Mammoth Hot Springs

We didn't drive all the way to Cooke City on the northeast entrance road. Instead, we turned around at Soda Butte and rejoined the Grand Loop Road.

This pitiful wrought-iron enclosure is home to this petrified redwood tree. There were once several trees here, but looting and vandalism destroyed the others. A fence became a necessity, but it totally ruins the experience.

If you didn't bring your own vehicle, or if you just want someone else to do the driving, you can join a tour offered by the park's concessioner, Xanterra. In 1936, the White Motor Company made these models especially for the National Parks. They fell into disuse as visitors stopped arriving by train and started arriving in their own cars. In 2007, eight painstakingly refurbished buses were brought back into service.

That's not snow in the distance. That's the travertine terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs.

Each day, 750,000 gallons of water flow out of the hot springs here. Collectively, they deposit two tons of limestone daily!

The terraces were divided into the Upper Terraces and the Lower Terraces. The Upper Terraces are scattered around and best seen from the car. The Lower Terraces are mostly adjacent to one another and best experienced by foot. We weren't able to find parking on the lower parking lot of the Lower Terraces so we had to park at the top and make our way down.

This is Mound Terrace, on the upper part of the Lower Terraces. Up close, it looked like melted marshmallow fluff.

Between Mound Terrace and the Main Terrace was this little hot spring stained orange by algae. I'd love to shave off a slab and use it as a countertop!

This is the Main Terrace. It is constantly changing as new springs erupt and old springs dry out.

More Main Terrace. It's how I imagine the moon would look in person.

Jupiter Terrace has been mostly dormant since 1992, but in the preceding decades it grew so fast that it buried the boardwalks just as fast as they could be built.

Close-up of Jupiter Terrace. It reminded me of caramel sauce.

Cleopatra Terrace. Orange sherbet.

New Blue Spring
I liked the angular stump-like formations that make up the terrace.

This is the top portion of the Palette Spring. It continues to flow down to the left over a huge mound of its own making.

This is the bottom portion of Palette Spring. Heat-loving algae and bacteria are responsible for the beautiful colors.

This is the final run-off of Palette Spring. Some day this area will be a new mound.

Sticking out of the middle of Palette Spring is a formation called the Devils Thumb. It's an extinct hot spring that stayed in one place for a very long time with a slow, constant release of limestone-rich water.

Here's another "thumb" called the Liberty Cap. It's 37-feet tall.

We'd made our way from top to bottom. I went back up alone to get the car and pull it around. Along the way I passed several Upper Terrace springs like this one: Orange Spring Mound.

Day 11 is not quite finished yet. We've got interesting dinner plans...

Lamar Valley

At Tower Junction, we turned northeast and left the Grand Loop Road. We were headed into the Lamar Valley. Long a haven for wildlife, the Lamar Valley has recently become famous as the hunting ground for an active pack of wolves.

I'm glad we attended the ranger program last night and learned about the reintroduction of the wolves to Yellowstone. We learned that each wolf pack has a distinct pecking order. They're led by an alpha male and an alpha female. The couple don't tolerate breeding by any other members of the pack. And they are incredibly territorial.

We didn't have much hope of spotting a wolf, but we were going to give it a try. Oh, I'm so glad we did!

But first, we had the opportunity to spy a bear. We'd seen glimpses of a few before, but this was the best shot of one in the open. It was just a little one, and we didn't get a great look, but it was probably a black bear. It may surprise you that color is not a reliable indicator of species. Black bears can be black, brown, cinnamon, or even blond. The features that distinguish them from grizzlies are face (black bears have a tapered head/snout; a grizzly's face is round and flat) and shoulders (grizzlies have a heavily-muscled hump). Black bears are far more common than grizzlies.

Up ahead, we encountered an enormous traffic jam. A crowd was gathered on the side of a hill. Cameras, binoculars, and scopes were everywhere, and they were pointed across the road at a spot along the river bank. This was something we had to check out.

We quickly learned that a wolf had killed an elk calf earlier that day. And just like we'd learned at last night's ranger program, she filled her belly with as much meat as she could carry and left to feed her pups. Meanwhile, a grizzly bear moved in on the carcass. Now the wolf had returned, and the bear wasn't about to budge.

How lucky are we?! We get to witness a standoff between a she-wolf and a grizzly bear. Most people only dream of seeing one or the other in the wild, and we got to see both!

Look closely at the center of the photo (or at the magnification below).
The wolf is a white dot on the opposite bank, and the bear is (mostly) hidden in the brush on this side.

The wolf is circled in yellow. The bear is circled in red.

Someone had a scope trained right on the action. We were treated to an up-close view of several attempts by the wolf to intimidate the bear away from her property. We never actually saw them make contact, but I saw the bear rear at least once. Not wanting to push a violent confrontation, the wolf intermittently lay on the grass above the river bank and paced through the shallow water below.

The presence of wolves and bears is a controversial subject both in and out of Yellowstone. But it sure was exhilarating to watch them interact, utterly untamed. Sure beats the zoo!

Tower Falls and Calcite Springs

After my hike, I rejoined Ma, rested a bit, and refueled with a picnic lunch. Then it was time to get back on the road. There's still so much to see today!

This is Tower Falls. The tiny Tower Creek plunges 132 feet over a volcanic stone cliff. A little more than half a mile downriver, the creek will join the much larger Yellowstone River.

Look closely at this photo. See those vertical lines along the cliff? On first glance, you'd swear they were logs standing up on end, like a colonial stockade. In fact, they are actually stone columns formed by a volcano. 1.3 million years ago lava flowed up out of crevasses in the earth. As it cooled, it formed perfectly shaped hexagonal columns of basalt. A similar process formed Devils Tower, which we'll visit in a few days.

We drove just a few miles from Tower Falls to this impressive overlook. Those white-stained cliffs are Calcite Springs. This spot marks the end of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Day 11: Mount Washburn Trail

Today's itinerary is incredibly ambitious once again. First on the list: climb Mount Washburn.

The peak of Mount Washburn is 10,243 feet above sea level. The trail I will use starts 1,491 feet below that. To reach the trail, we must drive up the treacherous, gravel-covered Chittenden Road.

I'm all set with water, snacks, raincoat, hood, and sunglasses. You never know what the weather will be like at the top. See you in a few hours, Ma!

Yellow-bellied marmots were abundant. They practically posed for me.

Then I'd walk by them and they'd scurry for cover, usually into a culvert like this one.

You'd usually hear these birds before you saw them. Yes, there's a bird in this picture. Can't you see him?

See him now? They had excellent camouflage.

As I made the ascent, the trees thinned and eventually disappeared altogether. I was entering an alpine tundra.

The lupines here were deeper purple and tall.

Is this a chrysanthemum?

This was an interesting shrub. It reminded me of the millet we saw in the Badlands.

See the building way up there? That's my destination.
Oh, and that's snow on the side of the road. The air is getting thin. I'm working hard enough and the sun is warm enough for me to take off my jacket. Then the clouds would roll in and I'd put it back on again.

Getting really high now. Creeping phlox pokes out from the rocks.

More alpine plants. I've never seen anything like this.

Almost there! This last little bit was also the steepest. My ankles were begging for relief.
This building is used as a communication tower, a fire lookout, a warming hut, and a residence for the ranger who lives here during the summer months. I was just happy it had a bathroom.

The view was amazing. You can see for miles and miles. If you look hard in the distance, just right-of-center, you'll see the Grand Tetons. They're 75 miles away. The peak left-of-center is Mount Sheridan, 37 miles away.

It took an hour and thirty-three minutes to get to this spot. It was totally worth it.
I'll have a snack, relax, and wander around the summit for about twenty minutes.
It will take me just fifty minutes to make the return trip.

Canyon

For 23 miles, the Yellowstone River cuts through soft rock to form the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The canyon features two huge waterfalls named unimaginatively "Upper Falls" and "Lower Falls".

The canyon can be viewed from the north rim and the south rim. We visited the south rim first.

The striking yellows, pinks, reds, and whites that tint the canyon walls have hydrothermal origins. Over thousands of years, steam and hot water have reacted with the chemicals in the rocks and left beautifully colored oxidation stains behind.

Artist Point

The water pouring over the Upper Falls descends 109 feet to reunite with the river below.

What causes a waterfall? If the rocks in this area were homogeneous, they would erode at the same rates. Instead, a volcanic eruption produced a layer of harder rock in the area of the falls. Since water cannot erode it as quickly as the soft rock, so now it tumbles off the edge.

Just outside the Artist Point parking area we encountered this giant elk. Nice set of antlers! It's too bad I didn't get a good shot of his face.

Still on the southern rim, we stopped at the parking area for Uncle Tom's Trail. In 1898, concessioner "Uncle" Tom Richardson laid out a trail that led to the base of lower falls. For five years, he led hikes in and out of the canyon. The man must have had thighs of steel. The current Uncle Tom's Trail takes a different route, but it's still the only way to reach the canyon floor (at the base of the Lower Falls).

As you approach the trail head, you are bombarded by signs warning you about how strenuous it is. It requires a descent of about 500 feet, a good portion of which is accomplished by climbing down a 328-step steel staircase. And then you climb back up. Ma stayed in the car. I got to the beginning of the trail and asked some returning hikers how long it took. Their answers all exceeded the hour I'd allotted myself, so I decided to abstain.

While I was down there, I snapped this photo of the cliff across the canyon. See the switchback trail? I didn't know it yet, but I would be traveling this trail in lieu of Uncle Tom's Trail. It leads to the Brink of the Lower Falls.

We left the south rim and drove upstream over Chittenden Bridge to the north rim. Ma and I walked down the short staircase to see the Brink of the Upper Falls. It was fairly crowded, and vantage points were not great. But you could feel the spray of the water on your face.

We continued on the one-way North Rim Road. Lucky for us, the road's terminus was Canyon Village where we'll spend the night.

Brink of Lower Falls
This viewpoint is reached by taking the 3/8 mile switchback trail pictured above. It's not considered as strenuous as Uncle Tom's Trail, but it has an even larger elevation change: 600 feet. I hiked it solo. It took far less than an hour.

Lower Falls, 308 feet (twice as high as Niagra Falls)

Lookout Point
A north rim viewpoint of the Lower Falls.

If you look closely, you'll see the boardwalk for the Red Rock trail.

Inspiration Point
A north rim viewpoint of the Yellowstone River below the Lower Falls.

The entire area remains geologically active. Hydrothermal features dot the canyon walls and shoreline. Plus, the river continues to erode its banks and its bed. The waterfalls will get higher. Thousands of years from now, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone may be barely recognizable.

It was nearly nightfall by the time we checked into our cabin and ate dinner. We completed the day with an evening ranger talk about the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. Tomorrow we'd have the extraordinary opportunity to see one of those wolves in person.

End Day 10.

Hayden Valley

At Custer State Park, we chased rumors of a buffalo herd for three days. So, when I read that Hayden Valley in Yellowstone was another opportunity to see buffalo, I was both excited and skeptical.

As you can see, Hayden Valley delivered.

It wasn't quite "Dances with Wolves"-sized, but it was a significant herd.

What's that smell?

Our next stop was called "Mud Volcano". It should have been called "Hades". Steam rose from dozens of fissures. The air was perfumed with hydrogen sulfide. Anyone who has ever smelled a natural gas leak (or a flatulent sibling) knows what I'm talking about.

Microorganisms feed on the hydrogen sulfide and excrete sulfuric acid. The acid dissolves rock. Add water, and you've got a bubbling, spitting, stinking, steaming pot of mud. Awesome!

Today, much of the activity depends on the amount of water available. In the dry season, these mud pots are fumaroles (steam only). In the wet season, they morph into spitting mud pits.

Mud Volcano

Here are the remnants of a once-active mud volcano. In 1870, explorers watched as it rocketed mud into the treetops.

Churning Cauldron

As you stand here, you receive a noisy, stinky, steaming facial. Free of charge.

Black Dragon's Caldron
In 1948, this area was a quiet forest. All of a sudden the area exploded into a giant mudpot. For decades, it spewed black mud ten to twenty feet into the air. It's been docile for some time, but one never knows when it will erupt once again.

Sizzling Basin
I love the artist's palette of bright colors.

The chemicals and heat create an environment rife with exotic plants and bacteria.

This mess is called "Mud Geyser". It was discovered in the 1800s, and belched muddy water fifty feet high every few hours. In 1927, it mysteriously quit. The area has been in a constant state of adjustment ever since. Today it hisses steam and stench. Tomorrow, who knows?

In 1978, this area was a simple forested hillside. The area was shaken by an earthquake. People began to notice a lot of strange activity happening. The ground became super-heated. Trees heaved up and fell over. The entire area hissed with steam. They've since renamed it "Cooking Hillside".

Dragon's Mouth Spring
The name of this feature is derived from the sound the water makes as it roils and splashes against the back wall. The constant curl of steam adds to the sinister effect.

Sulfur Cauldron

Just down the road from the Mud Volcano lies the overlook for Sulfur Cauldron. With a pH of one, it's nearly as acidic as battery acid, and ten times more acidic than lemon juice. Amazingly, the pool is alive with acid-loving microorganisms.

Still think vinegar is going to kill all the germs on your countertop?