Day 8-Road Trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park

So, first I wanted to post a picture of our campsite at Madison. It was out favorite of the 

On this day we planned to visit Mammoth so we could check out the hot springs. On our way to Mammoth we had planned to stop at the Artist's Paint pots, but it was sleeting!! One of the weather risks of going to the park in June. Needless to say, we didn't stop. When we got to Mammoth, we stopped at the first parking lot, especially since there were three female elk very nearby.

 We walked around the hot springs area, but unfortunately, most of them were not active. The activity of the springs can change often, so you can visit the park one time and they be active, and then visit again later, and they aren't. Some picture of the structures left behind by the springs are seen below.


Some terraces formed by water flow.

Another bacterial mat.

Me with the hot springs in the background.

At the top of one of the springs.

Loved the view of the valley.

One of the active springs.

The buildings are part of the Mammoth Hot Springs lodging area in the park.

Some panoramic views of the area.

 Hubby snapped a pic of me back near the car.

After we walked around, we went to the visitor center that was nearby. They had an interesting little exhibit about early explorers in the park. They also had some great wildlife displays. We left that and decided to drive the Upper Terrace Drive. There were a couple more active springs.

It was lunch time, so we stopped at a picnic area known as Sheepeater Cliff.

The river that was near the picnic area.

Hubby near the river.

A sign explaining how the cliff got its name.

A picture of the hubby and I.

Hubby was getting antsy to hike. We stopped at one trailhead where the shortest hike was 3.4 miles one way. We were just going to walk part of it. However, along the way I spotted some carnivore tracks that looked fresh, so I vetoed that hike. Some pics from the area though.

Looking at the map, we saw there was a shorter trail further down the road that would take us to the same point as the first trail, Grizzly Lake. This trail was only 1.8 miles, which was more manageable.

Towards the beginning of the hike we came across a family of marmots living in a down tree. We saw some other hikers on the way in on the trail, and they would be the only people we would see on the entire hike.

Pictures of the trail.

We finally made it to where we had a good view of Grizzly Lake. We really had no desire to go all the way down to the lake, so we turned around to head back.

But not before hubby and I could get a picture together.

Some pretty flowers.

Our marmot friends were still in the tree when we got back.

Posing for the camera.

We started to make our way back to the campsite. We were actually able to stop at the Artist's Paint Pots this time.

A little video of the paint pots.

Since it was our last night at Madison, we decided to walk by the area near our camp. The Gibbons River is right near the madison campground. We discovered it had small "hot pockets" within it. You could see the gas escaping from the thermal features beneath them. Pictures from the area near our campground.

Hubby looking over the river.

My hubby.

Me.

A little ground squirrel.

Alright. Next time, more picture packed adventures from Yellowstone. 

Day 7-Road Trip to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park

So, we woke up this day to wet everything since it rained the night before. We decided to pack up and go ahead and head out to Yellowstone. We first pulled everything out of the tent. We then broke down the tent and ended up having to put everything in garbage bags since it was soaked. We headed to the general store to get some coffee and hot chocolate and then headed out on the road to Yellowstone. A pic from our drive.

We drove to Madison campground since that is where we would be staying the first two nights in the park. When we went to check into our campsite, we were told the previous occupants hadn't left yet. It was sorta annoying because we really wanted to get our tent pitched so it could dry. We went to the nearby picnic area and ate some PB&J sandwiches.

We were finally able to check in around noon. The campground is very open, so not much privacy, but it was nice. As we were pitching the tent, Kelly went "It's behind you!!" It was a bison that had ambled up to the campground across the way and it was the first bison we had seen on the trip. Here are some pics of it.

Did you know that bison are actually more dangerous than bears in the park? They injure more visitors each year. They may look calm and slow, but they aren't.

We decided to check out the area south of Madison and down to Old Faithful. The first thing we did was drive down Firehole Canyon Drive. It was a really pretty little canyon. Kelly spotted a cave at the base of the canyon. We determined that it had bones in it after looking at it with our binoculars. Some pics of that.

We continued our drive south and came across several geothermal features along the way. See all the pics below.

Bacteria that can withstand high temperatures form mats on the geothermal features. The bacteria from these mats are where Taq polymerase comes from (for all you bio nerds)

According to this sign, which was written in several languages, you shouldn't step on geysers.

A waterfall spotted on the side of a mountain as we drove around.

An adorable ground squirrel.

Yellowstone has a huge caldera underneath it, which causes it to be so geothermically active.

We eventually made it to the Old Faithful area. It was packed. It was sprinkling on and off all day, but we decided to hike up to the Observation Point. We were almost to the top when it started to hail. It wasn't very big, but it was still cold and wet. We went to the top, looked around, and immediately headed back down. Some pics of that.

We looked at a few more geysers in the area (seen below) but decided to stop and wait for Old Faithful to erupt.

Old Faithful erupts approximately every 90 minutes. And here is the big eruption.

That's it. We left, but only to head to the gift shop to give traffic some time to thin out. It was packed there too. We finally headed back to camp. The weather had cleared up for us to make some dinner. It was mac and cheese and hot dogs. We also made s'mores, yummo. We headed to bed about 9:30 that night.

Next up, we visit the hike springs and do a hike to Grizzly Lake.