Waterfalls, WInding Roads and Wilderness

We learned today how big Yellowstone is and that it is a wilderness not a park.  Our total mileage for the day was about 126 miles, but it took us all day including stops.  These are not roads that you zip around on.  We climbed up and down mountains, went through forests, and meadows.

Porcelain Basin

The first stop was at Norris Geyser Basin which is the oldest and hottest thermal area in Yellowstone.  There are two fault lines here which allow the heat to come closer to the surface.  The ground at Porcelain basin was white from sheets of geyserite from the thermal features.  Black Growler is a steam vent that gets as hot as 284 degrees. 

Ida near Black Growler Steam Vent

Back Basin had geysers and pools located in a forested area.  This area has Steamboat Geyser which can erupt to 400 ft or twice the size of Old Faithful.  We could see it shooting up maybe five feet and it looks like it would be pretty powerful. Most hot pools are blue, but emerald pool was green because of sulfer  Cistern pool shown below is petrifying the trees behind it as evidenced by the white at their bases.  The locals call it No Dog Forest because there is no bark on the trees.

Steamboat Geyser venting

Cistern Spring

Next we were off to the Canyon area to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  The pictures do not capture the beauty of this area.  The canyon walls have many colors: tans, reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows almost as if they had been painted.  We saw the spectacular Lower Falls which drop 308 ft or twice the height of Niagra Falls. We traveled to several observation points along the North Rim.

Lower Falls

Overlooking the Falls

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

From the Canyon area we headed North towards Roosevelt Junction.  This section of the roadway climbs to an elevation of 8859 ft at Dunraven Pass.  The road skirts Mt. Washburn which is 10,243 ft.  (Mt. Washington is 6,243 ft).  With the skies threatening, Ida was clinging to her seat and leaning away from the cliffs as we drove.  We also drove through the Gallatin mountain range.

Scenic vista

Our next stop was another waterfall, Tower Fall, which drops 132 feet.  Its a pretty waterfall.

Tower Fall

Basalt Column which look like a fence

Near Tower, we encountered Overhanging Cliff which are basalt columns of lava.  The road here actually hangs over a canyon.

We took a short drive into the Lamar Valley which was totally desolate.  Here we came across a heard of buffalo.  By the end of the day our animal count for the trip was 27 buffalo, three elk, 1 hawk, and 1 swan.  No bears yet.
  

An elk

Buffalo on the Range

Ida, its not real

Then we drove to Mammoth Hot Springs.  The rain held out until this point in the day, but we managed to do the tour mostly from the car before heading back down and out the West Gate.

Mammoth Hot Springs