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Day 22 - 8/6/2004 - Yellowstone!!!
Thankfully my cold had abated (thanks to a megadose of Vitamin C), and I felt great in the chilly morning. Another clear and dry night with stars that literally lit up the night. Today was the day to explore the park. After a little work on catching up on the web pages, we headed north.
One of the first things you notice in Yellowstone is that wildlife has no fear of man. They graze within feet of people and cars. This apparently has presented some serious problems, given the plethora of signs warning the public. We reached the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone", and hiked to Artists Point. While it is not THE Grand Canyon, it is every bit as unique. Given the diversity of the land here (mountains, lakes, geysers, mudpots, canyons, forest, desert), it is easy to see why this area was set aside from the development that would scar so many other areas of the country.
We continued through numerous road construction areas and reached the Norris Geyser Basin in early afternoon. This is indeed a magnificent place! Acres of volcanicly active earth; the combination of cool water and burning magma to create a steaming landscape. The area is essentially a huge minefield, ready for a careless tourist to venture from the paths and onto an area of thin crust with pits of scalding water just inches below. They have had a number of fatalities related to the geothermal activity. One bozo actually dove into one of the pools head first (he is now a statistic).
After Norris, we continued up to the northern edge of the park and Mammoth Hot Springs. While it is very impressive, it is apparently in a period of domancy. We spoke with a couple that had been here in 1985, and the springs were flowing everywhere. Now, most of the activity is limited to a small corner of the formation (Canary Falls). We drove and/or walked eveywhere we could, and had a good workout.
After a quick picnic in the twon of Mammoth, we drove up to the Montana border where a large group of locals had parked and were enjoying a hot spring (normally the river water would be in the 40's). A few more pics and we were on our way back to camp. We had a fire (and needed it for warmth).
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