In a word WOW! We arrived at Yellowstone on Thursday Sept. 25th for four nights. We stayed at the Madison Junction Campground. The first evening we walked down to the Madison River and watched some fly fisherman at work. You can only fly fish and catch and release at Yellowstone.
On Friday we went to Old Faithful and waited for the geyser to erupt. I know that we have all been taught about Old Faithful; however, being there and watching it was awesome! It erupts about every 90 minutes give or take 10 minutes. For those who don’t remember their history/science lesson: Surface water seeps underground, is heated by a deep source of magma, and rises as superheated water. Geysers occur when underground constrictions increase the pressure of the water until if finally erupts. Hot springs have no constrictions, so water rises, cools, and sinks. The small amount of water in fumaroles flashes into steam before reaching the surface. Mudpots are acidic hot springs with limited water. The acid and microorganisms decompose surrounding rock into clay and mud.
That being said it was fascinating watching different geysers, hot springs, fumaroles, and mud pots do their thing. We spent the over 4 hours at the Old Faithful area watching different geysers and hot springs. Our favorite was Castle Geyser. It went off for 20 minutes and went as high as 75 feet into the air. We had to wait almost an hour to see it but it was well worth the wait.
For the rest of the day we went to view different geyser basins. On one of the hikes we just crossed a bridge and three huge buffalo came charging down the river. We were not sure which way they were going; but luckily they went the other way running up a hill. Whew!!!
On Saturday we drove to Norris Geyser and then onto Mammoth Hot Springs in the North. We stopped at one place where the Obsidian Cliffs were. We saw large rocks with obsidian in them. Obsidian is a volcanic glass used for projectile points and cutting tools, was traded across North America by American Indians.
We passed through Mammoth Hot Springs and went to Tower-Roosevelt. We stopped and viewed Urdine Falls and then drove on a 6 miles dirt road, Blacktail Plateau Drive, in hopes of seeing wild game. No luck, but the drive was beautiful.
We then headed back to camp and decided we had to stay another night. You cannot see everything in Yellowstone in three days. We were able to get another night of camping and would leave on Tuesday morning.
On Sunday we drove to the Northeast entrance through Lamar Valley. We saw two herds of buffalo and pronghorn antelope. They were beautiful. We watched for quite a while and then we spotted two coyotes. They were not interested in the antelope, thank goodness.
On Monday we drove to Canyon Village and back toward Tower Roosevelt. Such beautiful area and the trees are turning. We also passed back through Mammoth Hot Springs and saw a bull elk and his harem. His antlers, rack, was probably 3 or more feet apart.
On Tuesday on our way out we drove by the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake and headed south to the Grand Tetons. Another beautiful drive.
We did not see everything there was to see. In four days we drove 400 miles and never left the park. Needless to say we need to go back. We did not take any of the hikes available because there was not enough time. Also the weather was unusually warm so there were not as many sightings of animals as there should have been.
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