Friday June 2nd 2017
After a full day yesterday, today started slowly. I had high hopes of getting to Yellowstone NP early to see more animals, but I didn’t get up until 8AM. After a quick cup of coffee and a muffin I was out the door. I actually made it to the park a little earlier than yesterday at around 8:50. The cost of rushing out of my RV home was forgetting to pack a lunch again.
I only took 215 pictures today. The camera battery life indicator was blinking for the last couple of pictures. All of the pictures are in my Google Photos Shared Album called Yellowstone June 2 2017. Click on the link to see all of the pictures. I have selected some of the better pictures to tell the story of my day. The captions will attempt to provide some context.
About ten miles into the park I got stopped in a long line of traffic. It took about 10 minutes to get by the Bison along the side of the road. This seems to be the same group I saw yesterday further up the road. This is the only group I’ve seen with youngsters.
North of the Madison intersection is another thermal area. With the outside temperature in the 50s the heat was really producing steam. This pool has a lot of nice yellow wildflowers.
Notice all the steam at this bubbler.
Continuing north the road follows the Gibbon River. This is the Gibbon Falls.
At Norris there is another big thermal area known as the Norris Geyser Basin. This is an overview picture of the Porcelain Basin part of the Norris area..
Today’s wind direction requires you to pass through the steam cloud from this spring to get to the Porcelain Basin.
The Hurricane Vent was very warm. The heat along with the smell was noticeable from the boardwalk.
The Porcelain basin had many colorful flows caused by the minerals secreted from the earth.
More colorful Porcelain Basin.
Also in the Norris Geyser Basin area is an area known as the Back Basin. This is the Echinus Acidic Geyser. It was very active in the 1990s, but is very random now.
Looking at the mountains across the Back Basin.
The Green Dragon Spring. The Boardwalk passes along the rock overhang above the spring. You need to walk trough the steam, smell and some water spray from the spring.
This geyser is called the Vixen. It seems to be going off as often as it is building up pressure.
This dead tree stump is in the runoff from the basin.
Today when the West Yellowstone access road reached the Madison junction I turned north and did the inner loop roads clockwise. I passed through Norris, Canyon, Lake Junction, Grant Village and Old Faithful before getting back to the West Yellowstone access road in Madison. I skipped a couple of the bigger natural attractions south of Canyon that I hope to get back to next week.
From Norris I drove east over a seven thousand plus feet mountain to the Canyon area of the park. This area is named for the Yellowstone River Canyon that is just east of the intersection. This Crow was watching over the parking lot at the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.
The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River.
Rushing water heading for the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River. The climb down to the top of the falls was not as long as the climb to the Lower falls. I made this hike but turned around a quarter the way down to the lower falls.
High meadow area along the Yellowstone River. I would image at times this area is teaming with animal life. Today I saw a lone bison and lots of ducks and geese.
Lake Yellowstone.
One of a group of Mule Deer along side the road.
Tomorrow is a weekend day so the crowds may be even worse. I plan to head north in the park toward Mammoth Hot Springs. The road construction in that area shouldn’t be going on tomorrow and I think it is a less popular area.
Rob's Rambling Road Trip 