So basically we are spending a few days in the middle of one massive actively volcanic area.

Also located at Canyon is a laundry, so we took full advantage of the facilities and did three loads of washing. About an hour and a half later, all washed and dried up, we headed for "home" and Mammoth Hot Springs. Not far down the road we encountered a bison wandering along right by the side of the road. From thinking that we would be very lucky to see any of these huge creatures at all, to seeing one just on the other side of the road. Amazing!

We arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs late afternoon and so the crowds were not too great. The springs are a really weird sight. They are formed where mineral-laden hot water from deep beneath the earth's crust rises to the surface and builds cascading terraces of stone as it deposits the minerals. The sculpting of the terraces began thousands of years ago and still continues as thousands of gallons of water well up and deposit large amounts of minerals daily. After walking around the lower terraces we decided to take the drive around the upper terraces (no footpaths). Very disappointing and not worth the gas, the lower terraces are far more spectacular.

Back at the camp-site it was dinner and an early night for us. We've decided to get up really early to beat the crowds down at Old Faithful in the morning.

Miles travelled: 81

Total miles travelled: 4577

Days on road: 43

States visited: 9

National Parks visited: 8
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