October 3, 2022
Today is our first of three days of exploring Yellowstone. The roadway system inside Yellowstone is basically a figure of eight. We planned our trips around certain areas and what we were interested in. Today we did most of the lower portions of the figure. Our first stop was the Mud Volcano. While we had walked out on the boardwalk to see the volcano and the Dragon’s Mouth Spring we met a couple from Germany. We spoke with them for several minutes. They were very friendly. It is quite interesting for me to recognize and realize the international diversity of people visiting our national parks.
The next stop is Sulphur Springs. Definite stench in the air. Then we drove through Hayden Valley on our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - Artist Point. The views were breath taking. When you stop and think how many millions of years this took to create, it is staggering. We left Artist Point and took the North Rim Drive, stopping at Lookout Point and Grand View. We found a quiet place and dined on our brown bag lunch in the truck.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Canyon Village. The amazing thing about this place was that once we parked and I got out of the truck, two, not one but two, ravens were perched on my tailgate. They were unfazed by me. They kept sitting there staring at me. I did not want to get too close as they are a rather large bird with sharp talons and beaks. I eventually got them to fly away. We looked around the two gift shops there and came away with our usual haul; a token for my national parks token book, smashed pennies if they have a machine, postcards for the grandkids, a Christmas ornament, and a walking stick medallion.
We traveled across the middle of the figure of eight and on that road we encountered a female elk. Very large animal. She was just standing along the roadside grazing. A little further down the road we had to wait for a bison to cross. After the car in front of us passed him, he decided to lumber toward us. I wasn’t sure if he was going to hit the truck or not. Fortunately he didn’t and just walked right on by us. Shortly after we took a side road that led us to the Virginia Cascade. Really neat.
Our next stop is the Norris Geyser Basin. Then on the way back “home” we stopped at Firehole Falls, and the Grand Prismatic Spring. At Grand Prismatic Spring we saw the Midway Geyser Basin. It was getting late and we were tired. We decided on a game plan for the next two days. We journeyed home. Yellowstone is a very large park. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to get from one place to another. It was amazing.
