Day 9 - Yellowstone Upper Loop

This was a cute little vent past Norris Basin, it was too busy in the morning, we will hit it later!

Another roadside vent as we zoomed by

Buffalo Bob, going the other direction ... guess he couldn't find the girls he was looking for. Poor old fella, holding up traffic FOREVER!!!

Scarp from a rock slide.

While wallking along the boardwalk of the Upper Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs, I thought the trees there were really cool. Some kind of Juniper would be my guess... they just look freakin' cool!

Alive or dead, these trees rock!

Without further ado, Mammoth Hot Springs...

The Travertine Terraces are very cool!

This is a plant that I thought was very interesting... the purple and how fuzzy it is.

A view across the terrace...

and another angle...

and another...

I think I covered all the angles!

I  love how the water drips over the entire edge, thus the terracing... very cool.

This gives an idea of how high it is.

You can see the little village down below.

A wee little geyser cone... so little!!

A bigger spring cone, bigger than a car!

Mammoth Terraces from the road

A lone dormant geyser cone.

A last look at Mammoth.

We stopped at Lava Creek for lunch, this was our picnic site

right near Lava Creek!

 Once we were fed and watered, we piled back in the truck and I saw a sign for Blacktail Plateau. Tim drove right past it and I was like, "that might have been something" so he turned around and we headed down a single lane dirt track. After a mile or so, we came upon a small cluster of vehicles stopped on the road. "Whatcha looking at?" Connor asked.

"We just saw a black bear up there but we lost him... " was the reply.

We drove on and around the next bend, I spotted ...

 Tim captured some awesome video of the bear and we were able to observe him for quite a bit. It pays to take these little side trips. It was a six mile jaunt over hill and dale, some narrow bits through the trees and some sharp drops over the edge but we made it in one piece, elated with being able to see a black bear. Connor was thrilled to bits! Right next to where we got back to pavement was the entrance to go and check out the Petrified Tree!!

They had to fence it because they already lost one of the trees to people taking bits and pieces as souvenirs.

The Petrified Tree is next to a live tree. They figure it was a redwood  originally and volcanic ash turned it to stone.

Funny that it is out here all by itself.

 Finally we made it all around the loop, the pass is very twisty to get around to Canyon. Surprisingly, Buffalo Bob did not make an appearance later in the day as we had thought he would. Luckily, Norris Basin was less busy than it was in the morning so we decided to do the shorter loop as it appeared that weather was blowing in...

This is Steamboat Geyser. It is very intermittent 4 - 40 years it will  discharge a 300 ft plume of water. Today was not one of those days. It just burbled.

Can you spot the hottie?? LOL!

Green Dragon Cave... Connor thought it was cool.

Blue Mud Steam Vent, aptly named.

Um, where are we and shouldn't we hurry, it looks like it could storm soon...

I thought these two pools looked like Harry Potter's glasses.

Connor  sustained an injury... a wee little sliver from the hand railing. DRAMA!!

I like the way the mineral deposits look like stones around a firepit on this geyser.

Uh oh, let's get out of here!!

So we high stepped it out of there, excellent cardio on varied terrain. I just didn't want to get caught in a deluge and we weren't overly confident we were close to the parking lot so we were going at a good clip. Back at the truck, we just pulled out of the parking lot when the rain hit and did it rain. From a slight shower to a downright deluge. We saw it all coming back to West Yellowstone. We had planned to BBQ some burgers but it was still raining when we returned so I made the executive decision (I do that alot) that we would go and try the "Authentic Mexican Restaurant" next to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Centre. We were pleasantly surprised. I had Carne Asade Tacos (steak, onion and peppers), Tim had the Mucho Grande Burrito... it was enormous and stuffed with shredded chicken and steak and filled a platter. Connor got adventurous and had a Buffallo Bacon Chesseburger. Since we didn't see Buffalo Bob on the way back, we imagined it was him that Connor was eating. We shared a Deep Fried Ice Cream (Connor's first) and by the time we were done supper, the rain had all but stopped.

Back to the trailer we went and we've been doing our own thing since. Me blogging and facebooking, Connor YouTubing and Tim playing with his video footage. Tomorrow we are off to Little Big Horn in Montana to Custer's Last Stand and a hotel stay in Billings. I am hoping we will be in town in time for me to go get a pedicure maybe. My back is now peeling from my burn and itchy so I am hoping the worst of it will be over by tomorrow. Scrub it off in the hotel tub (ewwwww!!). In the words of Porky Pig, "be de be de be de, that's all folks!"