Mammoth Hot Springs to Tower-Roosevelt to Canyon Village and Home

Mammoth Hot Springs was our destination today. It was overcast and cold and once in the park difficult at times to tell what were low hanging clouds and what were steam vents. Since we had driven the road before, we didn't stop until after we passed Norris. We did see three or four elk on our way. There is road construction between Norris and Mammoth and we had to wait about twenty minutes to get through. They are widening the road and in places even rerouting it.

Steam and Clouds Combine

Low Hanging Clouds

Which Is It?

Waiting to Get Through Construction 

Men at Work

Our first stop of the day was at Roaring Mountain named for the sound of the hiss of steam escaping from the mountain. This barren, inhospitable slope has billions of hydrogen sulfide eaten thermophiles (microscopic organisms) that convert the gases to sulfuric acid which breaks down the volcanic rock acceleration erosion.  Right after leaving Roaring Mountain, we saw a lone bison up on a hill.

Roaring Mountain

The drive from the Yellowstone Plateau down to Mammoth Hot Springs drops through the Golden Gate named for the light colored volcanic rock. We stopped to take photos of the bridge hanging from the canyon wall and the views of the cliffs and distant mountains. On the way down we went through and area of odd shaped white rocks unlike anything we had seen which looked really out of place in their surroundings.

Starting Down Through the Golden Gate

Hanging Bridge

Strange Rocks

We had heard a lot and seen the evidence of the fires of 1988. An interpretive sign along the way explained that it wasn't just one fire but fifty fires that burned that summer with over twenty-five thousand firefighters working to control them. The first fire started on May 24 and fires continued to smolder into November even though the first snow fell on September 11. It was the driest summer in a hundred twelve years of weather statistics and hurricane force winds and much lightening without rain only made conditions worse. While at the overlook where the interpretive sign was, we saw about a dozen elk on nearby hillsides.

There are Several Elk in This Photo

Reaching Mammoth Hot Springs, we turned into Upper Terrace Drive. We managed to squeak into a parking space and got out to walk the maze of boardwalks to view the landscape. Unlike the geysers that we had seen in other areas of the park, the water rising to the surface here brings up calcium Carbonate that hardens to form travertine terraces. The layers of travertine are constantly changing, some becoming dormant and others forming new formations. The different microorganisms again gave the formations their different colors. From the boardwalks we could look down at the settlement of Mammoth which had been and army base in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

As the Springs Flow Out It Kills the Trees

Canary Springs

Travertine Layers

The Settlement Below

Ted Likes the New Jacket, Peaches

Maze of Boardwalks

Cleopatra Terrace

More Boardwalks

When we had walked most of the boardwalks we continued the mile and a half Upper Terrace Drive seeing more dormant and active formations before driving down to the village (elevation 6239') where we had a picnic. While at the picnic table, we saw a couple of elk on the lawn of a house where a moving van was being loaded. After lunch we explored the lower terraces and then drove to the visitors center. Several more elk were feeding on the bright green grass in the middle of the village with rangers on duty to keep tourists away from them.

Dormant Terrace

Spitting From the Top

Orange Spring Mound

Angel Terrace

Lunch Time

Two Elk and a Moving Van

Ted and Sheila in Front of Liberty Cap

Lower Terraces

Elk On Lawn

We drove north down a winding road through a canyon formed by the Gardiner River to the town of Gardiner and out through the Roosevelt Gate. We got photos of the gate and reentered the park driving back up the winding road to Mammoth. 

From the village we took the road west to Tower-Roosevelt. The northern pains of the park are covered in sagebrush and erratic rocks from long gone glaciers. We stopped to view the Undine Falls and then stopped to walk the boardwalk trails of Forces of the Northern Range, a self-guiding tour describing the flora and fauna as well as fire and weather of the northern range of Yellowstone.

Undine Falls

Instead of staying on the main drive, we decided to take the six mile dirt road Blacktail Plateau Drive thinking we would see more wildlife. It was a beautiful, if rough, drive but we only saw one hawk and one pronghorn. At the end of the drive we took the short road to see the petrified tree. We didn't walk up to the tree which, unlike other petrified trees we have seen, is still vertical.

Hawk

Pronghorn

Petrified Tree

Just after Tower, we headed south and stopped at Calcite Springs, a hydrothermal area on the Yellowstone River. Past volcanic activity caused interesting formations that looked like vertical fence posts all along the cliffs of the Yellowstone with unusual blue-green stripes in the cliffs as well. There was an area along the roadside that had the same strange vertical formations that we could see across the river on the cliffs.

Calcite Springs

Vertical Lava Flow

Blue-green Stripe

Yellowstone River and More Formations

Formations Up Close

We stopped at Tower Falls for a photo op and went in to the gift shop for an ice cream.  One of the managers gave me a volunteer application after I had chatted with him awhile.  I also chatted with a guy from New Hampshire and one from Maine.  We were having our own little New England convention at the ice cream window.

Tower Fall on Tower Creek Flowing into Yellowstone River

From there we went up over the Dunraven Pass with an elevation of 8859 feet, the highest pass in the park. There were beautiful view but the one picture Ted wanted me to take was of the highest pit toilet in Yellowstone National Park. Go figure.

Highest Pit Toilet

The ride to Canyon Village, Norris and Madison was pretty uneventful. Along the Madison River we saw a female elk and calf lying beside the water and a big bull elk wading across the river and causing a big traffic jam.

Elk Traffic Jam

Once through West Yellowstone we started seeing big streaks of lightening and it started pouring once we turned onto Rainbow Point Road. We were on the partially flooded dirt road when Ted asked if it had snowed. The side of the road was all white from snow or hail and there was white in the road as well. We arrived back at the campground a little after six having driven almost exactly one hundred fifty miles today.

Is This August?!?

On the Road As Well