Friday May 23, 2013   Arrival at Yellowstone & “Old Faithful”

 

We left Yellowstone Valley Campground this morning after a nasty night of storms.  That campground left a lot to be desired except for being close to Yellowstone East Entrance.

 

 

Storm over our campground

 

As we arrived at the gate of Yellowstone National Park,  the ranger said there was an accident where a truck with a boat had slid off the road at the pass due to the ice on the road.  She told us to pull into an area off to the side, as they were not allowing buses and campers in until the ice melted for safety.    We waited about 40 minutes and then were told we could go.  When we got to the accident area, thank goodness it was cleared.

 

Ice on the lake.  It thawed on the road while we were wating to enter

 



Such a pretty road, we never knew where to take pictures as it was hard to decide what pictures.  Each turn showed something prettier than before.    When we got to our campsite, we started exploring again.  This time --- “Old Faithful”.

We went through the Continental Divide and other scenic stops on the way.

 

Ton took a walk around the area looking a different geysers and I sat on a bench in the front row to get a good view. 

 

 Old Faithful

When we got home this evening Ton wanted to take a short trail from our campsite, but changed his mind quickly when it said road was closed with this sign.
 



 

Saturday, May 25, 2013 The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone”

Wow it was really cold yesterday.  We had a high of 54 during the day and last night it dropped to 22 degrees.  Not my kind of weather.  Our campsite is at and elevation of 7,986 feet. 
We had a wet snow falling beside our motorhome when we got up. 

We survived the night and today was much warmer. It was a high of 60 and is supposed to drop to 30, tonight.

For some info on the area, the Yellowstone River is 20 miles long and is more than 1,000 feet deep. The canyon started forming 484,000 years ago.

We started out on the South Rim of the Canyon and looked at the lower falls. Like I’ve said before, everywhere we go, it’s breathtaking. Yellowstone National Park has it all!

The lower falls are 308 feet

The upper falls are 109 feet

We were going to go to Tower Falls & Roosevelt Memorial but turned around after driving 10 miles on this road and still having 11 more to go. The bad winter did a number on this road and they had to do a lot of repair on it. We decided we would skip this

After turning around we stopped at some other pretty lookout places on the way back home. Even with the bad road, it was still a great day.

 Buffalo crossing the river

C'mon Pokey you can do it!



 

 

 

We survived the night and today was much warmer.  It was a high of 60 and is supposed to drop to 30, tonight.

For some info on the area, the Yellowstone River is 20 miles long and is more than 1,000 feet deep.  The canyon started forming 484,000 years ago. 

 We started out on the South Rim of the Canyon and looked at the lower falls.  Like I’ve said before, everywhere we go, it’s breathtaking. Yellowstone National Park has it all!
 

The lower falls are 308 feet

The upper falls are 109 feet

We were going to go to Tower Falls & Roosevelt Memorial but turned around after driving 10 miles on this road and still having 11 more to go.   The bad winter did a number on this road and they had to do a lot of repair on it.  We decided we would skip this

After turning around we stopped at some other pretty lookout places on the way back home.  Even with the bad road, it was still a great day.
 

Sunday, May 26, 2013  Mammoth Hot Springs and  West Thumb Geyser Basin

28 degrees when we woke up.  Fixed a breakfast of Eggs and pancakes with orange juice to give us some energy for the day.

Hot springs is at the North entrance of the park so it was our longest drive, but again it was totally different from other places we had seen.  In Yellowstone you never know what to expect.

The Hot Springs are scalding hot hydrothermal water.   Maximum water temperature is 163 degrees F. or 73 C.

The Shoshone people collected minerals from the springs to make white paint.  

The Volcanic source for Mammoth Hot Springs is still somewhat a mystery. 

The water comes from the rain and snow, which seeps deep into the earth where it is heated.  Small earthquakes may keep the plumbing open 

West Thumb Geyser Basin overlooks Yellowstone Lake, the largest lake at high elevation in North America.   

You may wonder if the lake is warmer here then elsewhere.  After all, the geyser basin pours an average of 3,100 gallons of hot water into the lake every day.  But even here, the lakes average summer temperature is 45 degrees F  (7 degrees C).

We hope you enjoy the pictures.  We have enjoyed every minute of being here even though it gets cold sometime

More pics to come later when we have a better connection.  We drove 40 miles to get to this McDonalds to get wifi connection.  At least you know we're doing fine and having fun.