We left camp earlier than usual this morning with the hopes of returning with sunlight for a change. After making the turn south at Madison towards West Thumb, we made our first unscheduled detour, taking the Firehole Lake Drive. We came across this colorful feature adjacent to the road and stopped as there was no one there.
This scalding hot cauldron was right next to the road. It would be painful to step into this guy while walking roadside in the dark!
This is the “Great Fountain Geyser”. Because of the low-lying center, it would be considered a fairly young (in geological time) geyser.
Cathy with Jason at the Great Fountain. We had to take a short hike to the woods to seek Bison (that’s our story and we will stick to it).
This was Jason’s favorite at this location. It was called “Steady Geyser” and appears to be having a continuous, smallish eruption.
Adjacent to the Great Fountain and Steady Geysers, the combined outflow was contained in “Hot Lake”. They named it that for a reason!
This is the outflow from Hot Lake into “Firehole Lake”.
After a short stay at this location, we continued down the highway to Midway Geyser Basin, home of the “Grand Prismatic Spring”. After an unsuccessful attempt at finding parking (and it was still cloudy) we continued on toward the Fishing Bridge at Lake Village. There must be sunshine to get the full, colorful effect of the Grand Prismatic. I have seen this one many years ago and it is impressive, about as good as it gets to say the least.
Between Old Faithful and West Thumb, we crossed the Continental Divide at Craig Pass. There was a lily pad lined shallow alpine lake directly behind the sign.
We dropped rather quickly into the West Thumb area and followed the shoreline towards Lake Village. Jason was chomping at the bit to heave rocks into the lake so we stopped to let him “do his thing”.
He can even throw rocks and talk on the phone at the same time, a little multi-tasker in the making! We had cell reception briefly at this location but lost it within a mile.
We did stop to get a shot of this guy having brunch. It was the first elk we have seen with the new growth of antlers.
After making another detour to the Marina at Bridge Bay to see the boats, we finally arrived at the Fishing Bridge, over the Yellowstone River. By the way, the boat concession did not open for the season until June 11th. I found some lures that are made in Sheridan, Montana and not readily available in Georgia, so I picked up several.
This is a view from the Fishing Bridge, looking downstream. In June and July the native Cutthroat spawn near this bridge. Unfortunately, the spawn had not started yet.
After “crossing over” Jason is sitting on the evidence that we are at the Yellowstone River.
Crossing the highway, we came across these stairs leading down to the river. They are remnants of those days when fly fishermen would get into the water with their waders to fish during the spawn. Actual fishing at the Fishing Bridge was closed in 1973 to protect the spawn. To fish, you would have to be at least one mile downstream. There is no fishing at the fishing bridge!
The view from the bridge looking upstream, into Yellowstone Lake.
Continuing on, we came across Steamboat Point. Funny, I did not remember seeing this in my plans. Anyway, it was a gorgeous spot to spend some time. There were several steam vents and other volcanic activity going on here and the bison obviously enjoyed this spot (but there were none here today). Jason found a bunch of bison wool, had rocks to climb on and the view was spectacular! Cathy is going to shampoo the bison wool when we get back.
Jason with his first swatch of wool! And on the rocks . . .
We stopped a little down the road at Lake Butte. I had to photograph the remains of the forest that was devastated by the huge forest fire of 1988. The forest is doing a pretty good job of reforestation on its own but it is amazing how many of these burned and dead trees are still standing! We saw this evidence everywhere we traveled within the park.
We continued on, over the pass and approached the East Entrance. The East Entrance? We travelled 27 miles in the wrong direction, since leaving the Lake Village and the Fishing Bridge! Now I know why these stops were not familiar! Who could I blame? Hmmm.
After driving 27 miles back to Lake Village and turning north as originally planned, we stopped at LeHardys Rapid. This set of rapids are your best bet to see the spawning Cutthroat jump the rapids on their way to the spawning ground at the Fishing Bridge. Again, we were a little early and I befriended a cinema photographer who showed me where to best stand to capture a photograph of a jumping cutthroat. He was using a special, very slow motion movie setup, with a super-telephoto Sigma lens. His camera was capable of shooting 1,000 frames per second! That’s slow motion!
The area was posted with bear warnings. The bears have been sighted daily but will arrive in larger numbers once the spawning fish arrive, very similar to the Katmai National Park salmon/bear viewing in Alaska! After several attempts, and no bear encounters, I managed to capture this jumper with my wide-angle zoom.
Between LeHardy Rapids and Canyon Village, we came across more road repairs. Evidently the road collapsed and was reduced to a single lane. I counted 125 cars in the oncoming caravan and over 125 cars in our direction. That’s a pretty big delay, but at least they were getting the road repaired. While waiting, I walked to the railing and took these shots of Sulphur Caldron.
Once we got through the construction/repairs, we made a stop at this rest area overlooking the Yellowstone River. This is typical scenery throughout the park! There was a ranger at this stop so there had been a recent bear spotting. Rangers usually respond very quickly to bears that are close to tourists.
We continued on the Canyon Village and took the South Rim Drive to Artist’s Point. We stopped for a couple of minutes to watch a brown bear amble through the woods. He appeared to be a pretty healthy guy!
This is a late afternoon shot of the Upper Falls taken from near Artist’s Point.
The canyon immediately after the falls was incredible, and must be seen to be appreciated. Photos cannot reproduce the depth and scope of the formations.
Another photo of the Upper Falls taken from Artist’s Point
We took Jason to the top of the falls to see another view. This is the Yellowstone gaining speed before plummeting down the canyon.
Cathy and Jason at the “Brink of Upper Falls”
This is a view looking directly down a couple of hundred feet into the pool beneath the falls. Periodic shots of spray were erupting almost up to us!
Jason insisted that we take a shot of the rainbow at the base of the falls. Since it was overcast, we had to wait for this partial rainbow.
After another delay between Madison and West Yellowstone (wildlife related and a daily occurence) we finally made it back to camp by 7:30.
Travelling with the Schinglers 