I know. The word is overused but it applies in this case.
We arrived in Gardiner MT, at Yellowstone's north entrance at around 6pm on Friday and decided to take a short drive into the park just to get our bearings before we headed to our hotel.
Wow! What an experience! We didn't even get to the park entrance get (the famed Roosevelt Arch) and there were literally many dozen elk in the meadow between the town's main street and the park entrance. There were a number of bison, too. During the 90 minutes or so we were driving in the park, we saw herd after herd of both bison and elk. Some really close up - like right along the roadside as we slowly drove by hoping they'd not decide to put a horn into the car's side just for spite! Way too cool! We didn't realize it then but after Friday night we didn't see nearly as many elk close up on Saturday or Sunday. But we continued to see plenty of bison, both at a distance and really close-up. We made a quick stop by Mammoth Hot Springs before heading back to town to check into our hotel. They're like nothing you've ever seen.
 |
 |
On Saturday, we made a beeline down to Old Faithful (about an hour drive from our hotel; more with a few stops). On the way down we made a quick stop at "Roaring Mountain" which at that time was really roaring and blowing a huge blast of steam, unlike the several other times we passed by. We spoke with someone who lives in the area and he said he thought this was the best time of year to visit the park, echoing what the ranger manning the park entrance had told us on the way in.
What really makes Yellowstone so unique from any other area in the world is the incredible number of geothermal features contained within its boundaries. Over 10,000 different geothermal features - from fumaroles (steam vents) to hot springs to geysers - have been documented at Yellowstone. More than anywhere else in the world.
So we finally made it to Old Faithful, so named because it erupts on a fairly regular schedule, about every 64-94 minutes. Very few other geysers in the world are this predictable or frequent. We got to see it twice since we took a long walk through the Upper Geyser Basin area which is home to over 150 geysers besides Old Faithful.
The weather on Saturday was beautiful! Generally clear skies and high 40s (the sun made it feel warmer). Sunday was a different story. It started out raining but then stopped (mostly) but remained overcast. But when we were leaving late afternoon on Sunday, we drove through a bit of sleet/snow.
Besides the many bison we saw both near and far, we also saw a number of pronghorn antelope. Man, are they fast when they decide to run! We had one bound across the road not far in front of us and he was gone in a flash. But we saw a couple grazing in a field and one was laying in the grass and I was able to get within 50 ft of it and it just kept looking at me. I decided that was close enough - I didn't want to spook it or upset it.
Neatest of all, when we were on our way our of the park on Sunday we came upon a mam bison walking along the berm of the road trailed closely by her obviously newborn calf! It was still kind of wobbly on it's feet and you could tell by looking at it that it was only a few hours old at best.
If we ever get a chance, we'd definitely like to come back to Yellowstone and would definitely visit at about the same time of year but plan a longer stay.
That's all for now ..... Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment