More Yellowstone

While at our Pebble Creek campsite a lone bison would graze close by in the meadow across the creek. One afternoon he came down for a drink and I wondered if he was going to cross it and look for greener pastures on our side but he did not wish to get his hooves wet and meandered back to his meadow.

Our camping neighbor would always be gone by the time the sun rose and we got to chatting. Jeff was from Vancouver Island and had a passion for wolf spotting. While he camped solo he was well connected to other spotters and we did make it out around 6 am the next morning and found him and Melba excitedly discussing a pack of wolves antics. Now it was fun to know they were out there, they were way over on the far side and you needed good binoculars or a Swarovski scope to see anything. Melba had an iPhone attachment to her scope and shared the screen with us so we could see the pack of 7 or 8 running amongst a large herd of bison who kept their young ones close by away from the frisky wolves. Good fun and thanks to Jeff & Melba for the introduction.

Last day in Pebble and we took a side trip to Mammoth Hot Springs in the north. No hot pools for us humans but a good showing of thermal activity to wander around.

Travel day and we drove south back to Canyon Village. Used their dump station and then left the RV there while we did a side trip to Norris Basin.

Arrived at Grant Village to our assigned site on a Saturday as a front was moving in. Sunday looked ominous and we downgraded our hike to an out & back to Shoshone Lake followed by an up & down to Elephant Back on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. Sunday night it started raining, a continuous light rain, and we sat tight and made Monday a laundry day. Overnight temps were in the high 20F’s and a sign for us warm birds to head south.

Tuesday the clouds lingered but the air was fresh & clean and for our last full day in the park we headed up Firehole River and Old Faithful for a first stop before the crowds arrived.  The visitor center said to get over to Castle Geyser and then Grand as they were about to erupt and did so much less frequently than Old Faithful’s 90 odd minute interval. On the way back we detoured through the trees up to Observation Point and a grandstand view as Old Faithful sent us on our way.

Continuing up towards Madison junction and along Firehole Lake Drive we stopped to look at a “dormant” mound of calcite. As we turned our backs and headed back to the car we heard this gushing sound and lo and behold the mound put on a show for us!

 

One more stop at Midway Geyser basin on our way back to Grant. The parking lot is small and what happens  up here is that people queue and wait for a space to open up. If you turn into one of these lots you can be locked in waiting unless you can pull a U’ey in a narrow road. We lucked out and found a slot along the main road and made the short walk in while others waited in their cars. Nice basin with raised walkways levitating you over the colorful pools of water.

Last “real” little hike of the day was a 2 to 3 mile out & back to Mystic Falls to exercise the legs.