Saturday - 2 July 2011

After breakfast we drove to the Artists Paintpot hotspring area.

Lodge Pole Pines - grown up after a fire. All are nearly the same size and age.
Lodge Pole pine cones only open up after being toasted by a fire,
so after a fire in Yellowstone a forest of these trees grows up rather quickly.

Of course some areas grow back faster than others

Active little geyser attached to steaming mud lake
note boardwalk climbing on hillside above the mud lake.

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Joseph on overlook - seeing us and the mud lake below

some flowers grow very near hotsprings - near the boardwalk for us tourists

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Nobody could tell me what the tiny red flowers were. Their spindly plants grew in clumps all over Teton and Yellowstone Parks.

Interesting design of overhead lighting in the cafeteria

We had lunch at the Yellowstone Canyon cafeteria. The Canyon visitor center includes a number of buildings
including 2 restaurants, a store and an interpretive center (museum).

When the caldera that is Yellowstone erupts it effects much of what is now USA.
The big one some 640,000 years ago effected the area where Dallas and Houston are now. (wow).

The hot spot that provides yellowstone's effects stays in one place,
while the North American tectonic plate moves West under it.

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We drove the southern (western?) loop of the Yellowstone Canyon road and stopped at one of the turnouts for an extended view.

We found a parking spot on the West side of Yellowstone Canyon and were immediately confronted by
this Raven. It was a perfect mimic. It did turkey sounds, chicken sounds and a number of other sounds which I
most certainly did not expect out of a big black raven.

Bashful - or stealthy - or very private Raven looked away when I tried to take a picture.

Joseph took the trail partway down the canyon for a better view of the Falls.
Mona and I lolled about at the top edge taking pictures.

Yellowstone Falls in all its glory

Looking down into the canyon - the falls is out of the picture on the right.
The river runs North (to the left).

Close-up of the top of Yellowstone Falls.

Nest of big bids on a pinacle of rock in Yellowstone Canyon

And here is where that pinacle of rock is... in the canyon

One of the traditional Yellowstone tour buses. Found this one in the parking lot at the canyon.
They have some of the same design at Glacier N. Park but those are red.

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Mud Volcano area - some miles north of Yellowstone Lake

Note the bison enjoying the steam.

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one corner of this mud lake was constantly boiling

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No, I was not that close - had long lens on camera
He is moulting from his winter coat.

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The trail back towards the Dragons Mouth from boiling pools further up the slope.
Note the parking area below. Following the road off to the right (south) you come to Yellowstone Lake.

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Called the Dragons Mouth this feature constantly roars and gurgles.

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We kept driving around the loop road and stopped to get an additional SD card for the big camera at the store at Lake Village.
All the buildings were painted a light yellow. Much the same color as the soil in Yellowstone Canyon.

Yellowstone Lake - looking South from the North.

It is a big lake

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Trees on W side of Lake - - then in a short distance an area recovering from fire.

Elk grazing at side of road

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We continued on and looped back toward camp.
On the way we drove through the parking area at Midway Geyser basin (lot was full)

The river in the foreground is the Firehole River - upstream from Firehole Canyon.

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Then on the way back to camp we took a side trip
and drove the one-way Firehole Canyon loop which offered spectacular views of a very active part of the river.

Canyon side - obviously melted twisted rock

The constricted river flows fast

early strawberries perhaps

From here we had a short drive back to the Madison Campground and made supper.

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Butte, Montana Next page - Leaving Yellowstone - to Butte MT - between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks