We got up early this morning to find clear blue skies and crisp 28 degrees at 7:30 AM. We had breakfast and showers and gathered our belongings and headed down the road to see what we could see.
Our first stop of the Mud Volcanoes which we were excited to see. The steam was rising and sulphur smell was strong. We had seen some buffalo in the valley, but they were on the opposite side of the road. A couple of pictures, below.
We exited the truck and walked to the first walkways to view the mud volcanoes and we looked to our left and there was another buffalo just strolling out of the parking lot in the midst of the volcanoes. It was still cold enough that steam was puffing out of his nose as he climbed the hill to our left. Of course, their was one animal paparazzi who was getting way too close. Thankfully, he didn't get charged. Several pictures are below of the mud volcanoes.
We left there and continued North along the road towards the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We saw more buffalo grazing in the valley along a small river and so I stopped at a small pull off and took some pictures of the herd. I didn't get leave the side of the road, but the pictures turned out pretty good. They are below.
We continued up the highway until we reached the lower falls of the Grand Canyon (Yellowstone). There was a very nice parking area. These falls have paths/walkways/stairs that lead to the bottom of the falls, but we decided that was too much for us. More details about this later. But, their are several hundred steps down and hundreds of feet back up and we weren't up to it. Some pictures are below.
We eventually arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs, after two hours of driving, stopping, taking pictures, driving, more pictures, well you get the idea. It is really over whelming after a while. Around every corner their are jaw dropping scenes. Dinah said they looked like paintings. God's paintings, I said. Really, this happened over and over. Neither one of us had ever seen anything like this. The closest I could remember were the scenes I saw driving the Canada to Alaska (AlCan) Highway back in the 70's on my way to Anchorage, Alaska. Canada has some very beautiful territory up in the Yukon Territories, but they didn't beat what we saw during this trip.
Once arriving at Mammoth Hot Springs, we wanted to tour the fort, but it turns out the buildings were mainly being used for administrative, living quarters, and office space. The buildings were in remarkably good shape. They have been mentioned for their architecture of stone work which was used to construct most of the buildings from the original fort. The only building we were able to enter was the main visitors center and museum. They had very nice displays and dioramas along with a park store and park rangers to answer questions.
By this time, it was lunch time. Actually, past lunch time, so we headed over to the hotel restaurant and sampled their cheese burgers. We didn't get pictures, sorry guys! I did get one picture looking out the windows from our table. It is below.
The burgers were OK. They burnt my bun, but I was so hungry by then, I didn't really care. After that we walked next door and got ourselves some ice cream and began a slow walk up the hill to the springs. Dinah's knee was getting tired by this time and frankly, so was I. She was a real trooper, though. She walked all the way up to the main springs and we took pictures which are below for you to view.
After that we headed back down hill to the visitors center because someone told us the road to Norris had been closed. Well, it wasn't closed, but it closes at night from 10PM til 7AM and would be closed after this Sunday for the season. She warned us that there was construction, but we could get to Norris that way. We wanted to go that way, because we hadn't seen that part of the park and it was a few miles shorter back to the camp.
Norris Geyser basin is home to the hottest geysers in the world and the tallest geyser, Steamboat geyser. Although Steamboat hasn't erupted in over two years, eight months approximately. But, they said when it does... <(;-o) By the time we got to Norris, we were worn out. We did not stop coming back, because our legs and energy were gone. We got back to the camp around 5 PM. The dogs were glad to see us and we were glad to be home. The dogs have been great travelers. They have not messed up once in the camper and we have left them for up to 8 hours. They have been good companions.
I don't know the odds, but we met a couple while we were on our way North to Mammoth Springs that is camping right next to us at Fishing Bridge. They recognized our truck and license and hailed us. They are from Massachusetts and were a very nice couple to talk with. We sat and talked on one of the pull offs for one of the cascades before we got to the canyon. It turns out they were going back the way we came and would be seeing some of the sites that we had seen on our way to Yellowstone. We shared stories for over 30 minutes, I know. His name was Ron and her name was Nancy. We got their picture, below. Very nice people. It was a real pleasure talking to them.
Tomorrow, we are going to wimp out and rest all day. We have seen about all we care to see of the landscape and the roads and the traffic. Although, I will have to say, that the traffic has been very light compared to what I was thinking it would be like.
Link to more pictures from the day trip to Mammoth Hot Springs here.
LUV 2 U ALL! We appreciate the prayers for our safe travels. We look forward to seeing our family and friends when we return. God is good all the time!
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