2019 RV/Boat

Saturday…and it only dropped to 34° last night. 

It’s the third day exploring Yellowstone.  Things went better today.  We had a much better plan to cope with the crowds.  BTW…it would be a good week to invade China.  All the Chinese are in Yellowstone and the rest of the western national parks.  They’re here by the hundreds and probably thousands.  There are busses everywhere with Chinese markings on the side.  The few I’ve interacted with are nice enough, but as a group, they’ve been a bit of a nuisance.

Anyway, we’ve decided we need to do the bulk of our touring before noon and just stop at roadside turnouts later in the day.  There’s not much of a crowd before lunchtime.

So we started out this morning and I took the obligatory photo of a couple of the park bison.

This meadow is a little north of our campground and always has bison in it.  In the afternoon, the whole herd is there.  In the morning, there’s likely to be an elk there.  Funny how people get out there 1200mm lenses to photo the bison and a half dozen times a day we go by one we could pet from the RV window.

So the agenda today was to head north to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  First stop was another geyser basin called the mud volcano.

Early in the day, when it’s cool, there’s a lot of steam so the viewing of the actual feature isn’t the best but that was our schedule.

These are mostly boiling, slurping, sloshing pools of mud like “stuff”.

Next, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the lower falls (access to the upper falls was blocked).  This is a real scenic spot.  These shots are from the south rim observation area.

And the view downstream.  The photos don’t capture the vastness and depth of this canyon.  It really is a sight to see.

Over on the north rim, another view of the canyon.

I remembered an osprey nest on top of one on the stone pillars in this area from our 2009 visit and wondered if it was still there?

And it’s still inhabited by an osprey.

Done with the canyon, we decided to head toward Mammoth Hot Springs and stop at a few points of interest along the way.

This is a vista view from a significant elevation in the park.  There’s still patches of snow here and there.  The mountains far off in the distance on the horizon are the Tetons at least 40 miles away.

We made a stop at Tower Falls.  Next to the store there is a bit of a waterfall coming down the slope.

But the main attraction is down a short trail.

I wasn’t up for the hike to the floor of the gorge.  The trip is the equivalent of a 600 foot extension ladder.  Maybe next time.

Then we stumbled upon the Undine Falls a few miles up the road.  These were an unexpected find.

I have to say that the marking in Yellowstone leaves a lot to be desired.  The main attractions are well marked.  All these other things may or may not have any signage.

Kathy gets a photo and I get a photo of Kathy.

We finally made it to Mammoth and found a place to park the motor home.  It’s not all that photogenic but is interesting in its own way.  The bubbling limestone and calcium deposits create a stair step type formation on the slope.  Color is mostly beige to snow white.

Looking over a pool toward Mammoth city.

Tomorrow is the last day in Yellowstone.  We’re going to get to some of the places early that were too crowded for us on day one.  I might even need to pony up to a gas pump.  Haven’t found one of those since we left Jackson on Thursday.