We got up and packed, we thought about staying another night in Yellowstone, but because a lot of the park was still closed we figured we could do the rest of what we wanted in a day. This was also helped out by the fact that the southern entrance to the park was still closed. This meant we would have to adjust our itinerary a bit.
We skipped breakfast, as we had plenty of food from leftovers. We headed back up the road and stopped at all the geo-thermal sights along the way that we could get to. We stopped at the following locations:
Biscuit Basin, It was very smelly but had some spectacular views of the the pools. Here is a picture of the Sapphire Pool
Midway Geyser Basin; this area had a very large basin that was filled with water and water spilled down from over the top of the rim. One area was so smokey and windy that you were engulfed in sulfuric fumes. I have some great video of it I will upload when I get back home.
Fountain Paint Pot; Here we saw some very unique fountains. During this loop some stupid kids were putting their hands in water. I wanted to kick them in the butt and push them over for being so stupid. Well, one thing they probably don’t realize is there are TONS of microbes in that water that will probably make them sick. It will serve them right.
Here is one of the mud pools
On the way to the next area, we took the Firehole Canyon Drive: This had an awesome view of the waterfall at the end of the drive.
Mud Pots; On the way we saw lots of bison, elk and a fox. We drove down to the lake, but pretty much everything was closed. We headed back to the Mud Pots, but they had all the trails closed because of bears.
There were some springs across the road from the Mud Pots that smelled even worse than the Mud Pots. This was called Sulphur Cauldron. It sure was aptly named.
One of the interesting things was that this side of the park is pretty much flat with snow and meadows filled with trees. A very different look than the other parts of the park we had been to already.
After looking at all the hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles, we headed over to the canyon area trails. This is an area that follows both the north and south sides of the Yellowstone River. We stopped at the south rim first then we drove to Artist Point for a spectacular view of the lower falls. After taking photos, we drove back to the upper falls viewing area.
Fortunately for us, all of the strenuous trails were still closed. Most of them decended 300 to 400 feet down the side of the canyon. Our legs had about had it this week.
Here is a view of the lower falls
This is a view of the upper falls
After driving the canyon trails, we headed out to the western entrance to the park. On this road we saw more wildlife than on any other road we have been on. We saw LOTS of bison, elk and even some wolves. On the way out of the park, there was a bald eagle area, but we didn’t see any.
We stopped at west yellowstone at the McDonalds to grab a bite to eat. We then looked at the map to figure out what to do next. It turns out that most everything at Grand Teton National Park was closed this time of year, so we decided to skip it. We are going to head to some of the other parks in Utah. We drove to Idaho Falls for the evening and then grabbed dinner at a local diner.