Wednesday, August 15, 2018

The Great Western Road Trip 2018: Yellowstone (Day 1) (plus a little last bit of Teton)

On Wednesday, we drove back up through Teton to the South Entrance of Yellowstone. Benji and I woke up early and walked over to the highly recommended Bunnery to pick up pastries for breakfast. Rather than gobble them down in the hotel, we waited to have a breakfast picnic at Colter Bay, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip:

One last look at this bison heard at Antelope Ridge. I like all the calves walking with their mamas
Beautiful Colter Bay




We made it!

First stop: short hike to Moose Falls

From the top




Down the (unmaintained) trail



 



Lace Falls


By mid-day, we stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin to take in our first thermal features:






Blue Abyss




Fishing Hole Geyser. People used to catch fish by luring them here and letting them get cooked alive



As we left, we happened upon a cow elk


As we made our way towards Canyon Village, it started to rain (again), but we made a very quick stop to see LeHardy's Rapids
Buffalo carcas caught in the rapids
 We were going to skip it, but Benji asked to see the mud volcano so we got out and walked around:

Dragon's Mouth Geyser

Mud Volcano
I just liked the color variations in the grass surrounding this thermal pool
Once the rain let up, we stopped at a few more viewpoints:


And eventually made our way to the Canyon Village area, where it promptly started to rain again. We did a very quick hike to the Upper Falls and Crystal Falls viewpoints, but hightailed it back when the thunder started:

 

Crystal Falls
 We decided to call it a night, had dinner at the Canyon Food Court and then checked in, surprised (and delighted) to find we were booked in a little cabin in the woods:

View out the windows
Our cozy "NPS modern" cabin

As we unloaded the car, another rainbow appeared:


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