Yellowstone National Park

I'm in love with Montana! What a state! They have less population than the state of Maine (1.05 million here, 1.3 million in Maine) and it is over 4 times bigger. That's about 7 people per square mile. Granted, there is a lot of land here that you couldn't live on, think mountains, but that gives you an idea of the space.

First I stayed in Whitefish, which is located to the west of Glacier National Park, then drove down to Livingston, which is near the border of Wyoming and just north of Yellowstone. The drive was wonderful, all mountains, valleys, wildlife and big sky.

Both Whitefish and Livingston are beautiful towns filled with everything from great food, cool bookstores, breweries, art galleries, and more with the feel of an old western town. Both are so easy to walk around and enjoy. I tried to capture how unique these towns are:

Yesterday, up before dawn to get to Yellowstone to see the sun rise. That's been one of my favorite times of day to visit the national parks. Watched the sun rise over the mountains - cool morning and a cup of hot tea in my hands. Life is damned great!

I have driven nearly 10,000 miles and I've been really good with it all until I was almost in Montana. That was the first time during my drive that I wished someone else could do the driving. With that in mind, I booked a "Yellowstone in a Day" tour so someone else could drive the 142 miles around the park. I am so glad I did because I not only met some great people (especially Louise and Gerard from Montreal), I was able to sit back, relax and enjoy the park without worrying about driving, parking and navigating the switchbacks and traffic. For $120, the tour began at 7:30 a.m. and went until 6:30 p.m. Money well spent!!

Yellowstone was the first national park (1872) and is 3,472 square miles. That's a lot of ground to cover. The tour started in Gardiner (upper left) and drove the crazy 8 roadway down the west side and then back up the east side. Yellowstone is volcanically and seismically active and it shows in the incredibly diverse landscapes you see when driving through the park. There are waterfalls, lakes, rivers, geysers, steaming hot springs and mudpots, canyons and mountains. It's truly incredible what you get to see in a day!

The first part of the day, until we got down to Old Faithful, was to check out all of the volcanic activity on the west side of the park. First we drove through the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance and made our way to Mammoth Hot Springs

You get a total sense of what the earth must have been like as it was forming and shaping itself. The air was filled with sulfuric geothermal activity. The amateur geologist in me loves this stuff!!

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 In the middle of it all, heading to the Geyser Basin, is this beautiful waterfall with an 84 foot drop.

Then we get to the geyser basins which are huge landscapes filled with steam vents, prehistoric lakes, geysers, mudpots and skeletons of former plant life.

These are called bobby sock trees because the trees soak up the mineral laden water and when the water evaporates, the minerals are left behind.

You know those tv shows like Star Trek where they landed on another planet with their phasers in hand? That's what this felt like. Dibs on being Spock.

We left the lowerbasins and headed toward Old Faithful for lunch and to see this great geyser. It shoots up to about 185 feet (highest recorded) and goes off about every 90 minutes (or at least it was when I visited). That can change depending on the duration of eruptions.

After lunch and seeing the eruption, we continued our drive around the bottom of that crazy 8 and made our way to Yellowstone Lake. As you can see in the photos, it was pretty cloudy and hazy (there's a fire at the northern edge of the park) and dark clouds were threatening rain. The visibility wasn't great so it was hard to see the distant mountains (including the Tetons) but I'm not complaining. It was still glorious!

Once we crossed the Continental Divide (total of 4 times during this trip), the landscape was completely different. First we drove around the western edge of Yellowstone Lake. It is almost 8,000 feet above sea level and covers 136 square miles. 

On a clear day you can see images like this:

Not today.

We stopped here and there along the lake and made our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone where we got to see the Lower Falls. At 308 feet, it is the tallest waterfall in the park. That's way taller than Niagara Falls!

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is impressive!!

As we drove up Washburn Range, again, the landscape was totally different from the steam vented earth on the other side of the divide.

We saw huge sage brush filled ranges with bison, coyotes and mule deer along with all types of birds including blue herons and sandhill cranes.

At the end of the tour, I was dropped off in Gardiner in the pouring rain and began my journey east to Livingston. As I was driving, the storm was clearing and I saw a dark shape in the distance. I was on a highway going 70 mph so I slowed down and realized that this huge male bison was trotting down the highway. I put on my flashers and came to a complete stop on the road. No cars coming or going....just me and him.

He walked right by my car. I rolled down my window wanting to get a good photo, hoping he didn't have eyes for my lovely blue car. It's rutting season right now so these big fellows roam around looking for some action. He glanced my way for a moment, looked back over his shoulder and walked right by. What a perfect way to end a sight filled day.