Wow, what words could possibly convey the beauty and variety of Yellowstone? Every American should be required to visit this place, if for no other reason than to appreciate our national park system. We are so lucky to have this treasure, we should all be keenly aware of its value.
Before we left for the park, we visited the Grizzly and Wolf Center in West Yellowstone. While the wolves were napping, the grizzlies were getting ready for breakfast. The Center has a program for kids to participate in feeding the bears, which the boys eagerly signed up for. After a brief orientation from a staff member -- and after the bears were led to a separate enclosure -- the kids were given a small bucket of bear food and asked to hide the food around the enclosure. After all the food was placed -- and the children were safely out of the bear enclosure -- the grizzlies were allowed to come back in and search for the food. All four of the bears ran in from their pens and turned over rocks and logs to get to the food. It was all pretty cool, especially for the kids. And for a bonus, the wolves woke from their nap to serenade us with a well-known blues tune....
After the bear and wolf encounter, we continued our adventures in Yellowstone. The first stop was a popular swimming spot on the Firehole River. You climb down a steep embankment to get to the river, which has a small "beach" that leads to shallow water. The middle of the river is deep -- so deep that there were scuba divers! The water is clear and cool and flows in a combination of swift currents, swirling eddies and calm pools. Adam saw fish underwater and we all explored the rocks and edges. While we didn't "run the rapids" further upstream, it was all great fun. Check out the short video at the bottom of this post.
We hit the Lower Geyser basins soon after our swim. We stopped at Fountain Paint Pot and saw several smalls geysers, eerie pools of rust-colored bacteria, white "mud pots" (bubbling mud pools) and dead, bleached trees. Beautiful yet creepy. There is thermal activity throughout this area, with steam vents and geyser pools scattered everywhere.
It was 2 pm before we got to Old Faithful, and by that time we weren't all that interested in seeing it. The crowds were huge and the sun was hot. We grabbed some food and headed back down the road. Soon we were skirting the edge of West Thumb and Yellowstone lakes. Lots of great scenery. The land adjacent to the eastern part of Yellowstone Lake was covered in dead trees, burned by what must have been a recent (within the last year) fire. The burn area was very large. We also saw a small bit of smoke from what looked like a small wildfire in another area near the lake.
Along the way, we crossed the Continental Divide twice. This part of the road travels through some high peaks before finally reaching the East Entrance. Almost immediately, the road enters the Shoshone National Forest, which is very beautiful in a stark, mud-colored canyon sort of way. We followed the Shoshone River, which flowed in what seems to be a very large gully. After about an hour, we reached Cody.
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