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!"

Day 6 - More Lower Loop -- the roads less travelled

Since Day 4 we did the West side of the Lower Loop, and Day 5 was the East side... this day was to capture as much of the in between that we didn't take time to see... some of the lesser known spots.

We started by heading south, towards Old Faithful but took a turn at Firehole Falls Drive. What a marvelous surprise! Not only were there beautiful waterfalls, but we saw an Osprey up in a tree. I failed to get a picture of the Osprey but we did witness him diving from his perch upon a tree at the top of the canyon and plummet into the Firehole River to catch 2 fish. He dropped one but was successful with the other. Mmm, sushi lunch for him and a great bit of natures wonder for us.

Firehole Falls. Pretty and fresh in the morning.

Next we took in Firehole Lake Drive, another fantastic find.

What we thought would be a single geothermal turned out to be where the Fountain Geyser actually was.

Fountain Geyser is a great Fan Geyser so the mineral deposits in a terrace formation whereas Dome Geysers are more like a jet, straight up in the air. White Dome Geyser is in the distance here.

 We were able to witness the White Dome Geyser do it's thing en route as well.

We even got sprayed a little bit with water. It was awesome!!!

Many of the pools had wee little geysers in them.

From there we proceeded further south to check out the Black Sand Basin. There were many springs there as well.

This was called Canyon Geyser, I guess because it created it's own canyon type wall in to the river.

This is Black Pool, after an eruption in 1959, it's temperature raised which killed the lower temperature loving black thermophiles and now only the white, orange and blue can live in the spring.

This is Sunset Pool for the colouring of the thermophiles along the edge.

Next we went to see our friend Old Faithful again. Because of my injured left heel, I was wearing flip flops all day so no strenuous hikes today!! We found out when the next eruption was to take place, then went and had lunch. We lingered through the gift shop, found some enormous marshmallows and chocolate bars to make smores later this evening then went to find somewhere to sit to view the main event. I remembered my camera this time!!

Sorry for the heads in the way. We did not have rock star seating. We hotfooted it over to the Visitor Centre to see a short movie called Symphony of Fire about the geothermal phenomenon in the park. After that we puttered around in the gift shops looking for a specific holographic bookmark of Old Faithful that I was looking for... finally Tim saw a lady with them and asked her where she got them. Of course they were a free item in the educational section that we had yet to visit of the Visitors Centre. We finally found them and were free to go on with our days journey.

There is a very pretty spot at the Continental Divide called Isa Lake. The surface is covered in lilypads and yellow flowers. So pretty and serene. It is, by far, my favourite!

Our next stop was the West Thumb Geyser Basin. This one is neat because it is along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. Scientists have found  that the West Thumb portion of Yellowstone Lake is actually it's own caldera crater from a separate eruption more recently. This is why there are a number of geothermal phenomenon along the shore.

Emerald Pool, for obvious reasons!

Fishing Pot was under water due to high snows and rains, the lake was high.

This photo shows the springs in an almost necklace circular line. Nature likes jewelry too!

The shadows were getting longer and we were getting hungry and Tim still wanted to get over to Fishing Bridge so we decided that we would eat there and complete the eastern loop to see if more wildlife would be in the Hayden Valley nearer the evening.

We ate at the food counter/cafeteria at the Fishing Bridge Village and what a supper we had. Connor had a bacon cheeseburger that he says was to die for, Tim had a pulled pork sandwich, also very good and I chose the BBQ Brisket Sandwich which was also sublime. Everything tasted fresh and delicious. We fed our faces then got some lattes to go... the real stuff too, none of this crappy coffee... it took the guy a long time to make and the espresso was so tasty!!

We made a quick stop for a photo op on a black obsidian sand bar. The winds had whipped up the waves on Yellowstone Lake and Connor wanted to check it out. Tim showed him how to skip rocks on the calm side and I enjoyed the views and gave myself a pumice spa treatment in the rough sand.

Father and son on the shoreline

Spa-ah!!! Wait a minute, what happened to my ankles??? Dang!

Back on the road, we were hopeful to see some serious wildlife.

We called this guy "Buffalo Bob", he seemed to be walking away from the Hayden Valley but not in a hurry. Playing hard to get with the ladies methinks.

A scenic shot of the Hayden Valley. No wildlife!!

More Hayden Valley, but still no wildlife.

Elk crossing the river, far far away!!!

So much for the wildlife adventure. No matter, we were fat and fed and enjoying our vacation!! We made our way back to our campsite, readied ourselves to make smores (no small feat with enormous marshmallows) and hung out with the stars for a bit. Now it is time for me to say good night until tomorrow. Stay tuned for "Laundry and adventures in town!!"