Day three, Yellowstone

On our last day in Yosemite we started with a lovely drive from West Yellowstone beside the Madison River.

 

 

Another bison herd.

Firehole Falls.

 

 

A white swan studying it's reflection.

 

 

There are many different wild flowers out now.

 

 

Crossing the bridge to the Midway Geyser Basin and the Grand Prismatic Spring.

 

 

A hot spring.

 

In front of the Grand Prismatic Spring. At 113 metres wide, this rainbow coloured hot spring along the Firehole River is one of the world's largest.

 

 

Amazing colours.

 

 

At the Upper Geyser Basin, Old Faithful was smouldering away. It erupts around every 90 minutes, goes up 36-55m and is the pride of Yellowstone.

 

 

Inside the iconic Old Faithful Inn.

 

 

The Old Faithful Geyser put on a long and impressive performance for us.

 

 

Going for along the boardwalks to see the other thermal activity in the area.

 

 

The Castle Geyser

 

 

Bacterial growth in a thermal pond.

 

 

A pale version of Indian Paintbrush.

 

 

 

Hot spring in the Old Faithful Geyser area.

 

 

Second viewing of Old Faithful Geyser.

 

 

The balcony of the Old Faithful Inn is a great place for lunch while you view the second performance.

 

 

Another thermal area, the West Thumb Geyser Basin, on the edge of Yellowstone Lake.

 

A hot spring.

 

 

Bill on the boardwalk. There was thermal activity in the lake itself.

 

 

Colourful hot springs.

 

 

A beautiful Mountain Blue Bird.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day two, Yellowstone

On our second day in Yellowstone National Park we toured from Gardiner, Montana, just outside the Northern Entrance, to West Yellowstone, also in Montana, just outside the western entry. It took us all day, stopping at sights along the way, including two large thermal areas, Mammoth Hot Springs and the Norris Geyser Basin. The park has more than 10,000 thermal features. We stopped two nights in West Yellowstone.

 

 

First stop for the day.

 

 

 

The Albright Visitors Centre and Park Hearquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs.

 

 

We did a walking tour of the historic Fort Yellowstone. This is one of the homes built for the US Army when they protected the park from 1886-1916. It is now occupied by National Park staff.

 

 

Looking over the town of Mammoth Hot Springs from the Hot Spring Terraces.

 

 

One of the mineral rich hot springs.

 

 

The terraces of travertine (calcium carbonate).

 

 

The mineral-Laden hot water from deep beneath the earth's crust comes to the top and builds these tiers of cascading, terraced stone. It began thousands of years ago and large amounts of travertine still build up daily.

 

 

The lovely colours come from bacteria.

 

 

Some of these terraces look magical.

 

 

Bill in front of the Devil's Thumb.

 

 

Wow, two brown grizzly bears.Well spotted.

 

 

One of the historic park information stands.

 

 

This day's picnic lunch spot.

 

 

Beaver Lake.

 

 

At the Norris Geyser Basin.

 

 

Water full of lime.

 

 

Walking the boardwalk.

The Whirlygig geyser.

 

A fumarole emitting steam and volcanic gasses. 

 

 

Hot spring.

 

 

Mud pots.

 

 

At the Artists Paintpots.

 

 

Boiling water.

 

 

Gibbon Falls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yellowstone National Park 7,8,9 June

We spent three very long days in the stunning Yellowstone National Park. It is the World's first national park, established in 1872. There is such an enormous variety of vegetation, geology, flora and fauna. Every where we went was amazingly beautiful.

 

 Our picnic spot on the first day was at Sylvan Lake, after we went over the Sylvan Pass from Cody.The reflections in the lake were beautiful.

 

 

Ducks the American way.

 

 

On the Yellowstone River at LeHardys Rapids, we watched spawning cutthroat trout trying to jump over the falls and migrate up stream. Unfortunately the river was running so fast, none that we saw were successful.

 

Our first sighting of bison (or buffalo). Very exciting.

 

 

That was the first of many. Here are two mothers with their babies.

 

 

An American pika, a small, rodent-like mammals with short stout bodies, big round ears and no visible tail.

 

 

Dragon's Mouth Spring at Mud Volcano, a area full of mudpots, fumaroles and hot springs.

 

 

Boiling mud.

 

 

A hot spring. We must have walked a million miles on boardwalks like this in Yellowstone.

 

 

This herd of buffalo caused a traffic jam crossing the road, a common sight in the park.

 

 

We think this must be woodpecker damage. Didn't manage to catch them at it.

 

 

At the Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone, we took the long and steep Uncle Tom's Trail, which included 328 of these steps.

 

 

Here was the warning sign. We took the advice and rested often on the way up. Wasn' too bad.

 

 

The view of the Lower Falls, which are 308 feet deep, made it well worthwhile.

 

 

Because of a lot of recent rain and snow, the river was really raging.

 

 

Continuing along the South Rim Drive we began to realise why they called the park Yellowstone.

 

 

 The view from Artist Point.

 

 

There is never any shortage of kind Americans offering to take your photo at special places.

 

After that we took the North Rim Drive and took the trail to the brink of the Upper Falls. Very dramatic looking down.

 

 

Looking over the Lower falls.

 

An iconic photo of the Canyon from Grand View lookout.

 

 

We got a shock when looked over to the south rim and saw the stairs of Uncle Tom's Trail we had climbed.

 

 

Unusual geological formations near Tower Roosevelt.

 

 

 

Then, just to make the first day at the park extra special, we saw a black bear.

 

 

That night we stayed in the wild west town of Gardiner, in Montana, just outside the northern gate of Yellowstone.

 

 

An elk at Gardiner.