Yellowstone v.9

Yellowstone

This place is immense!!  We got there in the early evening and realized our reserved site was at least another hour and a half inside the park.So, we decided to try our luck at the "first come first served" campground at Mammoth Springs, just inside the North entrance.  We got the last campsite, and to our surprise, were allowed to have a fire.  Becca would have a fire every night if we could.  We were just happy to stop driving.

We were a little disappointed that the place is not family biking friendly.  Experienced bikers even have some trouble because the roads are narrow and people are looking at wildlife and natural beauty while driving.

Our research guided us to a less visited geyser basin, but we decided we couldn't go to Yellowstone and not see Old Faithful!  There are plenty of geysers to see and strange geologic features to puzzle over all over the park.

 On our way there we were stopped in a 90 minute traffic back up because of.... Bison in the Road!

We were warned that traffic would stop because someone saw wildlife and just stopped in the middle of the road.  The rangers try to keep it in check, but people are nuts!

 Fascinating fact about the lodgepole pine in Yellowstone:  They have 2 types of seed cones.  The one that opens provides seeds for new trees in normal times.  The other is higher up in the tree and is coated by a resin that melts at about 115-120 degrees and provides many more seeds to reseed the forest after a fire.  We saw a section of trees that were about 15 ft tall among bare poles from the 1988 fire- naturally reseeded.

We went to see the mud geysers next.  Very strange.  Steam coming out of odd places, mud volcanoes turning into cauldrons and never erupting again, learning about the fact that much of Yellowstone sits inside the caldera of a volcano.  They think it will erupt again, but not for thousands of years.  So interesting!
 We had dinner at Yellowstone Lake Lodge- the oldest wood structure in the country.  Look at the view!  And Becca's not having any fun at all...

 On the way out of the park, we crossed the Continental Divide.  Have to document that!

 Fun at the gift shop...