Yellowstone Part 2 (Days 3 & 4)

Part 2! Once again, click to enlarge. :)

DAY 3:

While we were hiking a few short trails around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone I saw this flier for the night skies programs. The last night we were going to be in Yellowstone there was a program in Norris Geyser basin's Porcelain Basin. Yes! Remember this because there aren't any pictures. :P

The morning of our third day we woke up and drove to Mammoth and out of the park to see the Roosevelt Arch that is just before the North Entrance to the park. J loves Teddy Roosevelt and here he is with his arch. :D

Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. Super interesting and marvelous landscape.

After Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces we parked off a road somewhere just south of our campground and road our bikes along a gravel trail. We locked them to a bike rack and then hiked up a short unofficial trail near the Grand Prismatic Spring (remember that from the night before) to see it in the day time and from above. Look at the color!

From the unofficial Grand Prismatic Spring overlook J and I hiked back to our bikes and then continued to hike along the trail to Fairy Falls, seen here. Just past Fairy Falls is a back country geyser, Imperial Geyser. We decided to go for it...

Heading along the trail and the small Fairy Creek. Spray geyser was the first geyser we made it to - it was small and awesome. (No picture of Spray geyser.)

The landscape is so awe inspiring! it was cold out, and J decided to test the waters with his fingers. They didn't melt off so I did the same. The air was so chilly but the water was like bath water!

We finally made it to Imperial Geyser. This thing erupted like crazy and then would sit still. All the sudden it would start bubbling and spraying again. It did this every few minutes. We just stayed and watched it erupt a few times. It was probably my favorite geyser I saw! It was secluded because it was backcountry and there weren't many people on the trail. It also erupted almost continually so there was always a show or something to look forward to sooner rather than later.

The pool of Imperial Geyser. Look at how ridiculously clear that water it. You could see so deep!

We hiked back to the bikes and started our ride back to the car. Here you can see the gravel path (kind of freaks me out because we were on our road bikes, but I did fine!) Also: buffalo!

We went back to Old Faithful hotel for showers (again) and drinks. This is the closest I've ever come to "glamping" (glamor camping).

Refined (and not stinky!)

We decided we wanted to see the Old Faithful Snow Lodge that stays open in the winter. On our way to enter the building (which we figured out wasn't the actual lodge on our way out) we caught the leftover steam of an Old Faithful eruption.

View from inside the building. From here we headed to our night sky program. It was wonderful. Freezing cold and I wore all my layers, but still amazing. The moon was completely full and lit up the steam so beautifully. The best part was during a lull in the ranger's story when one of the geysers went off and surprised everyone just a little bit.

DAY 4:

I believe this picture was from the next morning. We woke up early to head out and beat the traffic.

On our way we caught a muted dawn. This is Lewis lake, and that is the reflection of the moon.

Another view of Lewis Lake and low clouds.

Lewis Lake and fog.

A panorama, because it's BEAUTIFUL!

This was just on the other side of the road from Lewis Falls. The whole landscape was just like our tent when we woke up: crispy with ice. (We just folded the ice coated tent as best we could and through it in plastic garbage bags. We took it out, dried it off, and folded it back up at home when it was thawed.

Yep, crazy, beautiful trip! It was totally worth it and I'm so glad we made it happen. July and August is a super popular time to go, which is why we waited until September and it was still relatively busy sans all the traffic jams we'd read happen in the warmer summer month.
The biggest traffic jam we saw was when we were headed towards Norris from Canyon Village and everyone and their brother was pulled over. We did the same. Off the road there was a grizzly, probably eating something, because he never even looked up. A ranger had a spotting scope and you could see him clear as day in it. Such a strange looking animal, but so cool! We did a good job with wildlife. Saw a lot of the little critters as well as pronghorn, coyotes, buffalo, moose, and bears. We did not see wolves, however, though we heard they were difficult to find. Maybe next time...

;)

-TJ