Keeping Track of the Jones': Wyoming, Cody - Thursday, July 19, 2018

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Wyoming, Cody - Thursday, July 19, 2018 - Yellowstone

We started early to finish our exploration of our nation’s first national park, Yellowstone. We were on the road by 6:30 a.m. I like Yellowstone but I think it is a hard park to explore. It is so large and there are only a few main roads, so you can find yourself going over the same road several times to get to various destinations. Most of the time those roads are winding. There is quite a bit of road construction going on in the park and a few of the overviews are closed for repairs. Crowds this time of year are astronomical, part of the reason we left so early this morning trying to beat the rush. Today we remembered to activate the Yellowstone Gypsy Guide app we downloaded for $7.00. This is well worth the money. You don’t need to have internet access to use it which is good because reception in the park is next to nothing. The app talks about the various sites and when you will be coming to them, park history and animal behavior, we both enjoyed it.

Maybe because it was cooler this morning, several hot spots were evident we hadn’t seen when we had been through this area before.

The buffalo were also out early.

We had to wait about 20 minutes for them to quit wandering around on the roadway.

This one gave us the evil eye. It still has part of its winter coat so it looks kind of shaggy right now.

We also caught a glimpse of an elk in the woods.

Lower Falls is the one you see pictured in some of Yellowstone’s advertising. It’s an easy walk with just a few stairs to get to this viewpoint.

The best viewpoint for the Upper Falls was closed for repair. This viewpoint is at the brink of the Upper Falls where you can see the Yellowstone River coming into the falls.

And you can see the river past the falls. I wish a picture could capture the power of the water churning in this area.

This area was a bit more challenging to get to than the Lower Falls. A steep incline came first.

Then some steep steps.

Some scenery in the area.

I do like water falls so a stop at Tower Falls was next on the list.

The Tower Falls area.

This is the lodge at Mammoth Hot Springs. We were surprised at the huge lodges, cabins and campsites at all of the major attractions in the park. There was also a gas station, restaurant and general store at most spots.

Although Mammoth Hot Springs is amazing, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. It is rather drawn out and rambling, I was expecting it to be more compact. I guess it makes sense that it is like it is because this whole thing is formed by hot springs rising to the surface and depositing dissolved limestone in random patterns.

A boardwalk leads you around the area to keep you from walking on ground where you might break through. The whole area of Yellowstone can kind of give you a strange feeling if you think about how it was formed through volcanic activity hundreds of thousand years ago. The volcanos are still below the area and could erupt again according to scientists. The magma that heats the water for the geysers, hot springs, etc. lays 3-5 miles beneath the ground where you are walking.

This is the Orange Spring Mound, made of the same material as the Mammoth Hot Springs but taking on a different shape.

On the opposite side you see the water spurting out carrying more dissolved limestone. The same thing is happening on the front side but I would have had to step out into traffic lanes to get a picture of that, just didn’t seem worth it.