Day 5 - Yellowstone

Today we stayed within the park to visit the various sites. Unlike the previous days, we did not have to worry about packing up the tents and gear. We just jumped on the bikes and headed into town for breakfast. After breakfast, we hit the park to see the sites.

The first stop was Artist Paint Pots. These are unique hot springs with a smell of sulfur. These were not as pretty as the ones we went to yesterday, but still very interesting to see. We then entered Canyon Park to see the “Grand Canyon” of Yellowstone. We were fortunate that the sun was brightly shining and really brought out the colors of the canyon. The photo below will do better justice than any words I can type here.

There were various stops to see different areas of the canyon, primarily the waterfalls. One stop we had to hike 3/8 of a mile down to the top of the water fall. The hike was 600 ft down a winding pathway that was a bit tough to walk. Especially for the two of us, because we’ve been sitting on our bums for the past three days. The view was simply spectacular. Again, mother-nature was on our side and put on a show with various rainbows formed by the spray coming off the falls. I took a lot of photos. One is below.

We then headed to Tower Falls. After seeing the Upper falls in the Grand Canyon, Tower Falls was not so spectacular. I got a few shows that you can see in the gallery. We then headed towards Roosevelt’s Lodge to have lunch. There was a 25 minute wait so we decided to head towards Gardiner instead. On the way, we ran into a lot of traffic. This is typical this time a year, but this line was especially long. This was due to a Black momma bear and her cub. The Rangers were trying to keep traffic moving and people in their cars. It’s amazing to me that anyone would want to get close to them. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a picture while on the bike.

Once we reached Mammoth Hot Springs, we noticed a lot of elk on the grassy areas in town. The elk were not fazed by the traffic or people walking around. They appeared to really be enjoying the grass on the lawns.

In Gardiner we ate at the Main Street Café. Eric had eaten here before with Lisa a few years ago. We just had sandwiches, but boy were they big and very good. It was time to start heading back towards camp. We had one more stop, Mammoth Springs. This spring created very large calcium like formations. Although not very colorful, the sheer size of the formation was very impressive.

One the way back, off Hwy 89, we spotted a lot of elk in the open range areas. I was able to take a few photos of them. We also spotted a bald eagles nest and an eagle flying back to the nest.

Today was supposed to be our “down” day. Simply relax and enjoy the sites. We’ll, Yellowstone is a HUGE place. Add the fact that it’s peek season, traffic jams, etc., and our “slow” day turned into an all day affair. We traveled approximately 140 miles and didn’t even see the entire park. I think to really enjoy the park and see the sites, you need a full week. We tried to cram in what we could, but there is a lot more to see.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Greybull, WY. Originally we had planned to drive 680 miles to Deadwood, but decided that that’s a bit to far considering the traffic, site seeing, etc. I’ll post another update tomorrow, hopefully with all of the pictures I've take thus far as well.

Dale