As a geologist who had never been to Yellowstone, we had some major ground to cover in 2.5 days. That also meant we'd have time to only hit the tourist areas and not really any backcountry exploration. We started at the south entrance, drove north, west, and north for our first night at Madison Campground, drove east, north, east to exit the park's northeast entrance for night two along the Beartooth Highway, then drove west and north to finally exit the parks north entrance. Between the tourists, low speed limit, and vast expanses this amounted to a lot of driving.
Our first stop was the West Thumb Geyser Basin on the shores of Yellowstone Lake where we got our first taste of overflowing parking lots. Once we found a spot, the boardwalked trail was nice enough. Several interesting geothermal features juxtaposed against the expansive backdrop of Yellowstone Lake. I quickly became fascinated by the small-scale colors and textures of the different pools.
Next up was the world famous Upper Geyser Basin. We arrived shortly before Old Faithful was set to erupt so we grabbed an ice cream from the lodge and joined the throngs in the bleachers. We watched the first half of the impeccably timed eruption before peeling off from the crowds. We walked the full boardwalk loop over to Morning Glory Pool and back, enjoying the varied colors and textures as we went. Storm clouds loomed on the horizon and thunder boomed in the distance. Somehow it seemed fitting to the landscape. When we were set to leave (pumping gas actually!) we could see Castle Geyser erupting and so ran over to watch that one. The voluminous spray blasted all those on the walking path with warm sulfurous mist.
We drove on to Midway Geyser Basin, home of the Grand Prismatic Pool and an even more dire parking situation. The viewpoint trail we wanted was closed but we walked the boardwalk along the pool anyway. Certainly not as impressive at ground level!
We continued on to Firehole Lake Drive where we managed to arrive about ten minutes before Great Fountain Geyser was likely to erupt. This one had a slightly different eruption pattern where it had a stalled eruption, paused for a further ten minutes, then erupted spectacularly. It was neat seeing a hot river instantly appear. Three major geyser eruptions in a day without trying seemed pretty good!
We took a short detour along Firehole Canyon Drive, enjoying the steep gorge, impressive falls, and drooling over packraft options. A short distance further and we were at Madison Campground, a sardine-packed, stripped forest with over 270 sites! Despite being in the park and the most expensive, it was easily the most undesirable camp we stayed on our whole trip. The location was convenient though and we slept just as well.
Day 2 we set out to cover the northeast section of the park, stopping at the roadside Beryl Spring and then a short walk to the Artists Paint Pots, a colorful name for the gray bubbling mud pools. Next we drove on to Artists Point to see the famous Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone view. It was certainly fascinating to see such a youthful, colorful, and highly active gorge, the more so with steaming hot springs pouring out at river level far below. The Uncle Tom's trailhead was completely full so we decided to head down the Hayden Valley in the interim. The Mud Volcano area was neat with even more varied geothermal features including a cave-like vent that belched waves of hot water and steam. It was particularly neat to see enormous bison lounging around the geothermal features like they were no big deal.
Returning to the canyon area we found parking and hike Uncle Tom's Trail. I was pleasantly surprised, not expecting a Half Dome or Angel's Landing sketchiness of trail. Essentially a metal walkway has been bolted along a steep gully to provide access to the misty promontory immediately in front of Lower Yellowstone Falls. On the return we made a loop of it by swinging past the upper falls.
We drove the tree-covered stretch from Canyon Village to Roosevelt which was not too interesting other than a stop at Tower Fall. From Roosevelt we escaped east out the Lamar Valley, stopping a couple times to marvel at the hot spots and flare-ups visible in one of the fires to the north of us.
We drove through thickening storms and fires along the Beartooth Highway. We had initially planned to go on a short overnight backpack from Island Lake into the wilderness but our later than expected arrival paired with the uncertain weather was more conducive to a simpler evening. A quick look at the Beartooth Lake Campground, quite OK, nothing special and we continued on. The Island Lake Campground was surprisingly nice and unpopulated and we were sold on a spot among the rocks and trees to pitch our Prius. Once claimed, we decided to use the remainder of the daylight to drive east along the switchbacked part of the highway which climbs up to 11000ft and traverses across about 15 miles of alpine tundra and meadows. I was expecting good scenery, but wow, this area certainly gave Yellowstone a run for its money! The worst of the weather passed to give us some nice views on our drive back and a stellar sunset and Island Lake. A very beautiful area of Wyoming and Montana I would certainly return to.
Day 3. More driving! We retraced our tracks from the previous day, driving in through the northeast entrance to Yellowstone but this time continuing west through Roosevelt. We stopped briefly at the Petrified Tree, then on to Mammoth Hot Spring which I had been looking forward to. We walked nearly the full boardwalked area of the travertine mound. Again I found interest in colors and small-scale textures. It's a fascinating area considering the spring has been active for an excessively long time but the active sources move around the mounds on all timescales. What an incredible amount of calcite and what an incredible amount of flowing fluid to precipitate it all!
Our last stop in the park was Boiling River where a significant amount of painfully scalding water enters the frigid Gardner River and a delicate and tenuous balance can be sought between the two. The erratic current meant the sweet spot between blistering and hypothermia was a narrow moving target. Once we found a more stable place to sit it was highly relaxing, even if we had to share it with many others. It reminded me a little of Hot Creek in CA but with probably thirty times the amount of hot water. From the north entrance relatively uneventful driving brought me to Indiana's geology field camp where Sara dropped me off and we parted ways for a few days. I felt like we managed to have a pretty good run of Yellowstone for 2.5 days. I'd certainly come back for the backcountry...and if they ever made packrafting legal.
