Vacation Day 6 – Grand Canyon and Bison

We got going quite a bit later today, but still managed to see Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, a large herd of bison, and a bunch more geothermal features.

From camp in the morning we headed straight to Canyon Village in Yellowstone. At least, we tried to head straight here; we had to make it through the construction again, and we ran into another bison in the road.

After browsing the shops in Canyon Village, we drove to the north rim drive, with our first stop at the brink of north fall. This is a short, steep trail that goes down to the bottom of the canyon at that point and stops at the very top of north fall, a large waterfall in the canyon. The views from here were fantastic, looking down the canyon and over the edge of the waterfall. The hike back up to the parking lot was brutal, with a dozen switchbacks and about 800 feet of elevation gain in 3/8 of a mile.

Continuing on the north rim drive, we stopped again at . This is another great overlook of the canyon. From here we took our packs and walked to Grand View, yet another beautiful scenic point along the canyon. After walking back to the Hummer, we drove to Inspiration Point (another overlook farther up the canyon) and found a spot to sit and eat lunch.

After lunch we headed south through the park again, where we ran into a large gathering of bison. We first pulled over for a herd of about 50 bison a ways off the road. We walked a short way down a game trail to get close enough to take pictures and then stayed and watched them for a while. We left feeling pleased that we had really seen some bison, more than just the individual we had seen a couple times before. We were ready to move on to our next Yellowstone adventure and were already putting the bison behind us when we came around another corner into the midst of a huge herd with hundreds of bison, on both sides and even on the road. Traffic was stop and go for a mile while we crept through the bison, sometimes waiting for a group to cross in front of us or right along side of us on the road. We saw all age ranges, from young calves to adolescents to adults. We got to see them doing everything from just grazing quietly to swimming across the river. Eventually we were able to make it through their territory and move on down the road.

The next attraction we came to was Mud Volcano. This sounded interesting and different enough that we decided to pull in. It turned out to be an entire geothermal area, with vents, geysers and springs all in a different type of soil than what we had seen before. Instead of clear pools, they ranged from cloudy water all the way to thick mud.

The first thing we saw on the trail through the area was a male mule deer, with a complete rack covered in velvet. He was completely unconcerned with the people on the trail and seemed more interested with finding just the right grass to graze on. Eventually he moved on so that we could get by him.

We walked the short loop through a series of pools and geysers primarily characterized by the way the sulfuric acid had eaten away the rock. One of the most fascinating was called Dragon’s Mouth Spring. The actual geyser is back in the hillside where it can be heard but not seen. The gas and steam along with rushes of water come out through a cave in the side of the hill, accompanied by hissing and rumbling sounds.

Eventually we moved on and drive south to Lake Yellowstone. Other than browsing the store in Lake Village we didn’t stop, because it was already late in the evening and we still had over two hours of driving to get back to camp. The views across the lake were worth it, though.

The drive back seemed to take forever, between the tourist traffic around Old Faithful and the traffic jams caused by animal sightings, but we did get a couple rewards (and started one traffic jam). Just after we passed Firehole Lake Drive I saw a black bear a ways off the side of the road, just on the edge of treeline. We pulled over for a few pictures, but it was out beyond the range of our zoom. We also saw a deer crossing Yellowstone River and got a beautiful picture