Growing Rich Everyday... My Weblog

Day 3
It was predicted to be rainy/foggy for the earlier part of the day, and sure it was ! After a heavy breakfast at the Grant Village Lakeside Cafeteria, (the restaurant has a very good location-of course on the lake, by the way) we then went to West Thumb Geyser Basin. The amazing thing about this geyser basin is that it is right on the shore of the placid Yellowstone Lake and a few of the geysers are inside the waters of the lake. West Thumb basin has 2 loops - outer and inner with the outer loop having more hydrothermal features. All these features pour in thousands of gallons of water in the lake. I liked the Fishing Cone Geyser and the SeismoGraph & Bluebell Pools the best here. As we saw in the video program next day, it seems in the earlier days (like in the 1900s), visitors would fish standing atop this cone and then drop their fish inside the steaming cone for it to cook. :)

The drive from West Thumb to our next stop "Mud Volcano/Sulphur Caldron" is very scenic as it runs along the Yellowstone Lake. The lake is the largest lake at high elevation in North America. It is so huge that it can form its own weather patterns aside from the entire rest of the park. The lake meets or rather drains itself at the Yellowstone River which is the scenic spot of Fishing Bridge. Across the parking lot from Fishing Bridge, there's a small knoll with dirt kind of some-what steep steps to climb up to the top. We enjoyed breath-taking views of the lake merging with the river.

Mud Volcano and Sulfur Caldron areas are in the most actively acidic part of Yellowstone caldera. Here the boiling water is so acidic that it dissolves the rock around it churning it into boiling mud. Here all you smell is the strong hydrogen sulfide odor that's emitted from the ground. Check out a video here to see how it looks like. Other good features here are Black Dragon's Caldron and the Dragon's Mouth thermal spring which roars vigorously sounding like a Dragon's mouth as the water boils. Just north of this area the roads and woods open up to a beautiful Hayden Valley. We spotted a bison up close there.


We finally reached the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone area. We first went to the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. The Artist's point at the end of the road over the Chittenden Bridge,is indeed a picture-perfect inspiration for artists- it is an awesome view of the Lower Falls of YellowStone River. After a couple of photo shoots, we then headed to Uncle Tom's Trail. This is steep but well-guarded 328-step trail down to the bottom of the Falls. A heavenly experience down there! Just on the other side was a view-point for Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River. The upper falls is shorter in height than the lower falls. We then went to see the brink of the Upper Falls along the Northern Rim area. Unfortunately, the rest of the Northern Rim was closed for the season due to landslides. So a quick late lunch and some wandering around, this was the end of our Grand Canyon Area of Yellowstone. But we were proved wrong the next day by some visitors. They were touting a lot about the Visitor Center of Grand Canyon area, which we eventually saw on the final day of our trip. This is a great visitor center-cum-geology/historical museum with animated exhibits.

Since we had saved time on account of the closed North Rim, the proposition was to head north and either do a good hike up Mount Washburn or go straight ahead crossing the Dunraven Pass to Lamar Valley. But then Mount Washburn trail requires atleast 4-5 hours round trip and it was beginning to get very cold and windy in the evening. We could see signs of the impending snowfall prediction for later that night. So we dropped Mount Washburn plan and decided to go to Lamar Valley instead. Enroute was a quick stop at Tower Falls.

Lamar Valley is said to be best seen during twilight hours- either before sunrise or after sunset. This is the time when the wildlife comes out to graze. We spotted a herd of bison and some antelopes. We went all the way until Pebble Creek campground and then on our way back hiked up to Trout Lake. It is a steep 30-40 min hike at the end of which is this serene Trout Lake. The woods here are dense and you can smell the pine and spruce here. I loved that fragrance.

This was the end of our 3rd Day at Yellowstone. We had a warm dinner at the Roosevelt Restaurant and cuddled warm into our "Rough-Rider" cabins at the Roosevelt Lodge.