Day 14-Wyoming
We stayed in Gardiner the night before and entered Yellowstone via the north entrance. This was our first time entering this way and we got to go through the Roosevelt Arch. It’s rather difficult to get photos there as it’s on a curve in the road, but people were parking all over and hopping across the road for the photo ops. We joined in the fun and I narrowly escaped being run over by a car.
We wanted to visit Mammoth Hot Springs because last year we spent about 15 minutes there, due to traffic problems and needing to get Brian back for his call time. So we went there first since it’s the first big stop on the north end. Mammoth is an interesting place. It’s essentially a huge hill full of terraces with waterfalls cascading down, The mineral content in the water causes different colors on the rock and the dry parts are white and gray, but the active parts are yellow, orange, green, and blue.
Mammoth is also a community of lodging, restaurants, a store and gas station for tourists, and a residence area for park rangers and staff. They live in buildings at historic Fort Yellowstone and there is a brochure detailing the different buildings and their former use on a walking tour. We looked around a bit but didn’t have time to really explore, but another time.
We drove to the top of Mammoth and parked in a lot up there to hike to Canary Spring, which I really loved and thought was pretty. It was the biggest fall of water on the terrace and I liked it! Along the way we saw branches in a river that were already being calcified-weird!
Next we went to Norris Geyser Basin, which we hadn’t explored before. We walked the Porcelain Basin trail from the visitor center and there were pools of many different shades of blue and green throughout the rather flat basin. So pretty! There were also small geysers and steam vents and a variety of thermal features. We hiked all over.
Off to the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone and Artist Point, where we saw a real artist painting the Falls. That was after we circled the parking lot trying to find a spot and then hiked in with two busloads of tour groups. It was very crowded at the overlooks, but we wormed our way in. I’ve never seen the Falls and it’s the iconic view down the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone that is often seen in photos. So beautiful. Not much space for quiet meditation, but I still got to enjoy the view.
We drove over to the Upper Falls overlook and got to see the Upper Falls from across the river. Last year we hiked to the brink where you can stand right over the water as it falls over the edge, so this was a different view of the face of the Falls. We hiked on a level trail there that went along the rim of the canyon and looked down on some great views of the river.
Last stop of the day was Undine Falls off the road on our way out of the park. So pretty to see waterfalls everywhere we go!
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