Hello from the first national park (established March 1, 1872), Yellowstone! Our trip from Missoula to West Yellowstone was uneventful and we arrived at Grizzly RV on Monday afternoon. We stayed there because it was only a mile to the West Yellowstone entrance. Covering 2.2 million square miles, the park is massive to explore, so we had to pick and choose the sights. Our first trip to Yellowstone was in 1997, when we got to see Old Faithful. This time we were quite anxious to explore more of this beautiful park.
As you can tell from the picture below, the drive to West Yellowstone was beautiful.
Upon arriving in West Yellowstone, Roger got rid of those pesky bugs from the windshield.
Tuesday and Wednesday were two full days in Yellowstone. We left the Tour in the morning and returned in the late afternoon. If you are familiar with Yellowstone, we covered the two grand loops. Pictures can never do something as wonderful as Yellowstone justice, but the ones below will give you an idea of what we saw during those two days.
Tuesday - South Grand Loop
Because Yellowstone sits in the middle of a caldera (an inversion formed by three hot spots erupting
thousands of years ago), it wasn't long before we saw our first geysers in the distance.
Lower Geyser Basin
An example of a hot spring
Mudpots
Geyser
"these boots are made for hiking"
Old Faithful
Lake Yellowstone
Finally, an animal up close.
Nothing says slow down like a 2,000 pound male bison.
We breathed a sigh of relief when we passed him.
They do charge cars when angry. We saw the results to a car when we were in Polson.
Lower Falls of Yellowstone
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
A herd of elk in the distance
Wednesday - North Grand Loop
First stop of the day
Steamboat Geyser, taller but not as faithful as Old Faithful. Last eruption was in May, 2005.
Walkways located throughout the park protect humans from the very hot geological formations.
Mammoth Springs Terraces
Interactions of water, carbon dioxide and limestone created these chalk-white travertine rocks.
The beautiful valleys of Northern Yellowstone.
This picture gives you an idea of the damage caused by fire and the rebirth of the pine trees. Yellowstone had a devastating fire in 1988 that burned almost 700,000 thousand acres.
Elk
Thursday was our day to tour the town of West Yellowstone. We began with a visit to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. It was there that we got to see our first grizzly bears and wolves. Although it would be wonderful to see them in their natural habitat of Yellowstone, this was the next best thing. The animals were beautiful and we were thrilled to see them. All nine bears were rescued for various reasons..
Isis is the 30 year old Bald Eagle. In addition they have Golden Eagles and owls that live in the raptor center.
Sam weighs 1,000 pounds and was busy eating when this picture was snapped. He was rescued in Alaska. Yellowstone Grizzlies do not weigh as much as Sam.
After the Grizzly Center, we saw the IMAX production of "Yellowstone," and visited the Historical Museum. It was at the museum where we learned about the devastating fire of 1988 that occurred in most of the park. Since our first visit in 1997, we were able to see how much the new pine trees have grown.
In the early evening, we returned to the Grizzly Center to watch the wolves feeding. The Center has two wolf packs. We were thrilled to get to see these wolves in a habitat similar to the one they would have in Yellowstone. Like the bears, the wolves were rescued.
Friday was our day to hike in the Gallatin National Forest. We wanted to see Lake Hebgen and were able to locate a trailhead near the lake. This is truly one of the most beautiful lakes that we have seen because the shoreline is generally undeveloped.
Kirkwood Trailhead was located off the Lake Hebgen road from Yellowstone.
Roger and Bear were ready to go.
Bear paused to pose with me in front of the lake.
After a picnic at the lake, we decided we still had time to drive into Yellowstone and checkout some sights along the Madison River. This big fellow's pic was snapped just a few miles into Yellowstone.
We will be in West Yellowstone until Monday, when we go back into the park and drive through it to Cody and then up to DuBois, Wyoming. Thank you for reading the blog, we appreciate your interest in our lives.
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