Day 12 ~ Moving North Again
From the time we left Three Bears til we got moving at a good speed in the park was two hours! Back ups at the entrance gate, then along the main road. It was super slow, almost stopped traffic. We finally arrived at the source of the slow down... a couple of elk!
Our first stop of the day was at Norris Geyser Basin, a lower lying area with hot springs, colored pools, and geysers along a two mile path. There must have been hundreds of them through the boundaries of the basin, and we saw probably 30 or more. Some stops were clear, blue pools, some were steaming vents off sulfur, some were erupting geysers, some were bubbling mud pits. Most of it seemed like you were walking on the moon! One of the geysers was named Steamboat Geyser, and it is the tallest erupting geyser in the world. It's also completely unpredictable! It erupts anywhere from 3 days to 50 years. The last time it went off was this past April. Another pit we found was called "Congress Pool" ~~ it was gurgling, spewing mud, and really just a nasty cesspool.... SO aptly named! Panda and I got a good laugh at that one!
The next stop we made was at Roaring Mountain. This was a mountainside area that had no pine trees and had multiple smoking holes on it.
The highlight of our day was right after that. One of the tells of wildlife activity is seeing a bunch of strangers gathered in one place, pointing and holding up cameras. When we see this, we look around and ask the folks what they spotted. So we were driving along the road and we saw tons of cars stopped at the side of the road as well as packed into a pull off. We rolled down the window and asked the group what they saw... they replied it was a bear. That sounded cool, I like seeing the bears, but then they said a grizzly!!! I yelled to Kevin, "pull over! Pull over!" So we carefully pulled over and crossed the road to join the group. The grizzly was seen up on the mountain side in and out of the thick pines. Tiger did not join us, but Kevin, Panda, and I are so excited to look for it. Panda saw it with the binoculars and took my camera to get photos. Kevin saw it, but I didn't. I kept looking and looking and we moved down the road to see a different angle. I finally saw it between the trees! My telephoto 250mm zoom lens got a couple good shots, but it is still tiny in the photos, it was that far away. You'll have to look close for it. We stayed for a while, but it was not coming out again, so we left.
Next on the road tour was a waterfalls. We had just gotten to a different landscape of the mountain, a steep drop off the side with a little river winding through it. I looked around and behind as we drove by the canyon, and I saw the most amazing waterfall ever! I told Kevin to pull over and I snapped a few photos. It was gorgeous!
The next couple miles was a high winding road next to a cliff. The views were breathtaking, but I was really nervous with the side drop.
We pulled into the little town of Gardiner, Montana. The stone Roosevelt Arch was at the end, and of course we had to drive through it. It was massive and designed to be an impressive entrance to the park for the railroad many, many decades ago. We headed to to the hotel for dinner and ate up our BBQ leftovers from yesterday. After dinner, Kevin and I walked around the town for a short time.... it is a very western, non-touristy town. Very different from West Yellowstone. We walked to a few shops to look for souvenirs, and then walked to see the stone arch up close. While we were along the fence in town, a few elk were walking by. We were really close to them and they didn't even care!
Going for a good night sleep here at Absaroka Inn... it's a nice hotel, and we have a balcony overlooking Yellowstone River.
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