Yes, I know.  I am two days behind again.  Problems with poor Internet connections and being tired are the culprits.  We are in Miles City, MT heading for Medora, ND.  I will do my best to get caught up.

JULY 15, 2014

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

WYOMING

We left Cody at 8 :00 a.m. and began our drive through Buffalo Bill State Park to the east entrance going into Yellowstone.  The drive to the entrance took an hour so we did not get into the park until around 9 :00 a.m.

 If you look at the map at the end of the text you will see our route highlighted in red.  This route took us across Sylvan Pass at an elevation of 8,530 feet.  This took us around the beautiful shoreline of Sylvan Lake accented by even higher mountain peaks still covered with snow.  The temperature was in the upper 60's when we stopped to make some pictures at the lake.

A little further down the road we began skirting the shoreline of  Yellowstone  Lake.  This is a huge lake with a surface elevation of 7,733 feet.  Parts of the lake are more than 400 feet deep.   This lake makes Lake Anna look like a farm pond.  We intersected with the road making the lower loop of the park at  Fishing  Bridge. There is a huge RV park here that has full hook-up sites that can be reserved.  I think that this is where we will try to get a campsite if we ever come back to Yellowstone.  We continued to follow the road next to the lake shoreline to the West Thumb Geyser Basin where we began to see clouds of steam rising just like the forest was on fire.  Speaking of fire, we observed huge areas that were burned by a fire several years ago.  All of the standing trees were dead giving the appearance of toothpicks dotting a sea of new green vegetation.  The fire must have been massive.

 We went through Craig Pass at an elevation of 8,262 feet and crossed the Continental  Divide.  We stopped at the Visitor Center for Old Faithful.   We parked in a lot for  RV's and noticed the Oscar Mayer Weiner Mobile a few spaces away.   I have no idea why it was there but it made an excellent photo opportunity for Me, Nancy and Oscar.

 It was a fairly long walk to the area where Old Faithful is located.  We arrived at around 12:30 p.m. and noted the next expected eruption was 1:32 p.m.  We spent some time walking around Old Faithful and looking at some of the smaller geysers.  That was when the sky's opened up and it started pouring rain.  Along with several hundred other people we made a mad dash for the Visitor Center.  By this time the temperature was in the 50's.  The gift shop was packed with people dressed in shorts and T-shirts buying jackets and sweatshirts.  I was glad we had the foresight to bring our own jackets.

It was still raining when time for Old Faithful's eruption arrived.  I found a spot in front of a window in the visitor center where I could make photos.  I wasn't really all that impressed.  In fact it was sort of a letdown.  The place was too "Disney" and lacked the atmosphere of the non-commercialized parts of the Park.  Like Disney, there were more people in the crowd that spoke a language other than English.

We left Old Faithful and meandered around at least a half-dozen geyser basins.  The area is surreal with all the bubbling cauldrons, steam vents, mud pots and geysers.  You stop and think, "I am standing on top of a volcano".  It is really a strange feeling.

Our next big stop was Canyon Village.  There you can view the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  The canyon is some 22 miles long and 400 feet deep.  The Yellowstone River runs at the bottom of the canyon which includes two massive waterfalls.  There are overlooks at the top of the canyon and trails that go down into the canyon.  We were so tired of walking that we elected to stay on top and visit the overlooks on the north rim.

We drove back down stopping at the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Caldron before back-tracking from Fishing Bridge to Cody.  All total we spent 14 hours on our trip into Yellowstone.  We saw a lot but still missed even more.  I feel like we could spend at least a full day at the canyon.  We did not take the upper loop to Mammoth Hot Springs or Tower-Roosevelt.  I guess they will have to wait for the next visit to Yellowstone.

The opportunity to visit the park was extremely exciting.  It is a beautiful place with many wonders.  The photos below are only a small sample of over 200 that we took.

 

We encountered Bison, Mule Deer, Elk and Black Bear in the park.  Note the pretty yellow flowers and the backdrop of burned forest and dead trees.

Perhaps the best photo of them all?

Sylvan Lake.  Yes, that is SNOW on the mountains in the background.

 We are following a tour buss heading toward Sylvan Pass.  This gives you an idea of the mountains we had to cross.

 We encountered many geyser fields along our route.  The clouds of rising steam make it look like there was a fire.

 We finally made it to Old Faithful.  The crowds were thick and it began raining.  The temperature dropped into the low 50's.

Certainly not the best picture of Old Faithful.  The rain and crowds kept me from getting a better pic.

 We encountered scores of hot pools along our route.  The water in this one was crystal clear and the cavern descended out of sight.  The blue color is from copper deposits.

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  I shot this photo from a south rim overlook.  The stream at the bottom is really the Yellowstone River.

This is the best shot I could get of the first waterfall on the Yellowstone River going into the canyon.  We could easily spend two days here exploring the catwalks down into the canyon and visiting both the North and South rim.