Day 18, July 27: Yellowstone NP

Yellowstone National Park (YNP) has a road named Grand Loop that loops around the park in a figure 8. We decided that we would drive the whole thing the first day and then figure out what we wanted to do the second day here. We started out on the southern loop which is around 100 miles. Of course, as we started out, we had to stop at every meadow where we saw elk, a geothermal feature, a vista or a water fall. We stopped a lot! At one of the geyser locations, we were leaving the parking area to get back out on the road when we saw a lone buffalo grazing near the road. We all got very excited (especially Sheila) and got some pictures of it. It was our first buffalo in the wild. I was sure we would see more.

Most of our time was taken up with exploring the geothermal features. Lots of geysers, steam vents, springs, pools, and mud pools. Sheila bought a guide book when we first went in to the Old Faithful Inn (see Day 17). It turned out to be a very informative book. So with me driving, Mary navigating and Sheila narrating (reading from the book), we had a great tour. By around 11:30 we were back at the Old Faithful geyser which was due to erupt about 15 - 20 minutes after we arrived. There must have been over a thousand people gathered around. We each got into positions for the big event and about 5 minutes after it's predicted time (well within the + or - 10 minutes the rangers claim), Old Faithful put on its show. I got a bunch of still shots, Sheila and Mary got videos from different angles, and Mary got "rained" on from the water. It was one of those things that you want to see at least once and we all enjoyed it.

After a quick lunch there, we continued on our journey around the southern loop. The scenery continued, but we decided not to stop at every steam vent we came to. There are hundreds of them. We drove around Yellowstone Lake which is large and beautiful and turned off the Grand Loop Road to head out toward the East entrance. We were hoping to see lots of wild life, but came up empty, so we turned around to head back toward the Grand Loop. A little way on we passed a grove of trees near the rode and Sheila saw a buffalo walking along parallel to the road going the same way we were. We pulled into a turn out just past the grove of trees and waited. Sure enough here came the buffalo. That was when I spotted the trail (buffalo trail) leading out of the woods directly toward where we parked. I decided to move. Good thing. The guy ambled out of the woods, down that trail and across the parking area directly in front of us. He just continued on like he knew where he was going and when he needed to get around a small lake, he just walked out in the road and continued on down the right hand lane. No hurry, just going over to the next meadow. It was quite the sight.

Continuing around the southern loop, we got to an area called Hayden Valley where we encountered a large herd of buffalo grazing. We estimated somewhere between 100 and 200 animals in there including several calves with their mothers. This was quite a sight. We all agreed that this is the way it should be: Large herds of buffalo free ranging.

From there, we went to an area called Canyon Village where we could go out on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. What an impressive sight! The Yellowstone River has cut the canyon along with the help of fractures and fissures in the lava from the volcano. The canyon is about 24 miles long and runs about 1400 feet deep. Not quite up to the scale of the Grand Canyon, but still very impressive. The colors and geological formations were amazing.

By the time we finished at the canyon, we were all quite tired. We had decided much earlier in the day that we could not possibly complete the entire Grand Loop in one day, and that we would do the Northern loop the second day. We headed back to West Yellowstone and stopped at a restaurant called Bullwinkle's for dinner. The gals went shopping, and I returned to the hotel to download pictures and post blogs from Glacier, etc.

We really learned a lot about the park today. We learned that it is the world's largest volcano and that most of the park is actually the volcano's caldera. We learned that most of the colors we see in the geothermal features are from heat loving bacteria that can not survive at the low temperatures we are used to. We learned that the park is constantly changing due to the build up of deposits from the various geysers and thermal pools. We learned that there is way too much to see to do it in one day (or two, or...).

We (mostly Sheila) had a list of animals we wanted to see in the park that we had not seen at Glacier: Elk, Moose, Big Horn Sheep, Prong Horn Sheep, Buffalo and most of all wolves. Today we ticked off only two of those (elk and buffalo), but we have high hopes for tomorrow.

So now it is late on the second day and I am one day behind on blogging. I also need to upload some pictures to Picassa. Tomorrow (day 20) we are going down through Grand Teton National Park. Hopefully, I will be able to catch up tomorrow night.