16. Day 11 – From the mozzies of Hebgen Lake to the sulphur smells of Mammoth Hot Springs

Friday 19 May 2006

We woke to find it lightly raining with overcast skies and a lower outside temperature.  We were parked at 6500ft however it was very warm inside our Earthroamer so we didn’t need to turn on the diesel heater.  Of the few million mozzies that were outside a number did get in when we opened the door, however they didn’t appear to be the type that buzz or bite.

We departed at 10.15am after a leisurely start to the day, in light rain and stopped in the main street of West Yellowstone. 

We stopped in West Yellowstone to do a bit of shopping

Once again we remembered the old days!  We spent a night in West Yellowstone with Hayley and Jenny in July 1983 during Dick’s around the world helicopter flight. Dick remembers that in 1966 – 40 years ago in a few months time – Dick visited Yellowstone when he was planning to return to Australia and become a park ranger.  Of course fate dictated that he would return to electronics.  We wonder what would have happened if he had become a park ranger.   At 11.55 we were back on the road and shortly after passed through the Park Entrance.

We entered Yellowstone National Park through the West Entrance

The sun had come out onto the magnificent scenery with lots of chances to take photographs.   The bison herds in the park are obviously thriving as they were seen everywhere.

Magnificent scenery with wild American Buffalo (often called bison) grazing close to the road
Elk grazing among the bushes
A bison beside the road
Pip used her telephoto lens to get close and personal with a male buffalo who had just swam across the Madison River

The road followed the Gibbon River and we stopped to view the Gibbon Falls. 

The Gibbon Falls on the Gibbon River

A little later we stopped at the trail head for the track to the Monument Geyser Basin.  Dick pulled our camping chairs out from the back of the Earthroamer, one donated by Wilbur O’Brien, the other purchased in Anchorage. For the first time on our trip it was warm enough for us to sit outside and have lunch.

Dick got the folding chairs out so we could sit beside the Gibbon River in the sun and eat our lunch

Simply Aussie style sandwiches.

After lunch we headed up the track with a climb of about 600ft with small snow banks beside and on the track.

Pip walking up to Monument Geyser Basin with snow drifts on the track

 The area had been burnt by a bushfire in 1988 and there were lots of young pines growing.  They all look like little Christmas trees. It looks as if it takes 18 years for a pine to reach 2 meters in height after germination through a bush fire.

The view as we climbed the track

 After a 40 minute walk, we arrived at the Monument Geyser Basin.

The Monument Geyser Basin

Yellowstone has thousands of geysers, some well known such as Old Faithful.  We were actually on the boundaries of a giant caldera – the centre of a volcano, which was active about 640,000 years ago. 

Yellowstone National Park was dedicated by Congress in 1872 as the world’s first national park.  The foresight of the environmentalist and politicians of the day was extraordinary.

We returned to the vehicle and drove further north along the Grand Loop Road to Mammoth Hot Springs. On the way we stopped wherever possible to look at the scenery and take photographs.  Even in this early part of the season there tended to be traffic jams wherever animals were present – such as a buffalo wandering down the middle of the road.

A Bison walking down the road …
…and right past our window
We drove through a thunderstorm on the way to Mammoth Hot Springs

About half way to Mammoth Hot Springs we drove through a major thunderstorm and then entered brilliant sunshine to the north.  We walked around the terraces at the Springs.

Dick at Mammoth Hot Springs, on the Upper Terraces area
Close up of Canary Spring

It is obvious that the water table is changing and there is less water being ejected than in the decades before.  Palette Spring was exceptional with its varying colours; nature is extraordinary.

Palette Spring

After stopping at the Upper Terraces area for a 30 minute walk, we drove   to the Lower Terraces area for a 15 minute visit – us and hundreds of other tourists.

Tourists like us walking on the boardwalks that run from the Upper Terraces to the Lower Terraces area

We drove past the Hot Springs Hotel and the Historic Fort Yellowstone.

We drove through Mammoth Hot Springs village

In the late 19 century Congress voted to put the military at the Park to protect it – great foresight.  You are not allowed to pull off the road and simply spend the night and it appears that it is strictly enforced with Rangers knocking on camper’s doors near midnight telling them to move on – so we were told.  We therefore drove another few minutes to the National Park’s camping area and paid an enormous $14 for a beautifully located campsite.

Our campsite at the Mammoth Hot Springs Campground

The campsite seemed about 80% full.  It appears it is always completely full by early in the morning at the peak of the season.

We stopped at 4.20pm, which was early for us. It was nice to have time to download the digital photographs and work on the web site at a reasonable hour – we often tend to work late at night. We enjoyed dinner and watched a DVD of ‘Notebook’ as the satellite TV didn’t work here.

98km for today   4,837km total

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