We woke with a 6:45 alarm to a sunlit mountain view from our room at Rodeway Inns but then were very slow and headed down to a good breakfast before leaving at 9:15. We were very close to the North Entrance to Yellowstone but nipped into town for supplies before entering.
After a dearth of animal sightings in the Park, several female Elk where chilling on the town football field.
Before we came away on this trip, I had been fascinated by the idea of wild thermal bathing rather than the organised concrete pools in which I had little interest and browsing through brochures yesterday came across the “Boiling River” not far from the North Entrance and the only safe and legal location in the National Park. Lynne was up for it too and being early we were able to park and walk the 20 mins or so along the Gardiner River to where the Boiling River enters it.
[catchup: Boiling River photos added 17/8]
The “Boiling River” is literally that, it surfaces from underground and runs about 30m before tumbling into and merging with the large Gardiner River which is the river people can enter.
We entered upstream of the merge into very cold water with a strong current and picked our way down to where they merge. Even in the main river, putting a foot too close to the inflow from the Boiling River is scaldingly hot. Pools built from stones create more placid areas and some sit whilst others float along with the current. It’s really odd as flows of cold and hot hit you as the currents swirl. It was a lovely spot and still not too crowded and an experience I shall savour.
By the time we were moving again it was almost 12 but at Mammoth Springs we stopped for an ice cream and a sandwich for lunch. Elk suckling calf on the green.
After enjoying our ice cream we explored Mammoth Springs thermal area. We stayed short of the top level which we later saw from the road above. This area has more water flowing, even a small waterfall at the very top which we saw when driving above.
We headed south but turned east along a precarious a side road which passed by water falls and cliffs before reaching a pleasant meadow picnic spot, an excellent stop.
Time was marching on and we decided we must start to miss things out. We had intended an early hotel arrival tonight but that was clearly not going to happen.
We moved on directly to Norris Basin and opted to do only the Porcelain basin which Lynne had read was the most interesting. Again here we restricted our exploration but were glad we’d stopped as the formations and variety thermal activity was superb including some of the hottest springs in Yellowstone.
Pleased with Norris, we tried to charge on but, us being us, still kept stopping to look. We had a very brief stop at Artists Paint Pots but decided quickly to leave it as uneventful after other things we’ve seen. We missed Monument but stopped at Beryl Springs expecting little.
Beryl Springs is a small site adjacent to the road but had a wonderful deep azure pool with boiling water noisily bursting to the surface. We both agreed that this was a perfectly suitable close to our Yellowstone experience and left the Park just before 5pm with 100miles to Belgrade.
After days of 25-45mph we were now back on 70mph and charged north at a good pace arriving at 6:30.
On the way our Sat-Nav, “Beryl”, as in “Beryl the Peril” from some of the routes she chose in the Alpes when we first got her, insisted we should do a U Turn and go back via Yellowstone. It was up to 160 miles before she suddenly decided we were right after all and dropped to 60. I downloaded free maps from Open Street Map for this trip so expect the occasional blip.
The La Quinta is oddly sited in the middle of a lorry park. We found a really nice place to eat in Desert Rose, a small bar with live country music playing.
Wi-Fi at the hotel turned out to be an issue. Whatever they were using made any secure site inc’ social networks fail. Took me a while to think to override the DNS which solved that problem but by then it was late and the speed was too slow to upload any pictures anyway.
Not expecting Wi-Fi for the next 2 days so offline writing only.
Today's route:
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love your comments as it shows someone out there is reading it.
All comments are moderated so you won't see it immediatly.
Thank you for stopping by, Lynne & Ged