Road Trip 2010 - Yellowstone (part 1)

The second full day of the road trip consisted of driving across Wyoming. It seemed like every hour we were seeing a completely different landscape - forest, desert, mountains, fields, you name it. The mountain pass through the Bighorn Mountains and Bighorn National Forest was very beautiful, and we would like to spend some time there on a future trip. One tremendously large desert-ish area had a sign that said "FOAL: Friends of a Legacy" - an area reserved for the wild horses to roam. That night we stayed at one of our nice places to stay for the trip - the Shoshone Lodge and Guest Ranch, 3 miles east of the East Entrance to Yellowstone. The people were great, the food was great, the atmosphere was great... We would highly recommend it. The next morning - Yellowstone! Our first day there was rainy, but we didn't care. The low clouds and haziness added to the aura... It is interesting going into the caldera of a supervolcano! The roads through Yellowstone are sort of a figure 8. We did most of the lower half of the 8 the first day, which includes...


Mud Volcano
The ranger at the Mud Volcano said that in the past it would spew mud high into the air regularly - it doesn't do that anymore, but it still bubbles constantly.


Dragon's Mouth
Dragon's Mouth sounds like it is breathing, occasionally growling, and the steam constantly comes out with the water lapping in and out like waves.

West Thumb Geyser Basin
I liked the cute little evergreens along the boardwalk in this area:

We got really wet while on the boardwalk trail at West Thumb, but it was worth it. Behind Alfie you see the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake.

The Yellowstone wildlife hang out in the hot steam...

We saw various animal prints randomly through the cement of the sidewalk by the parking lot, too. There's only so much you can do when you're laying cement in Yellowstone...



It seems like everywhere you look there is hot steam or something bubbling up out of the ground. This area had some paint pots too.

Up next: Yellowstone (part 2) including Old Faithful and the Firehole Lake Drive!