9/10 - Yellowstone, Day 2

I'm going to split the last two days up because there are so many pictures.  This one will cover Saturday, 9/10.

We thoroughly enjoyed Ashlen and Eli's visit. We didn't see much of them because we went in different directions. We were a day ahead of them on seeing the park so at least we could provide advice on where to go next. They had two very full days here and have now (Monday) headed off to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho.

We were all very lucky with both weather and road closures. Ashlen and Eli entered the park through the south entrance on Saturday and it has now been closed because of the rapidly worsening fire (after Sunday's 40 mph wind gusts). We were all able to see the north end over the weekend, not knowing the road would be closed from Monday until Oct. 7th. Today turned cold and wet so was a terrible day to tour the park. The high was about 35 with snow all day long, none of which stuck. A local resident we talked to said they are all very happy to see the snow because it's the only thing that will put out the fires which have been burning since July and August. The weather is supposed to be wet for the next two days so we're hoping it will really help the firefighters although it's going to mess up our sight-seeing. 

Saturday we headed north up the west side of the upper loop. Yellowstone is made up of two large loops and five entrance roads which lead into the park to the loops. The map I have of the park has all the mileages listed on it, but there's no way to estimate the amount of time it will take to see everything or to account for traffic (which makes finding parking places quite challenging), so it's a good thing we allowed extra time here. It's taking a lot longer than we expected. 

Starting on Saturday.....

The Madison River valley through which the West Entrance Road runs. A beautiful entry to the park. This is also the area where elk are often seen. They've caused an elk jam all three times we've gone in and out of the park.

The first stop going north is the Norris Geyser Basin which looks very different from the geyser basins further south near Old Faithful. 

The Porcelain Basin section of Norris Geyser Basin with the Gallatin Mountains in back. 

 Constant Geyser

Whirligig Geyser (couldn't catch it erupting)

Emerald Spring (the fuzziness is steam)

Steamboat Geyser which has very large but unpredictable eruptions.

Echinus Geyser used to have very large eruptions but is now much quieter.

A beautiful valley in the Back Basin area of Norris Geyser Basin.

After trekking around the three miles of loops at Norris we went north again to the Mammoth Hot Springs area. This took us through the Golden Gate, very different terrain from the south end of the park.

The Golden Gate cliffs with the yellow rock that gave Yellowstone its name.

The Golden Gate Bridge which carries traffic up the canyon. An engineering and construction nightmare, it has been rebuilt several times over the 144 years since the park opened. 

Mammoth Hot Springs has two terraces with a driving loop around the upper and a walking loop around the lower. We didn't have time to do both so chose the upper. It had enough walking of its own, but it was very much worth it. Now that the road has been closed between us and Mammoth we can't go back to do the lower terrace as I hoped. We'll have to rely on Ashlen's pictures to see it.

Canary Springs

Cupid Springs

Glen Springs

Angel Terrace (I think) with trees which have been killed by the calcium carbonate surrounding them.

Angel Terrace

Detail from underwater section on Angel Terrace

Angel Terrace

Angel Terrace

Grassy Spring

Glen Spring has piled up mineral deposits for ages.

There was a huge difference between when we got to Mammoth and when we left. Firefighters were working on burning ground fuel to stop the Maple fire from spreading and the smoke was already way past Mammoth (50 miles from the fire) when we started back. 

The view driving back to the west entrance.

Tomorrow I'll post the pictures from Sunday.