July 3-7, 2023 -- Wyoming, USA -- final set 3
The Yellowstone region became the USA's first national park in 1872. Half of the park is actually one hugh 45 x 75 km caldera, housing the world's largest group of hydrothermal features (over 10,000). It makes for a diverse landscape of hotsprings, geysers, fumaroles and mud pots.
In this final blog of three (blog #1-Craters of the Moon + blog #2-The Grand Tetons), we did four more day hikes, therefore having completed a total of ten hikes almost back-to-back (not to mention the various walks to points of interest along the Grand Loop Rd).
July 3
We drove north along Yellowstone Lake and then east, leaving the jutting peaks of the Grand Tetons behind us. Temperatures were about 5C cooler in this park and there was far more wildlife.
There were bison right at the gas station, eating the grass along the roadside. They are the most likely animal in the park to injure humans.
Elk
Avalance Peak: 7.4 km / 680m gain / 3221m high / 2:20 hours MT
Glad to be doing a shorter hike, after having done a long one to Lake Solitude the day before.
Yet again we were blessed with sunshine. It was typical for the day to start out sunny and then by mid afternoon the clouds would begin to roll in.
The high point was to the right -- east.
Yellowstone Lake on the horizon -- west.
The trail continued from here and looped round. But we returned the way we came -- north.
northeast
southeast
south
southwest
west
Group shot: me, Heather, Tammy, Janice, Charlotte + Denise
It was very windy so staying low to the ground helped.
Headed back down.
Globe Flower.
1) Dyer's polypore
White pelicans.
A fierce storm hit as we drove about half an hour to our campsite at Grant Village. A large elk leapt infront of a truck as we were leaving the parking lot. Thankfully they didn't collide. The storm were making them very agitated. We were fortunate to have made it back to the campsite, as about 8 trees had fallen onto the East Entrance Road.We had all agreed that we'd eat out, because we were now in a small community that had two restaurants! As we were waiting for this one to open, it started to hail! The next morning Tammy & Heather said it was really quite neat how in the night, the on-going lightening illuminated their tents.
Here we're sitting in the restaurant, glad the storm clouds had passed (temporarily).
July 4 - Old Faithful. We were up bright and early to catch it's eruption which happens every 1:30 hours. We were debating the night before, whether to do this section on a USA holiday or not. But it was en route to our next campsite so we decided to get up real early and give er' a go.
Then we continued along the boardwalk.
Yellowstone holds over half of the planet's geysers (about 500).
The historic 1923 Yellowstone Lodge.
Black Sand Basin: .4 km walk - the black obsidian sand is also referred to as Volcanic Glass.
The Emerald Pool. These bright colors come from thermophiles which are heat-loving micro-organisms.
Biscuit Basin: .4 km walk
Four days after a big earthquake in 1959, the Sapphire Pool began to erupt violently, blowing away large rock biscuits from the perimeter of the basin.
Fairy Falls trail: Stats: 18.5 km / 326m gain / 4 hours
We could not find parking for my 22' long Sprinter van by the Grand Prismatic Geyser. I was eager to escape the hoards of tourists anyways. So we drove higher up the Grand Loop Road, turning left onto Fountain Flat Drive which soon got us to the Freight Rd. trailhead. As I suspected, it wasn't near as busy there; just hikers and cyclers.
The Freight Rd trail was long, straight & flat till we turned onto the short 1trail leading to the overlook. Not our usual type of hiking. Harder on the feet.
1) King Bolete mushrooms 2) Buckwheat
1) Geranium 2) Buckwheat
At the Midway Geyser Basin.
A bit of a climb got us to this overlook of the Grand Prismatic Basin, the world's largest hot spring!
This overlook got us very close to the touristy boardwalk on the other side.
Then back down for a bit and this time we turned left onto the Fairy Falls trail.
Fairy Falls is the seventh highest waterfall in the park.
Then we carried on past the falls to the Imperial Geyser. The plan was to carry on on the Imperial trail and do a loop but a couple advised us not to. It was even more boggy than the short section we'd just done.
The Imperial Geyser with it's colorful creek lined with orange algae, was my favorite.
The Imperial Geyser erupts frequently, up to 20' high!
Fountain Paint Pots: After the hike we drove back a bit, parked on the side of the road and I did a fast walk, darting in and out of the lines of tourists. I didn't have much energy left after the long hike, but I wanted to cram in as much as I could before heading to our campsite.
The boardwalk on the opposite east side of the Grand Prismatic Spring. This spring is 61m in diameter and its water is 70C.
The steam relects the colors surrounding the water.
July 5: Mt. Washburn: 10 km / 490m gain / 3122m high
This was the most popular short hike in Yellowstone Park, mostly on an FSR leading to a fire-lookout tower. Its one of three in the park and is the only one that is fully staffed from June - October.
We parked at Dunraven Pass (2730m).
The lookout tower was built in the 1930s. The disused road leading to it dated back to 1905.
We could go inside the tower where signs indicated the names of the peaks and 360-degree views extended to over 3/4 of the vast park. There's even a telescope there for us to use.
About every 300 years large fires occur in Yellowstone. The last one was in 1988 in which 36% of the park was burnt. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It clears the forest, creates wildlife habitat, recycles nutrients and restarts forest growth.
Mountain sheep.
1) Sticky Geranium 2) White Flox
July 6: Yellowstone Canyon: South Rim trail: 4km / 140m gain / 1 hour MT
The canyon is 32 km long and up to 305m deep.
We did a crossover, swapping keys with Janice halfway. We started at Artist's Point and they started at Uncle Tom's Point.
The view of the Lower Falls (93m) from Artists' Point.
The colorful rocks are a result of hydro-thermally altered rhyolite (lava flow) and sediments.
We continued the easy walk on the South Rim trail.
1) Shortstyle Onion 2) Bluebells
From Uncle Tom's Point we drove across the bridge to the North Rim, and turned right into the first parking lot. A short paved path led us to the Brink of the Upper Falls (33m) viewpoint.
We continued on to four more viewpoints on the North Rim trail.
The Lower Falls as seen from Red Rock Point. Its a .6 km / 150m drop to this viewpoint.
We drove the last section to Inspiration Point.
Did a quick stop at Tower Falls on the drive to Indian Creek campsite. Rapid cooling of lava created these tall straight columns.
Mama, Papa & baby bears.
At Mammoth Hotsprings village. The flowers are protected from nibbling creatures.
As the afternoon faded into evening, the lighting became quite soft. So we drove the Mammoth Terrace drive at the top of the springs (no RVs), I hopped out & did the boardwalk downwards where Charlotte later picked me up.
At the bottom.
Along the Mammoth Terrace Rd.
A herd of elk along the road.
July 7 - We were advised to drive to the Beartooth Hwy at the east entrance to the park, around dawn. That's when we'd spot the most wildlife. So we agreed to drive about 10 km down the highway. We turned round at Slough Creek Rd.
Pronghorns!
These teenagers gave us quite the show.
En route to our campsite, we hopped out to check out the petrified redwood tree. Its the result of a massive landslide caused by a volcanic eruption. Before the tree could rot, silica in the lava flow plugged living cells, creating a "forest of stone".
A short 1-hour hike to Hellroaring suspension bridge.
2) Balkan Toadflax
1) Cinquefoil 2) Penstemon 3) rose
Back at Indian campsite we said our farewells and Charlotte & I started our 14-hour drive home, arriving the following day.
Thus ended a most fantastic 15-day adventure. Thanks to our team of six women who helped make this happen: Denise Davidson, Heather Friesen, Charlotte Hall, Janic Hazel, Tammy Wall & I.
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