I decided to make a grand trip around Yellowstone today, so I got up really early and headed north. At West Thumb I veered east around the north side of Yellowstone Lake and enjoyed the gorgeous views. I continued north after Fishing Bridge/Lake Village and stopped at LeHardy’s Rapids. Between the rapids and the Mud Volcano/Sulphur Caldron I noticed some bison in the distance and hooked up my telephoto lens for a few shots. Little did I know that not a quarter mile ahead was an entire herd of bison, all over the place just hanging out in and around the road. I drove through at first, then decided I needed more pictures and turned around and pulled over. As I was taking lots of shots of bison in the road, I noticed another group in the distance east of the road with calves. I angled my car so I could shoot out of the passenger window (because like heck I was getting out of my car in the middle of a 100+ herd of wild bison) and started to notice as the minutes passed having to pack the lens up more and more. Then I realized it was because they were coming towards me, and I was parked right where the pavement dipped and an obvious trail was located. So I knocked my car in reverse and back up out of the way. Despite this, one of them came right at me, and walked maybe a foot away from my driver side window (which I rolled up as soon as I saw him coming!) It was altogether an amazing, but also terrifying, experience and I’m glad I opted for the extra vehicle insurance even if I didn’t need it in that moment. Also, something I learned, although I am allergic to buffalo in zoos (sneezing, watering eyes, running nose hits me almost instantly once I get near them) I don’t seem to be allergic to bison…or perhaps there something in their diet that changes their dander that makes me allergic. I’m not sure!
After hanging out with the bison for half an hour or so, I continued over to Mud Volcano which also had a lot of bison hanging around it, and walked up to the Dragon Mouth which is a cave where sulfur smelling steam is constantly escaping and almost sounds like a dragon is inside sleeping with all the bubbling and rumbling from inside. Best steam cave ever!
I continued north, stopping to take pictures of the beautiful Yellowstone River and Hayden Valley until I got to Canyon Village. There I visited what is known as the “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone”, a gigantic gorge carved through by the Yellowstone River and I visited both the lower and the upper falls. Uncle Tom’s Trail was closed, which was a bummer, but I drove up the South Rim Drive to Artists Point and you guys, it was AMAZING. The view was gorgeous no matter which way you looked, the water was blue and aqua, the rocks were like rainbows of colors, I could have sat there all day just looking at all the things. However, I still had a long way to go and daylight was burning fast. I would have loved to have gone on the North Rim Drive too but it was shut down for construction, I’ll save that for next time.
I continued north up into the Washburn Range mountains, stopping at the various overloocks like Hot Springs Overlook, Dunraven Pass and all along the way of the curvey, swirly, “don’t drive on this if you’re tired” road up and around the mountains to Tower Falls. Word of advice, don’t drive all the way out to Roosevelt to see Tower Falls, it was the least impressive of all the falls to me. I would have loved to see the Petrified Tree but daylight was burning and I still needed to finish getting up and back down the route! I continued west through the Blacktail Deer Plateau, and again, I really wanted to stop at Wraith Falls and Undine Falls but it was already almost 4pm! I instead went straight to Mammoth Hot Springs.
For Mammoth Hot Springs, you can park on the lower end and walk around the lower spring terraces by foot. But if you don’t have time, or your feet are killing you (both conditions which I was experiencing at that time) you can jump back in your car and drive about a mile west to where the road loops back north and enter a one way drive through the upper terrace area. On the drive there are lots of pull-offs and I didn’t have trouble parking and walking to see the main upper terrace attractions. Given the driving options I was able to see all the highlights of the springs in about an hour, and I didn’t feel like death afterwards!
It was about 6pm when I left Mammoth and I had about a 2.5 hour drive back to the campground. So I jumped back on the southbound road and powered through, stopping at the Obsidian Cliff and Artists Paintpots. The Paintpots were pretty cool, very muted and pastel colors in the water and soil that made for almost a dreamy appearance. At near dark I did pull off to see Gibbon Falls, a fairly large waterfall with nice scenery in the background given that it was nearly sunset. By the time sunset was about ending I reached Gibbon River, where there were some gorgeous springs and geysers that the sunset light was reflecting off of beautifully! I had to stop one more time and get some pictures of it, it was so cool! Honestly, the whole trip today I was stopping every 15 minutes and either saying “Oh, pretty!” or “Holy shit!” or “Wow” it was almost comical. Driving in the dark at Yellowstone is pretty stressful, I don’t recommend it unless you absolutely have to. I didn’t have much choice, I was still almost 2 hours from camp. So I just cranked up the radio, rolled down the windows so any animals would hear me coming and powered my way home. I made a pit stop just outside of the Yellowstone south entrance to take some photos of the awesome super clear night sky. Seriously, after living in Chicago for 10+ years and suburbs of Michigan before that it had been a long, long time since I saw that many stars. I got some okay enough shots, then headed back. I left around 9am and didn’t get back until 11pm. What a day!
