Tuesday, May 24, 2022; Finishing Yellowstone and Into Grand Tetons
We started our day’s tour of Yellowstone from Madison Campground and headed north to see the west side attractions starting with our first bison of the day and Gibbon falls.
We then hit a series of Geysers and other geothermal features culminating at Mammoth Hot Springs near the North Entrance to the park. The most impressive was called the Black Growler at the Norris Geyser Basin.
It was a fumarole that should be renamed the white howler for the volume and pressure of the steam jets it emitted. The power of it was incredible. We can’t count the number of emerald and blue colored steaming and bubbling pools we peered into, as well as boiling cauldrons of all colors and consistencies.
Towards the end of the morning, we were experiencing geothermal feature fatigue- just another paint pot or geyser.
For it’s name, Mammoth Hot Springs is a bit of a let down because most of the largest formations have gone dry. There are huge terraces of travertine deposited by acidic waters percolating up through limestone deep underground.
These can form formations like what is seen in limestone caves- flow stone, ribbons, etc. Soe call these formations at Mammoth Hot Springs inside out caves. Fortunately, there are still a couple that are growing. There are also plenty of female elk wandering around the Mammoth Hot Springs area. We also ran into the first crowds of our visit in the Mammoth Hot Springs area. We really didn’t care for that.
Janet’s Apple Watch had clocked us doing several miles of walking on those boardwalks around the geothermal activity fields. We did stop and see some impressive obsidian boulders at the base of an Obsidian Cliff.
This is what Janet’s knapper friends use for making arrow heads. Too bad you can’t remove any souvenirs from National Parks, or I’m sure our RV would be well over it’s rated axle weight in no time at all with a couple of obsidian boulders fitted into the cargo bays.
In the afternoon, we drove into a snow storm to get over to the “Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone” side of the park. We were lucky enough to spot a bear walking through a meadow through the snow.
The first hike down to the Brink of the Lower Falls required a 600’ elevation drop and climb back up, which gave us a good cardio workout in the snow.
The snow finally stopped and the sun came out as we did the North Rim Drive to see other view points of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, and several other waterfalls. By the time we finished that circle drive, we were on the verge of waterfall fatigue as well.
We drove through Hayden Valley hoping to catch a glimpse of something other than bison or elk, but alas, today, it was not to be. At one point, we came to an area where there were a lot of cars. We stopped and asked what people were looking at, and the gal we asked said simply people were stopping because other cars were stopped but there really wasn’t anything to see. That happens a lot when the park is more crowded because of FOMO (fear of missing out).
We drove past Yellowstone lake and West Thumb again, and headed out the South Entrance of Yellowstone. There is a big sign saying thank you for visiting Yellowstone National Park. Just a couple hundred yards further down the road is a small “Welcome to Grand Teton National Park- Information 19 miles ahead” sign that you could very easily miss if you weren’t looking for it. It seems Grand Teton is Yellowstone’s ugly step sister.
It was 5pm as we pulled into the Flagg Ranch Information Station and Headwaters campground. The people staffing the campground were pinning envelopes with people’s names on a cork board outside their tiny office as we pulled up. We asked if there were any sites available for us to camp in. They said all the campgrounds in the park were sold out and 100% booked through Xanterra, the concessionaire for the National Parks Service.
When we asked about alternatives, they guy initially said we could just drive straight through the park and find something in Jackson WY in 2 hours if we didn’t make any stops, but did mention that there are dispersed camping areas in the surrounding National Forest lands which people usually use. However, all those sites have been temporarily closed due to the Park Service releasing “Problem Grizzlies” into those areas in just the last week.
They will remain closed for a few weeks to allow those bears to disperse. Other camping areas are closed due to snow.
Because of this, the park service is temporarily allowing self contained campers to use a parking lot for the currently closed for the season Flagg Ranch Information Station, which will open on Memorial Day. Once the Information Station is reopened, this option will be shut down.
We stopped at the Flagg ranch filling station and put 10gal of diesel in the tank @$5.599/gal, not filling the tank, but giving us enough range to get comfortably into Jackson Hole tomorrow.
So we found ourselves in a vacant giant parking lot for a night. There were two other campers in another adjacent lot who appear to also be spending the night. We had camp “Bizghetti and Meatballs” (Costco Bertolli jar and frozen)with microwave broccoli, artisan ciabatta and Boursin cheese spread for dinner, along with some of the French red wine John had given us in the Poconos. It will be nice to have a full day tomorrow to explore Grand Teton National Park.
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