At the top of the hill, we got a good view of Mammoth Campground.. Today, we go on a hike. It should be about a 3.6 mile hike out and 3.6 miles back with some elevation gains and loss nothing too strenuous. We will be hiking along the Gardiner River and Lava Creek. The trail starts directly across the highway from our camp site. We watch people walk up it all the time. In the beginning, the trail climbs a pretty steep incline and then down to the river. We got some pretty impressive views from the top. When we looked back to the trail head we got a great view of Mammoth which is on the hill just above the campground. The residential area for the rangers is just up the road from the campground. In a grass field there, a male Elk was laying down. We also found one of the earthquake sensors the park monitors. It is time to head down to the river. Once we got to the river, we had to cross a narrow metal swinging bridge. It was not possible to cross without getting some bounce. We did get a surprise as we started down. It confirms something we have heard many nights. Wolves are in this area. The trail was sometimes close to the river but just as often up along a hill. We also found more bones and tracks of elk in the mud along the river bank. This is a bridge we had crossed a couple of times driving to Lamar Valley. As you can see, it is quite a way above the river below. The trail is crossed by some pretty serious looking washes. Glad we are not here just after a rain. Notice the fine gray dirt that is piled up at the edges. Lunch was at one of the camping areas on the trail. Our view for lunch was great. Back to the RV. We have a different perspective on our hike back.
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Well, not much to report on today, we stayed in the campground and did very little. The smoke blowing in from the fires all along the west coast was pretty bad. No one should be out exerting themselves with a health risk advisory. We read books and watched some TV shows that I had downloaded.
Everyday is not vacation otherwise it would be completely exhausting. That is what “not having a schedule” is about.
Today, we plan to visit the Mammoth Springs area and maybe a bit further into the park.
On our way to Mammoth, we got stopped by an Elk crossing. The Elk herd spends the morning eating grass at the parade grounds in Mammoth and move down into the campground as the day gets hot to rest under trees there.
The male of the herd is absolutely sure he is in charge. He will make sure you know it too if you get to close to him.
Mammoth Hot Springs is HUGE!
Warning Science and history follows:
The terraces of Mammoth cover an area of a quarter of a mile wide by a half a mile.
From the lower area to the top rises over 100 feet. The boardwalks include steep grades and several hundred steps.
Water flowing over the formations are heated up to 170 degrees by lava below the Norris Geyser basin over 16 miles away. A fault line allows the water to flow from that area to the springs at Mammoth. There is two tons of minerals left behind each day as water flows down over the hillside.
The white is almost pure limestone.
Other colors are created not only by different minerals but algae. The bacteria or “Thermophiles” grow in the water and come in several different types. Each type has a preferred temperature and has its own color. There are dark brown, red, orange, yellow, to bright green.
There are between 40 and 50 springs in the area many are long lived enough to have been named. Some are just a trickle and others flowing at gallons per second. Every year old springs stop flowing while new ones begin. Some go completely dry for months and then begin flowing again.
Liberty Cap is a long dead spring that built itself up to 37 feet tall as the flow came out the top over hundreds of years. It must have been very impressive when it was active.
Next, we drove to the Norris Geyser Basin. Along the way, there were several thermal features.
Clearwater Springs
It still amazes me how much activity we have seen. Knowing that the sleeping volcano below us is still alive and could re-wake at any moment.
Roaring Mountain
This mountain is known for making a roaring sound like what you would hear from huge amounts of heated water that has vaporized and rapidly escaping through cracks in the mountain side. Even though this is a quiet time for the mountain, we could see steam shooting 100 feet into the air and the entire mountain side was hot and steaming.
Nymph Lake
I don’t know who names these things but Nymph? Really? What we could see was a large thermal area that is active.
A pair of huge ravens were so tame. Because animals have lived in the park for many generations not threatened by people, they are barely worried of being approached.
Frying pan springs
WOW! This area was correctly named. An area about 10 feet in diameter boils like a pan on high. It has been boiling like this since it was discovered when the park was first surveyed.
We were going to stop at Steam Boat Geyser but the parking area was completely full. That is not how we like to “tourist”. We will come back another day.
Well, the advantage is that I am married to a younger woman at least for three months anyway. For my birthday, we drove into Gardiner, Montana for lunch and to play tourist. Our first stop was the Roosevelt Arch. The 52 foot tall arch constructed of local rock was built in 1903 and took only 6 months to complete. Over the center of the arch is the phrase ““For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People.” which was from the act creating Yellowstone in 1872. President Roosevelt placed the cornerstone in a dedication ceremony that covered a time capsule placed by the Masons. The time capsule contains a Bible, a picture of Roosevelt, Masonic documents, local newspapers, coins, and other items. Until 1915, autos were not allowed in the park only horse drawn carts and wagons. This was the entrance to the park until 1961 when it was decided that it would be safer to move traffic away from the Arch which attracts a lot of photographers. The arch is very impressive. Next, we had my “birthday” lunch at Cowboy’s Bar and Grill. In the parking lot, they had several antique cars and inside the TV’s were playing black and white cowboy movies and the walls were covered in wanted posters and old guns (most were BB guns). Shawna had a BBQ sandwich and I had a Buffalo burger. They were both great. I got a Dr Pepper but Shawna had “Moose Drool” which is a brown ale made by Big Sky Montana brewing. On the way back into the park, we stopped at the 45th parallel. Officially, we are halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. This puts us even with Minneapolis and Portland but north of Toronto. We drove a few miles and stopped to take a walk at one of the pullouts. The area is called a “Special Place”. It is special because it is the lowest elevation in the park at 5200 feet with under 15 inches of rain average per year the lowest rainfall in the park. Our site is pretty. What a difference a couple of days can make. Smoke from fires to the west blew in to make being outside very unpleasant.
We pulled out of our campsite near Pray, MT outside of the park at 7 AM and got to the north entrance of Yellowstone at 10 till 8 AM. A few minutes later, we were 5th in line for a site at Mammoth Campground. It is normal for a line of 20 or more campers to be waiting to get a site.
As we were driving in near the campsites, we saw several elk with babies walking near the road. It is common for elk to walk through the campsites and we were warned not to get between a mom and baby or anywhere near a male. September is the rut for elk in Wyoming, There is "evidence" of elk being in our site because 10 feet from our door is a pile of said "evidence". Our view from the RV door is spectacular.
So far we have been through 3 of the 5 entrances, east, northeast, and now the north.
The plan is to stay here for a week exploring the area of Yellowstone that we have not seen so far.
We walked the campground loop and found ourselves surrounded by elk. We looked ahead and noticed several elk in the woods. In this first picture, can you see the 6 females and 1 male elk?
Then we heard a noise to the left and saw several elk stand up.
Here is a better view of the first group. The male was HUGE. I'm just glad he was laying down and not interested in us.
As we rounded the end of the park, there were several more elk.
The total count was one male and 16 females and 3 young. Columbus, Montana has a free city campground and we stayed there for a few days. The reason we stayed there was that it is at a lower elevation. This means we had much warmer weather. No snow! Bonus was that is along the Yellowstone River. The campground has an interesting name, Itch-Kep-Pe Campground, and was simple, quiet, with wide spaces between campers. Today, we moved to the north entrance of Yellowstone. Our plan was jump out of bed by sunrise and hurry to the Mammoth campground inside Yellowstone. The view of the mountains as we drove toward Yellowstone was amazing. As we approached the entrance at 10:45 AM, we found through the Yellowstone National Park Service App that the campground was full. Time for the backup plan. We turned around and headed back north for the Carabella BLM (Bureau of Land Management- - not the other BLM) camping and fishing area which is 17 miles from the entrance on the Yellowstone River. About 11 AM, we found a site we liked and started setting up when a US Government truck pulled up. The ranger asked us if we could be out by 2 PM today. What?!! She said that the area would be closing today and that the notice was posted on the pit toilet at the far end of the road by the boat ramp. I felt like Author Dent from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Not only were we not fishing but the dock was nowhere near the campsites. Along with that, they had not put a notice at the entrance. As Shawna said they are young (under 30) and stupid otherwise they FIRST would have put the notice at the entrance THEN other places in the area. Why was there no sign at the entrance that stated that the campground was closed!? Especially since they knew a month ago that they would be closing the campground by Sept 10th. Time for the emergency backup plan. Loch Leven Campground which is Montana Fish and Wildlife land with access to the Yellowstone River. It is only $18 a night for camping. Sites are first come, first serve and were available so this is where we will be for the night. It is also miles further from Yellowstone at 39 miles from the entrance. It is a pretty area. Just to check we did call 4 private parks and all were full which is what we expected. In the morning, we will be up at "the butt crack of dawn" and head out as soon as we have good daylight. If we arrive at the park entrance by 8 AM, we should not have a problem with getting a campsite.
Of course, we have new backup plan, emergency backup plan,...which will be used if needed. It looks like it is time to leave! We moved to avoid a snow storm that is predicted for today. Red Lodge is expected to receive several inches of snow later today. We looked at the forecast for Columbus, Montana, which is the next town on our travels. The weather forecast was to get some rain but no snow. The campground is a free city park. It is boon-docking but they do have pit toilets, dumpsters for trash, and several water faucets around the park.
UPDATE: Well, we checked and yes, it did snow in Red Lodge. Here is a picture of the snow the same afternoon. Just 4 hours after we left, the snow started coming down. We left just in time. This picture is from the highway that passes in front of the RV park we left from this morning. It is amazing the difference only a few hours can make.
Today we drove back up the Beartooth Highway to visit the Lamar valley in Yellowstone. The weather is very different from our previous attempt when it was snowing. This time the air is clear and we have much warmer temperatures.
What a difference a day makes.
There are glaciers or large snow banks up on the mountains in almost every direction.
This overlook is great.
At the top, the Beartooth Pass is 10,900 feet. We stopped to look around and mountain goats were just off the parking lot. Most people only see them from a great distance on a mountain side. We saw a big male, two females, and a couple of young ones.
There are several snow melt lakes.
At each end of the Beartooth highway, there are towns but along the rest of the highway there is only one store. It is very isolated. They do have a sense of humor. It was a really nice country store.
Later at the Wyoming border, we came to a construction area. Little did we know but the outside lane had collapsed into the valley below. We had a 30 minute wait for the pilot car. WOW! Scary!.
After that scary drive, we were rewarded with really beautiful views.
Next, we saw a waterfall.
Crossing back into Montana, it was time for lunch. We stopped at the last cafe before the northeast entrance to Yellowstone. The trout was fantastic.
Our view was pretty good too.
The owner of the general store across the highway has a sense of humor.
Next stop is in the Lamar valley in Yellowstone National Park. It is only 69 miles from Red Lodge, MT to the northeast entrance but with the 15 miles of switch backs at 25 miles an hour and the construction, it took us four and half hours to the entrance.
Time to head back but we are going to take a different road. We drove the Chief Joseph Highway to get back to Red Lodge, MT. Mileage is about 92 miles from the entrance to Red Lodge. We did not realize this would take almost as long because it had switchbacks and construction as well. We crossed the Clark's Fork River. The bridge is high above the river.
Time to move on up the highway.
As soon as we crossed the next ridge everything changed.
Our last pullout was for an old coal mine. Long abandoned.
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