Yellowstone National Park - Part 1: Geysers

June 12, 2021

We spent three very full days in Yellowstone. Our first day was devoted to four of the Geyser Basins. West Thumb, Upper, Midway, and Lower geyser basins. Each geyser, paint pot, and spring is unique and otherworldly. Here are some examples.

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Upper Geyser Basin

 Old Faithful

Old Faithful is the one geyser that erupts on a fairly predictable timeframe throughout a day. We arrived at 10:20 AM and found a seat on one of the benches surrounding the geyser. It was predicted to erupt at about 10:57 give or take ten minutes. It's a waiting game. 

We waited along with about 1,000 of our closest friends.

This is how Old Faithful looks when it's not erupting.

We had occasional false starts that looked like this, but at 11:13 this was the real thing.

This was at its peak.

After about two minutes, the steam subsided and it was over until the next eruption in about 90 minutes.

Black Sand Basin and Biscuit Basin

Lower Geyser Basin

Firehole Lake Drive

Fountain Paint Pots

Red Spouter

Midway Geyser Basin

Grand Prismatic Spring

I saved the best for last. It's best to view this iconic spring from the overlook at the Fairy Falls trailhead to get a spectacular birds-eye view. 

When we came down from the overlook it was interesting to see the colorful steam rising from the spring.

Check back for Part II of Yellowstone in the next post. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and more.

Colter Bay Hiking and Foxes

June 12, 2021

After our four-night stay in Gros Ventre, we were hoping to get a campsite in Yellowstone to no avail. Luckily, a site  for three nights opened up in Colter Bay, which is farther north in the Tetons, bringing us closer to Yellowstone. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than missing Yellowstone altogether, so we took it.

It was a short and scenic drive, passing Oxbow Bend on our way.

Not us in the kayaks this time.

We arrived at our campsite in the early afternoon, so we decided to take a short three-mile hike. The trailhead for the Swan Lake-Heron Pond loop started from Colter Bay Village near the marina. 

You can barely see the lone swan for which Swan Lake was presumably named.

Close-up of the beaver lodge. This is the second one we've seen, but so far, no beavers have appeared.

I spotted an American Coot swimming around. The wildlife on this trail were pretty far away.

View of the Tetons from Heron Pond

White pelicans could barely be seen across the pond.

We had one unexpected surprise treat at our campground. We learned that there was a fox's den just off the  road leading to our campsite and the fox had three kits. Campers were always set up with their cameras across the road from the den in hopes of getting a glimpse of the fox family. We joined them a couple of times and were lucky enough to catch them.

First we saw one, then there were two. I just loved the little spot of white on the tip of their tails. They were very playful with each other.

This is the only time I saw all three of them at the same time.

Here's mom back from her hunt. 

I don't generally show animals from the rear, but I just loved the look of her beautiful, bushy trail.

The next two days in Colter Bay, we spent driving to Yellowstone National Park. More about that adventure in the next post.

Grand Teton National Park, Finally

 June 10, 2021

We've pretty much been without WIFI and cell service for ten days! It's going to take awhile to catch up on all the great stuff from our week in the Tetons and start on Yellowstone. We just got to Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, MT where they have limited WIFI. I'm not supposed to upload photos, so I'll see what happens.

Grand Tetons Day 1

Driving west from Casper, WY, we anxiously awaited our first glimpse of the mountains. After crossing the Continental Divide at elevation 9658', we saw this sign.

 I hung on for dear life as the engine of the RV screamed!

As we descended, we got our first glimpse of the spectacular Teton Range. In my opinion, the most beautiful mountain range in the country. We spent the next week admiring them.

We checked in at Gros Ventre campground where we would spend the next four nights. It's located at the southern end of the park along the Gros Ventre River. We had a site with no hook-ups, but we were counting on our four solar panels and two lithium batteries to provide us with enough power during our stay.

After setting up, we drove up to Jenny Lake to get a boating permit for our kayaks. We decided to take advantage of long daylight hours, and went ahead and launched right away. It was something we had been thinking about doing for a long time, and it didn't disappoint.

On our way back to camp, we stopped at this overlook in hopes of seeing wildlife by the stream, but all we saw was a beaver lodge.

The view from our campsite was a field of sagebrush with the mountains in the distance. 

Day 2

My day started off at 5:00 AM. That's very unusual for me, but I was determined to get over to Schwabacher Landing early to capture the reflection of the mountains in the Snake River. I didn't get there in time to see the sunrise at 5:45, but at 6:15 AM I was pretty close. It was beautiful and so worth getting up early.

After a late breakfast, Lee and I decided to take the kayaks out again. This time, we took a recommendation from a ranger and put in at String Lake, a smaller lake just north of Jenny Lake. No motorized boats were allowed. The scenery was spectacular. More beautiful than Jenny Lake. We spent almost three hours paddling around. Here are some views from the lake.

Day 3

Today was hiking day. We combined the Taggart Lake-Bradley Lake-Beaver Creek trails for a 7-mile hike. There was a lot of climbing but the views of the lakes and the mountains were worth the effort. 

Click on the map to enlarge. Our hike is marked at the bottom of the  photo. First we went to Bradley Lake,  then down to Taggart Lake, then returned via Beaver Creek. Note at the top of the map Jenny Lake and String Lake where we kayaked earlier in the week.

Scenes from the hike

A waterfall right off the bat.

Bradley Lake

Heading down to Taggart Lake. Lots of wildflowers along the trail.

Taggart Lake

Heading back down

Along Beaver Creek

Our campground was located along the Gros Ventre River, so later that evening, I drove to an overlook down the road to look for moose. They are often seen in this area. I got lucky!

Day 4

Today was another very early morning to photograph the iconic Moulton Barns in the Mormon Row Historic District. They stand out so beautifully against the mountain backdrop. Afterward, we continued down the unpaved road to look for pronghorn in the fields nearby.

 

On our way back to the campground, we stopped at the overlook where I had seen the moose the night before in hopes of seeing another one. We weren't so lucky this time, but I did see a bird that was new to me, a Spotted Sandpiper as well as a cute little ground squirrel.

This was our last day at Gros Ventre. Our next stop was a campground in Colter Bay a little farther north in the park. More on that in our next post.