A Second Serving of Yellowstone, Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

We left our hotel in Gardiner at about 9:30 a.m. and drove back in the north entrance to Yellowstone.  We were soon at Mammoth Hot Springs and spent about an hour walking the boardwalks and climbing lots of steps.  There is an upper and lower terrace and both are filled with magnificent boiling springs of various colors.  The terraces are like living sculptures, shaped by the volume of water, the slope of the ground, and objects in the water’s path.   

Today we drove south on the west side of the north loop and our next stop was the Norris Geyser Basin.  We saw several interesting geysers without doing much walking and decided to skip the next two geyser stops.  The Yellowstone Volcano is hidden under the ground, but it is very much alive and is one of the largest on earth.  You can see evidence of geysers just driving along and looking out at the scenery as steam often comes out of small holes in the ground. 

Continuing south we soon came to a traffic jam as cars were backed up on both sides of the road.  We felt very lucky to observe a huge wolf dining on an elk carcass, and it was even more dramatic to witness steam rising up from the ground in several places right behind the tableau. 

We saw lots of buffalo again today, and we also saw a stupid family with a camera stalking a lone buffalo way too close for safety.  There are signs everywhere advising people to stay back from the wildlife, but wouldn’t common sense tell them not to get so close?   

We exited the park into West Yellowstone, Montana at about 1:00 p.m.  West Yellowstone is a cute tourist town with lots of souvenir shops, hotels, and restaurants.  We stopped and ate lunch and played tourist for a while.  We met a couple from Dunnellon, Florida working in one of the shops and this is their fourth year working at Yellowstone.   

We headed for Virginia City at 3:00 p.m. and arrived home at 4:30 p.m.  Chuck washed the car, Cindy washed the clothes, and then we called it an evening.