We woke Sunday up to a completely different world. The fog and the steam from all the geysers and hot springs seemed to melt together into one big cloud, leaving us with an ominously magical morning in Yellowstone. With hardly any people out so early, we quickly made it to our first site around the Upper Loop, Nymph Lake. The air was chilly and refreshing, and made a perfect setting for the view.
Seemingly endless clouds surrounded us and the mountains Sunday morning. Snake River had practically transformed overnight.It was so foggy that we could hardly make out the ridge-line of the mountains during several parts of the drive. An incredible view of Nymph Lake from an overlook.Just to the right of the lake, you can see its steam joining the rest of the fog.
After several photos at Nymph Lake, we started to make our way to the next two stops: Roaring Mountain and Sheepeater Cliff. All of a sudden I hear a collective “buffalo!” and look to see a massive adult right in front of our car. I was thrilled (and safe in our rental car) and managed to take a really great picture of him from my window. This species of buffalo can get up to 6 feet in height, weigh over 2,000 pounds, and run at speeds up to 40 mph. He was literally as big as our SUV. And, as quickly as he appeared, he vanished into the trees when a large truck drove up behind us. Soon after, we arrived at Roaring Mountain, a structure made out of volcanic rhyolite rock. Apparently, it sits on a spot where magma flows closer to the surface of the earth than usual, creating steam vents all over the face of the mountain. Our next stop was at Sheepeater Cliff, an interesting, columnar rock structure formed from cooling basalt lava. It was named after a group of Shoshone Native Americans or the “Sheepeaters” for their use of bighorn sheep.
The American bison that walked right by our car; our timing could not have been any better.A photo of Roaring Mountain steaming from several different cracks in the rock’s surface. The steam you see is Hydrogen sulfide gas, which causes the water runoff to be acidic. This dissolves the rhyolite rock overtime, removing minerals and leaving behind a type of clay called kaolinite. Roaring Mountain is now so covered in this white mineral, that it almost looks like snowfall.A section of Obsidian Creek, seen on our way from Roaring Mountain to Sheepeater Cliff. This unique part of the creek was completely covered by some sort of vegetation.Sheepeater Cliff. Look at those rock columns!
After our first few stops, we were ready to find Mammoth Hot Springs, a spot one of my uncles highly recommended. We pulled over briefly to see Golden Gate Canyon on our way, and even saw another lone bison shortly after. When we got to Mammoth Hot Springs site, there were elk everywhere. This was our first time seeing a male elk, and we even got to watch and hear him bugle. We explored the Lower Terrace Area of Mammoth Hot Springs, and were particularly amazed at the Palette Spring Terraces. The limestone rock in the terraces gets dissolved deep in the earth and then deposited on the surface again, forming stair-like structures.
The second lone male bison we found last Sunday. Apparently, bulls spend most of their lives alone, or in small groups with other bulls.The approach to the Mammoth Hot Springs’ Lower Terrace Area. You can see these limestone formations steaming from the carbon dioxide escaping.A limestone formation in Mammoth Hot Springs called Palette Spring Terraces. Several different colors appear due to more thermophile bacteria, just like at Grand Prismatic.
We then went on to look at a few more sites, ending up at the Lower and Upper Falls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We decided to take the hike down several switchbacks to an overlook that brings you to a platform right at the top of the Lower Falls. The Yellowstone River plummets down 308 feet at this point, with a force between 5,000 and 63,500 gallons per second. This makes the Lower Falls the tallest waterfall in the park! As you can see from the photo below, it was seriously impressive. This was my favorite walk of the day, and maybe the whole trip. I have never been so close to falls that powerful before, and really enjoyed the view of the canyon from the platform.
After taking the 0.4 mile Brink of the Lower Falls Trail down the canyon, we arrived to a platform right at the top of the falls. At this point, the water in the Yellowstone River falls 308 feet down the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, carved out by erosion and water. It is estimated to date back ten to fourteen thousand years ago.
We had just one more stop on our Yellowstone list at this point in the trip, before we had to head back to Lander. We wanted to stop at the Mud Volcano springs and fumaroles site. Most of the hot springs here were pools of bubbling mud, and the fumaroles released an awful smelling mixture of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide gases. But, this place was so cool. One hot spring in particular, called Dragon’s Mouth, literally sounded like it was roaring at you.
We saw our first large herd of bison on our way to the Mud Volcano site! Traffic was stopped for a mile or so, giving everyone the opportunity to snap some photos while passing them.Even though they were super muddy, some of the hot springs here were still beautiful.A photograph of the steam leaving Dragon’s Mouth at the Mud Volcano site. I swear those two rocks at the base of the cave look like teeth.The actual “Mud Volcano” at the Mud Volcano site. In 1870, explorers found a 30 foot cone here that would spew mud, covering nearby trees. Two years later, the volcano ruptured and left a large bubbling pit of mud in its place.
With that, our Yellowstone adventure came to an end. We headed back down South through the Grand Tetons, and then out its East entrance towards Lander. While we did a whole lot of exploring, there were still so many sites and hikes left in the park that we couldn’t fit into our schedule. I think anyone could spend weeks out there and never run out of things to do. This weekend was one of my favorite weekends yet in Wyoming, and I can’t wait to go back to the parks in October. Until next time. 🙂
One of the many tree stands affected by fire in the park. This was seen on our way back into Grand Teton National Park, right before we got to West Thumb Geyser Basin in Yellowstone.Finally! We got our view of the Teton peaks in all of their glory on our way home to Lander.
My first-ever adventure to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park last weekend was soooo fun. My parents came out all the way from Virginia to visit, and we had the best time exploring new territory, crossing things off our bucket lists left and right. We were able to spend all of Thursday showing them around Lander, but once Friday came, we were ready to get on the road. En route to the East entrance of Grand Teton National Park, we drove through a small town called Dubois about an hour and fifteen minutes into the drive. It was my first time seeing it, and it had some awesome features in it like an antler arch, and huge teepees. It didn’t take us much time to get through town, so we started the next leg of our journey shortly after taking a few photos.
The huge antler arch in Dubois, Wyoming. I’ve heard this arch is small though, compared to a similar structure in Jackson.Some incredibly patterned teepees we found a bit deeper into town. Native Americans’ relationships with buffalo were more than just predator-prey connections. The American buffalo were a huge part of their spiritual life, as well as a provider of clothing and weapon materials.A photograph of some of the landscape on the way to the Grand Tetons. We had a lot of overcast weather on our trip, but it didn’t ruin our experience in the least. 🙂
Once we got to the Tetons, traffic moved a lot slower. Even with it being off season, there were still a lot of other tourists that were wandering around the park. Our first stop was at Jenny Lake, and thankfully, we made it there just in time between two rain showers. We didn’t think a hike was going to work out because of the weather, so we spent a couple of hours walking around the lake and enjoying the views instead. When we noticed the drizzle starting up again, we found our way back to the car. We then went to Jackson Lake Lodge, and enjoyed drinks and some food at their restaurant called Blue Heron Lodge. Plus, we had an incredible view of the Tetons at our table. After a while, the rain subsided again and we left to go find dinner and our cabin for the night. We stayed in a cute little two-bedroom cabin in Colter Bay Village, and were even able to take a walk around the Colter Bay and Jackson Lake before it got dark.
There are approximately 61 species of mammals that live in Grand Teton National Park. About 100 of those individuals get killed each year due to vehicular collisions; this sign was a great reminder to take our time and enjoy the views.One of my favorite pictures taken at Jenny Lake, in Grand Teton National Park. I loved all of the color variations in the rocks on shore!An ominous view of the Tetons from Colter Bay Village from last Friday. It was so overcast that weekend that we didn’t get a chance to see the top of the mountain peaks until Sunday morning.We woke up early last Saturday in order to make it to a majority of Yellowstone’s Lower Loop sites. On our way out, we finally got a good picture of Grand Teton National Park’s road sign. 🙂
A short distance from the Teton’s North entrance, we made it into Yellowstone. Our first major stop was at the West Thumb Geyser Basin. A one-mile boardwalk trail lead us around several geysers, hot springs, and thermal pools and cones. Apparently, these features pour over 3,000 gallons of hot water into Yellowstone Lake every day. This was such a cool way to start our adventure — I had no idea the park had so many geysers. There are about 500 in Yellowstone, and over 10,000 other thermal features! We then made our way over to Old Faithful, likely the most famous geyser in the entire park. We were lucky and only had to wait about 40 minutes to watch it erupt; some people waited over an hour. Oof.
The road sign for the South entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It overlooked the Snake River, the nation’s fourth largest river. 42 miles of the Snake River meander through Yellowstone, while about 50 miles run through Grand Teton National Park. Even combined, that’s only about 8.7% of the Snake River’s total length.A photograph of Lakeshore Geyser, one of the four geyser sites at the West Thumb Geyser Basin. It overlooks the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake, and is estimated to be about 198.6 degrees Fahrenheit. This seemingly small geyser can spew a column of water about 20-30 feet high.Black Pool, one of the largest (and most beautiful) springs at West Thumb. It is estimated to be about 132 degrees Fahrenheit, and about 30 feet deep!A few female elk that we saw grazing and napping at the West Thumb Geyser Basin. I finally asked one of the wildlife biologists at the BLM what their scientific name is — she told me they were likely under the genus and specific epithet Cervus canadensis.Old Faithful erupting. It can spew between 3,700 and 8,400 gallons of steaming hot water, and reach heights up to 180 feet!On our way to Old Faithful, I saw my first Yellowstone American buffalo, Bison bison! We couldn’t get a good look heading to the geyser, but hoped that we would find him again on our way out — we did! And, he was right next to the road, just waiting to get his picture taken. 🙂
Our next stop was Biscuit Basin, another boardwalk loop full of geysers, hot springs, and thermal pools. At the top of the loop, we saw a sign for Mystic Falls Trail, and walked the 0.7 mile trek right to the bottom of the falls. This was definitely my favorite walk we took that day. The weather was perfect, the views were awesome, and everyone on the trail was so nice. After this refreshing stop and hike, we made our way up to Grand Prismatic, a huge rainbow-colored spring in Yellowstone’s Midway Geyser Basin. This was a dream come true to see. It was pretty steamy, because of the colder temperatures, but you could still see all of the color rings in the spring.
Mystic Falls, a beautiful spot along the Little Firehole River.The steaming runoff from Yellowstone’s Excelsior Geyser, a large geyser that shares its location with Grand Prismatic. It sheds 4,050 gallons of water per minute!A view of Excelsior Geyser from the boardwalk. Although it is basically dormant, this geyser is the largest in the world.Grand Prismatic Spring. This beauty is 120 feet deep, and 370 feet in diameter. All the colors you can see are different types of thermophile bacteria. These species can live in temperatures that range between 147 and 188 degrees Fahrenheit!Capturing the reflection of the clouds in the flooded earth next to Grand Prismatic.
After our walk around the Midway Geyser Basin, we visited a couple of other pretty waterfalls like Firehole and Gibbon Falls, and stopped at another site called Beryl Spring on our way out of the park. The views were spectacular, whether you got out of the car at the park’s observation points, or were just driving to and from sites. I couldn’t believe we nearly covered the entire Lower Loop in one day, but we could definitely feel the fatigue setting in. We stayed the night in West Yellowstone, Montana, and had a great dinner at Bullwinkle’s Saloon & Eatery! We got to bed early that night since we were meeting for breakfast at 7AM the next morning… not a very fun thing for me to hear. 🙂
A view of Madison River, just before leaving through the West entrance of Yellowstone.The last of the elk we saw last Saturday, grazing right next to the road. Traffic was literally backed up for miles because of them, haha.
It was so hard for me to pick from the hundreds of photos I took last Friday and Saturday, but I did my best! The weekend could not have started off any better, and luckily it wasn’t over yet. The next day, Sunday, was our second day in Yellowstone, and will need another post for all of the pictures. All of these parks out here are truly ethereal, I am in heaven.
