Yellowstone National Park

We spent a second day in Yellowstone N.P. today. The weather was perfect. In the 50's at elevation, warming to the 70's later in the day, with no humidity. We drove from West Yellowstone through the West Entrance of the park and north towards Mammoth Hot Springs. We were in the park before 7AM and had the place to ourselves until about 10AM. If you want to see this park without crowds, get here early. The first picture is a view of Mount Washburn (10243 ft.) as we approached Dunraven Pass at 8859 ft.

Evidence from the forest fire of 1988 is still visible. There are still vast areas of burned tree trunks. Growing among the burned trunks are younger trees, probably about 20 years old. This view is during the drive south towards Canyon Village.

Here is a view of the Lower Falls on the Yellowstone River, just south of Canyon Village. The height of the falls is 308 feet. You may barely see people and an observation deck just to the right of the brink of the falls. There is also an observation deck about three quarters of the way down on the left hand side. It could be reached by descending several hundred feet, including a metal staircase and 337 steps. I counted the steps on the way back up.

It would be hard to not see wildlife at Yellowstone. We saw plenty of buffalo and elk. We did not see any grizzlies though.

It was a very clear day and we could see for miles. Here is a view of Yellowstone Lake looking southeast from Lake Butte, on the east side of the park.

We could even see the Tetons far to the southeast.

We decided to skip Glacier National Park, since the Going To The Sun road is still not open. Instead we headed east at the end of the day. On our drive, as we approached Granite Pass (9033 ft.) in the Bighorn Mountains, we stumbled upon Shell Falls, a very lovely falls at 120 feet high. There were less than ten people viewing this falls.

That's all for another fantastic day. There will be more to see on our way back home.