Yellowstone Day 3 - Mt. Washburn

As our time in Yellowstone was more efficient that initially anticipated, we found ourselves with a whole extra day and no REAL must-do/sees on the list.  We had not yet managed to see the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance, but due to flood damage, doing so would require about an 8 hour drive (out the west entrance, up, around and back south to reach the arch from the north).  We HAD been within a few miles of the north entrance when we were at Mammoth Hot Springs, but the road connecting the two was washed out.

We decided against using a whole day on that drive and will just have to return to Yellowstone (maybe in the Winter when the north entrance is the only place to be) and see the Arch.

Instead we decided to hike to the peak of Mt. Washburn.  There are two ways to access this destination - Dunraven Pass or Chittenden 'Road'.  We checked the recent chatter on AllTrails and learned that there had been several mamma bear and cubs encountered along Dunraven Pass.  Out of an abundance of caution, we decided to move forward and tackle via Chittenden Road.  

We tracked the hike using RunKeeper and it turned out to be 5.63 miles round trip and took us 2:09:59.  

Full Disclosure - we're blogging almost five months in arrears and this next note is from that Runkeeper record and had been blissfully forgotten:

"Tough hike up service road.  Russ carried both backpacks for a bit.  Debated wisdom of bringing zoom lens and DSLR but saw sheep so I guess it was worth it.  Down was much easier."

Yellowstone Day 2 - North Loop

 On our second full day in Yellowstone we ventured NE from our hotel to drive the upper loop, wildlife spotting and visiting Mammoth Hot Springs!  WOW was that successful!  

It's so close selfie!

It's so close photo!

When the Bison come out to play, traffic slows for the day! 

The Horace M Albright Visitor Center is near the north entrance to the park ... which during our visit was closed due to damage from recent flooding.  We accessed it via the in-park northern loop.  

The Visitor center has a ton of interesting displays, and particularly if you aren't participating in a tour or an audio-self-tour should be checked out.  

Across the street (more or less) from the visitors center is Mammoth Hot Springs.  This area is pretty concentrated and can be explored via boardwalk.  There is a drive around at the top of springs with some pull-outs which are HC accessible; but honestly the views there are subpar.  

After exploring Mammoth, we headed south, debating on dinner plans, at this point we have driven all of the material internal routes in Yellowstone and decided to visit the town of West Yellowstone just outside the park boundaries.  As we drove, however, Wifey (who is awesome) spotted a bear off to the side of the road!  This was one animal we had not found yet during out adventures!  

Hubby's superior driving skills came into play next as he pulled a you-turn and 'parked' to the side of the road so we could bear-watch and photograph!

Once the bear left sight, we continued on our way and spotted Elk off the road leaving the park towards West Yellowstone.  The elk were quite a distance away and this as as close up as the zoomy lens would get!

Yellowstone Day 1 - South Loop

For our first full day in Yellowstone we began at Artists Point along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone before sunrise.  It was cold and dark!  Our selfies turned out less than optimal ... however look!  Proof we were there:  

The next part of the day was spent driving around, watching for wildlife.  As it turns out, Bison are everywhere within Yellowstone!   (actually they're largely concentrated in two different valleys, however it felt like they were everywhere!)

As we continued our drive around the park towards the Grand Prysmatic Spring (listening to our GyPSy guide the whole way and stopping as recommended) we came to Firehold Falls.  The End.

Continuing south, we arrived and suited up for our hike on the Fairy Falls Trail to overlook the spring!  This trail was overpopulated and not at all challenging.  But the view was worth the annoyance!  

To make our trip to Grand Prismatic complete, after hiking to the overlook, we walked back to our can and drove down to the Midway Geyser Basin.  Parking was insane, but Hubby's skills overcame and we walked the boardwalk over/next to the spring and some of its neighbors.  This was a cool experience, but I would not recommend it in lieu of the hike.  The spring is just so massive you cannot truly appreciate the view from up close.  

Another proof of existence selfie:

A neighboring Geyser:

Close up of Grand Prismatic Spring:

One of Wifey's favorite therman features in Yellowstone seems to be a bit anticlimactic, but are really awesome .... mud pots as seen below.  These are literally pools of boiling mud! 

These posts are colored blue due to mineral deposits from the steam coming off the nearby hot spring!

Leaving the Midway Geyser Basin, we continued south along the southern loop.  We hoped that Norris Geyser Basin might be open again.  It wasn't; but we did enjoy driving by lake yellowstone and generally checking out the amazing scenery and wildlife.  
 

Upper Geyser Basin

Our first stop in Yellowstone was Old Faithful.  Old Faithful is of course a famous and popular destination inside the park; but we chose it for day one because it was literally on the way to our lodging and Wifey loves and opportunity to knock out a crowded and people-filled must-see so the rest of our trip could be a bit calmer!  

Knowing that, the sheer infrastructure and traffic in the Old Faithful area was a shock.  We exited, yes, exited the main road, took a loop-de-do and finally found ourselves at some reasonable parking near the Old Faithful Inn.  Online research ahead of our trip recommended parking there instead of directly by the Old Faithful Visitors Center.  Good advice.    

After parking, our first action was to check the visitors center and find out when the next predicted eruption was.  

We knew we wanted to watch Old Faithful erupt from Observation Point, but also that that would take some time to make the hike.  As it happened, the next eruption was imminent so we followed the crowd a few steps away to the viewing seats.  

After the eruption, we started off on our hike to Observation Point so we'd be ready for the next round.  Old Faithful erupts approximately every 92 minutes, so we had plenty of time for the half mile hike.  There was some material elevation change, but we'd packed our lunches and plenty of water for the adventure!  

As most of our National Park experiences, we met fantastic people while we hiked and waited around and enjoyed eating and chatting it up!  Eventually it was time and Old Faithful dazzled us again! 

Having our fill of Old Faithful, we walked back down the mini-mountain and decided to meander a bit in the upper geyser basin area. While checking out another of the area geysers, we were blessed to strike up a conversation with a geyser gazer.  He shared some interesting trivia about the geysers we were watching AND shared that beehive was showing signs of relatively imminent (say in an hour or so) eruption.  Now, wifey had heard of Beehive in her pre-trip research and knew this would be a special treat so we decided to stay in the area and wait it out! 

Beehive erupts higher than Old Faithful, for a longer period of time, and you can stand very very close to it while it erupts. In addition, it has a neighbor geyser that tends to erupt about 15 minutes prior to Beehive giving an indication that Beehiving is about to go!  How polite!

Since we're blogging in arrears, I don't recall what pool this is ... but isn't it stunning!?

After leaving the Upper Geyser Basin we continued driving through the park towards our new lodging and were lucky to see some Bison along the way!