Buffalo Bill State Park to Yellowstone

Still in Wyoming. The drive to the eastern entrance of Yellowstone National Park is spectacular. It follows a river canyon rising higher and higher as you get closer to the park gate. There were two HUGE bison in a field just to the right of the entrance. I thought they’d been put there to give visitors a thrill on first arriving but the gal at the gate said they’d just wandered in that morning.

After the park gate it was up over Sylvan Pass at just over 8,500 feet. No signs of altitude symptoms at this height. But we were up and over pretty quickly.

The national parks are not particularly dog friendly. No dogs on hiking trails. No dogs on any boardwalks. No dogs more than 100 feet from pavement basically. I’d say in Yellowstone the boardwalks are probably no place for any pet. If they should escape and leap off the boardwalk the waters are very hot, some deep and some quite acidic.

When we drove south to West Thumb Geyser Basin, I was lucky to find a shady parking spot (although it wasn’t scorching hot at 7,000 feet) and walked the boardwalks which take visitors past the thermal attractions found throughout the park – mud pools, hot springs, geysers.

This particular spring is called The Abyss. Others were simply beautiful with different coloured mineral deposits and algae.

I found it interesting that none of these springs seemed to have any odour unlike the sulphuric springs in the Rocky Mountains.

After West Thumb we headed up north to investigate Old Faithful. I feared that it would be a mob scene but it wasn’t too bad. I had no idea what to expect. The park has built huge boardwalks almost all the way around the geyser. And a huge chuck of the circumference has benches. I spoke to some people who’d come over to ask about Eliot (and showed me pictures of their West Highland Terriers). The guy said that the next eruption was supposed to happen at 4pm. It was almost 3:30pm so we decided to stick around. This seemed to be a fairly dog friendly part of the park.

Eliot and I went off for a walk and returned about 3:45pm. People had been arriving steadily and there was quite a crowd. We waited and waited. The steam continued to pour out of the geyser’s mouth. Around 3:55pm a little steaming water splashed over the edge. Then at 4:00pm there was this:

It couldn’t have been more than four feet high. Everyone sat anticipating more. But sadly after ten minutes everyone realized that that had been it. Old Faithful hadn’t erupted; it had burped. It seems that several years ago there was an earthquake and it appears to have moved around some of Old Faithful’s innards. And now the geyser is less than faithful. It was pretty disappointing. It reminded me of the time I went to Hawaii and was eagerly anticipating seeing the lava flowing into the ocean at Volcanos National Park. But the day I finally got there, the park ranger informed me that the lava had mysteriously stopped flowing and that it was the first time it had ceased to flow in over the decade.

Tonight we’re camped at Madison campground. Besides the pathways around the campground being off-limits to Eliot, it’s one of those campground where everyone is squeezed in cheek by jowl. Now that it’s after 8pm, at least there are no generators running.

Tomorrow a little more exploring in Yellowstone and then down to Grand Teton National Park.