Yellowstone: Close Encounters of the Buffalo Kind

    On our drive back from Mammoth Hot Springs, we stopped along Gardner River and did some walking. It was a beautiful place to walk and take photos and the weather was perfect. I kept forgetting to keep my eye out for large and small critters because the scenery was so distracting. Here's some photos.

Gardner River

Gardner River

    However, it was the trip from Gardner River that was the real gem! While we were driving down the road, we came across a bit of a traffic jam. A lone buffalo was ambling down the center of the road with both lanes stopped. And he did not care how long it took! And he definitely was not concerned about being surrounded by vehicles. It was pretty cool to come that close to something so massive and powerful.

............

Whoa!

     Here's a few more shots on our way back to camp:

    On Wednesday, we drove 45 miles northeast to Lamar Valley where there's even more buffalo. That's supposed to be one of the best places to see buffalo, bears and wolves. No luck with wolves, but we did see one bear from REALLY far away. We did happen upon a young and slightly curious coyote though. 

On the way to Lamar Valley

And, oh, wait...more buffalo...

   After Lamar Valley, we drove to Slough Creek and hiked part of the trail there. We didn't make it too far because of the incline, but we tried!

Slough Creek Trail

Up to no good: Karl, me & Patience

Leaving Slough Creek

Leaving Slough Creek

   The Artist Paintpots was our next stop after Slough Creek, but that will have to wait until the next blog.

Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs and more...

     After visiting Old Faithful Geyser, we were ready to relax at the campground. Madison campground was nice because you're surrounded by people, but you still feel like you have space. Here's a couple photos to give you an idea. They have a gravel section that is boxed off for your tents and then a picnic table. In front of each campsite is a paved pull-in for your car. The restrooms were also nice. Can't complain about running water and flush toilets!

      Later that same evening, Karl and I walked across the street to Madison River that runs next to our campground. I set up my tripod and took, you guessed it!, some photos... :)  Throughout the trip, I used a new filter on my camera called a circular polarizer. It's pretty easy to get the hang of, but you need to have plenty of sunlight to work with or you can't really see the difference. It's great for nature/landscape photography because it cuts down on haze and gives you more saturated colors (like a bluer sky, for instance). That's definitely something I'll be blogging about more at a later date because I saw a massive difference in my photos after using a circular polarizer!

Madison River

Madison River

       On our way back to the campground, we came across a female elk grazing right across from our campsite! She hung around for a good 30 minutes and then meandered over to the next lane of campsites. Absolutely beautiful!

 

        The next day, Tuesday 31st, we headed towards Mammoth Hot Springs about 35 miles north of our camp.  Along the way I took a few shots from the car.

Driving towards Mammoth Hot Springs

Driving towards Mammoth Hot Springs

    When you reach Mammoth Hot Springs, the lower terraces are visible from the road. We parked near Liberty Cap which is right before you enter the small "town" of Mammoth. There's a lot more to the Springs than what we saw, but here are a few photos.

Map

Liberty Cap

Devil's Thumb at Mammoth Hot Springs

     We spent most of our afternoon in Mammoth, going into the General Store and looking for souvenirs to bring back home. During our drive back to camp, we stopped along the Gardner River and did some sightseeing and also had our first major encounter with a buffalo, but that's for next time.

Yellowstone or Bust: Old Faithful Geyser

     So, Yellowstone! Finally! On our last day of driving, we woke up early, drove through Bighorn (previous blog) and made it into Yellowstone at last.

   The entrance fee was only $25 for a little over a week. Not a bad deal. Once we were inside the park it was even harder not to drive off the road because the scenery takes your breath away. I, unfortunately, didn't take many photos leading into the park because we were just ready to get to the campsite.

     We came in through the eastern entrance and drove around Yellowstone Lake (huge!) up to Canyon Village to Norris then to our campground, Madison. All in all, it was about 69 miles from the east entrance to our campground. Driving at 45 miles per hour, and that's only when you're not having to stop behind a line of cars that saw a buffalo and forgot what a pullout was for, it took a solid 1 1/2 hours to get to the campground. At that point we were definitely ready for some R&R topped with an ice cold beer.


    Joining us for that ice cold beer was George, our very own Yellowstone prairie dog. Later his friends, John, Ringo and Paul would join the party.

    These guys were social butterflies especially when the food came out. There were tiny holes in the ground all over the campsite that they ran through and, if you sat really still, they would walk right up to your feet. I wasn't expecting them to be quite so friendly. One of them came up right by my feet and when I lifted my legs up he acted like he was about to jump onto my leg! Cute, but a little too close for comfort. Every now and then, we would catch one that was brave enough to jump onto our picnic table and make it to our lunch. We definitely received a warm welcome to Yellowstone :)




     The second day in Yellowstone, we set out for the Old Faithful Geyser Basin about 16 miles south of our campground. Can I say, "WOW," again? We walked from Old Faithful Geyser and made about a 5 mile loop around the geyser basin. The colors were just amazing, the smell not so much.

Here's a map of the trail we took. Starting at the bottom right with Old Faithful and then veering towards the right and walking #6 to #17 Morning Glory Pool then back down to #4 that led to beginning of trail. I got sprayed a couple of times, but I guess you can't really say you've been to Yellowstone without getting sprayed by a geyser. The walk itself was beautiful and very sunny. We looked like tomatoes over the next couple of days. If you're planning on walking this trail just make sure you bring more water then you think you'll need because you will need it. It's not a difficult trek but you will be guzzling H2O.



I'll stop talking now and show some photos :)

Chinese Spring

Blue Star Spring

Pump Geyser

Grotto Geyser

Morning Glory

Old Faithful Geyser

Grotto Geyser

Bighorn National Forest to Shoshone

     Bright and early Sunday morning (July 29th), Karl and I left our Wyoming hotel and started our last leg to Yellowstone. Along the way, we passed through Bighorn National Forest and Shoshone National Forest and can I just say...GORGEOUS! It was the perfect prelude to Yellowstone itself. Basically our conversation went from "ooooohhhhh" to "aaaaaaaahhhh" to "Hey, look at that!"and back again. Absolutely beautiful and, at times, a bit nerve-wracking with those drop-offs right next to the road. You definitely don't want to take your eyes off the road!

Here are some photos taken from the car as we passed through Bighorn and Shoshone.











We had a couple close calls with deer. You can tell they're used to traffic coming through because they look both ways before they cross :)

Be prepared to not look at the road when you get into Bighorn. And if you get carsick on those mountain roads (like me) be prepared to suck it up and deal with it. Luckily, I had my camera to help distract me.

Another passenger-side view of Wyoming...

Nearing the end of our drive through Bighorn and Shoshone. Our expectations were surpassed before we even got into the park! Once reaching Yellowstone, it would be another 1 1/2 hours before reaching our campground but that's another blog.

Road Trip to Yellowstone

      On Friday, July 27th, my honey and I set out at 7:30am to start the long and arduous drive to Yellowstone Park. We left Georgia and drove through Tennessee, Kentucky, cut through the bottom tip of Illinois and traveled across Missouri. I tried to save my memory cards for Wyoming but that didn't happen. While passing through St. Louis, Missouri we saw the Gateway Arch. I was able to get this photo as we passed by.

      And some Missouri fields...

    From Missouri, we drove along the border of Nebraska and Iowa and then into South Dakota. Driving through South Dakota we saw a lot of bikes and trailers headed for the Sturgis Rally not to mention a very interesting (and rather random) outdoor museum of giant statues. I fought the urge to snap away. I'm still waiting for Yellowstone! But here's a windshield snapshot of a South Dakota cloud.

    And then sweet Wyoming!

   At this point in the trip, we'd been driving for 2 days. Time for a hotel :) The next morning we got up bright and early and made our way through Bighorn National Forest. And that's where I finally lost control of my shutter button. But that's for my next post!