High Tide And Green Grass: Yellowstone National Park

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Yellowstone National Park

We finally made it to Yellowstone National Park. It is difficult to get a spot at the campgrounds inside the park and most of the spots aren't big enough for our 5th wheel so we stayed at Henry's Lake State Park which is in Island Park, Idaho about 15 miles from the West entrance to Yellowstone.

Yellowstone was great - the only complaint was the amount of driving we had to do - this park is enormous. We put on several hundred miles inside the park just to see the highlights. We also experienced some lengthy delays (30 to 60 minutes each) - two of them due to road repairs/construction and one due to a "bison jam". A herd of buffalo decided to block the road for a while so we had to wait for the rangers to come and clear the road.

Our Route

Lots of bison in the park

One of the many geyser basins

Hot spring pool

Boiling mud pot - look closely and you can see the mud bubbles

One of hundreds of geysers

More hot pools

Life forms growing in the near boiling water

This steaming pool was about 30 feet deep

Another geyser getting ready to spout

Old Faithful - just starting to spout

Old Faithful - at her max height for this eruption

Yellowstone Lake from a distance

You cross the Continental Divide several times while traveling through the park

Quite a few elk around also

Several waterfalls on the upper loop - don't remember the name of this one

Another geyser basin

This was in the middle of town in Mammoth Hot Springs - the elk pretty much have the run of the place

Fort Yellowstone at Mammoth Hot Springs - this is one of the original buildings from the 1890's when a fort was established here to allow the US Army to manage and maintain the park. This was the main barracks building. Thirty-five of the original seventy buildings are still standing, most of which are still in use - several as residences for park employees.