Yellowstone
- dougsmith51
- 4 hours ago
- 8 min read
We needed to return to Northern Virginia in early June for about 10 days to attend a family reunion, a family wedding, and many doctor appointments. While there, we kept the Ciaowagen in a campground very close to the Boise airport.
We returned to Boise on Sunday, July 14, and left the city the next day. The "check engine" light had been displaying on the dashboard for the past 400-500 miles. We'd bought a reader that could plug into the OBD2 port, and it told us that there was an issue with the oxygen sensor near the catalytic convertor.
We made an appointment at an engine shop near Boise to fix the problem before we left the area. Fortunately, all they needed to do was replace the O2 sensor.
They we headed east, spend the evening "moochdocking" in the Idaho Falls driveway of friends Jerry and Nancy Griffith who we met on our Great River Road trip. We had a great time re-connecting with them and learning more about life in Idaho Falls.
The next day, we headed on to Yellowstone National Park. By making reservations almost a year in advance, we'd snagged a spot at Fishing Bridge RV campground right in the park, equipped especially for RVs with electricity, water, and sewer hookups.
The Ciaowagen had been to Yellowstone two times before, in 2019 and 2020. We'd also made a couple of family trips here in the past. The first was when our oldest son Tory was a baby.
The second was during our 2002 trip across America in our old RV.
Repair Day
Unfortunately, after we'd entered Yellowstone and were driving to the campground, the left front tire on the Fittata blew out. Because the car is so light, we don't really feel it when we're pulling it behind the Ciaowagen, and so we were unaware until another motorist let us know by pointing to the back. By that point, we were running on the rim.
Fortunately, a nice young man from Florida pulled up behind us and helped change the tire. Our car is old enough that it still has a doughnut spare. We were able to get on our way again to the campground. In some internet research, we learned that you should not drive very far on a doughnut spare, especially if it's on the front.
Yellowstone is such a large park that they multiple gas stations AND a couple of auto repair shops, including in the Fishing Bridge area. Although they sell tires, they did not carry the 16" wheel size that the Fittatta needs. They did rotate the doughnut spare to the back for us. After some more internet research and calls, we found that a tire shop in Cody, WY that had a 16" tire in stock.
So, much of our first full day in the area involved driving out the east side of the park to the Les Schwab tire dealer in Cody, about a 65-mile trip each way. We'd worried that the wheel (on which the tire was mounted) had been ruined, but they were able to re-use it, and so we tire-ful once again.
After a late lunch in Cody, we drove west back into the park. We still had time to drive north the few miles from the campground to the Canyon area of Yellowstone NP, and visited the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River (not the more famous Lower Falls, which we'd visit a couple of days later).
Lake Day
Fishing Bridge is located close to the shores of Lake Yellowstone. Lake Yellowstone is the largest high-altitude freshwater lake in North America. Sitting at an elevation of 7,733 feet (2,357 meters), it spans 136 square miles with 141 miles of shoreline.
We'd signed up for a boat cruise on the Lake (something we'd not done before in Yellowstone), and it was a beautiful day with little wind.
We cruised by some islands, and also could see the historic Lake Yellowstone Hotel on the shoreline.
After the cruise we drove about 15 miles south to the West Thumb area (so called because the peninsula juts out into Yellowstone Lake). The lake is one edge of the Yellowstone caldera, formed 640,000 years ago in a huge explosion. Because of its location, there is a lot of thermal activity in the West Thumb area.
The area is quite colorful. Various bacteria and algae thrive at different temperatures in the hot springs.
We finished up the day with a meal in the Lake Yellowstone Hotel dining room.
Beartooth Day
Our goal the next day was to drive the Beartooth Highway, a spectacular road that crosses between Wyoming and Montana. It sits outside the northeast corner of Yellowstone NP.
On the way from the campground, we stopped to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, its famous Lower Falls, and the distinctive yellow-tinged rock of the canyon that gives the national park its name.
We've been over the Beartooth Pass (which sits at just below 11,000 feet) before, and it never disappoints. The road had been open for the season for a while but there was still skiing to be had at near the crest of the pass.
The day also proved a spectacular one for seeing a variety of the Yellowstone-area's wildlife.
Bison, of course. In the Lamar River Valley in the northeast section of the park, there were hundreds hanging out by the river. These closeup pictures were taken, safely, from inside our car - you never mess with bison up close.
We also found a flock of Mountain Goats and their lambs.
On our drive back to the Ciaowagen, we passed through an area where two layers of volcanic basaltic columns could be seen across a river valley.
Multiple layers of basaltic columns were embedded in a cliff on our side of the road.
Closer to the campground, we stopped in the early evening at the Mud Volcano geothermal area. One spring was roiling at a dramatic pace.
There was a loop trail through the area, and we hiked by the super-dark Black Dragon Caulron.
Geyser Day
We dedicated the next day to visiting several of the park's geothermal areas. We've visited geothermal sites in Iceland and New Zealand, but none of them holds a candle to Yellowstone's displays.
Geothermal areas are the most distinctive and famous features of the national park, and the most visited. School was over for the summer by the time we arrived, and the park was quite crowded with families. Fortunately, we were able to visit the areas we wanted to, although sometimes we needed to park in overflow parking on the main park road...
...or arrive after the crowds in late afternoon or early evening.
The Norris Basin is one of the largest areas, with a 2.5-mile-long trail that winds through it. Most of the features are hot pools, and there were no geysers (or at least ones that erupted while we were there).
We drove past the Midway Geyser Basin, which was super-crowded, saving it for another day. We moved on to the Black Sand Basin, a smaller but very active area not far from the Upper Geyser Basin (where Old Faithful lives). Many of Black Sand features drain into the aptly-named Firehole River.
Finally we moved on to the Upper Geyser Basin. We arrived in-between eruptions of Old Faithful, so walked around the visitor area for a bit, and went to a dinner reservation we'd made at the iconic Old Faithful Inn, built in 1901 from giant logs.
The dinner ambience was great, the food quality not so much.
After dinner we went back outside and managed to watch Old Faithful erupt twice before we left the area. Seeing Old Faithful spout is the quintessentail Yellowstone experience, and people line up along three rows of benches in anticipation of the eruptions, which occur about every 70 minutes (give or take 10 minutes).
It's not the highest, nor the most dramatic, geyser in the park, but it is the most predictable ("Faithful"), and it's tall, and well worth the show.
The Upper Geyser Basin area is quite large, and you could easily spend a couple of hours there if you walked all the paths. There are a number of geysers and many hot pools. Some have built up sizeable cones or pockmarked holes. Like Black Sand Basin, Upper Geyser Basin drains into the Firehole River.
While we were returning to the Old Faithful area, a bison suddenly walked right across our path and lined itself up with the Old Faithful hillside. Who could hope for more - two of Yellowstone's most iconic sights right there in front of us?
Mammoth Day
On our final full day in park, we drove to the northwest corner to see Mammoth Hot Springs. We'd like to tell you it's difficult to find Mammoth, but that would be a lie. You can see it coming from a couple miles away.
Hot springs have built a structure of travertine layers at least a hundred feet high over the last 8,000 years.
Old springs dry up and new springs open all the time - each of our past visits to the Mammoth area have revealed changes from the previous visit. Fresh travertine forms delicate terraces. Over time, these break down and are worn away. The travertine from the springs can take over forests, leaving dead tree trunks embedded in the structure.
The water from the springs flows down multiple sides of the structure.
It was Fathers Day, and we celebrated with some ice cream at Mammoth Village, then drove south to visit a few features we'd missed on Geyser Day due to crowds.
On the way, we drove a side road by the Firehole River and discovered a large eagle nest with the head of an immature bald eagle poking out.
The Midway Geyser Basin has a geyser that erupts almost continuously...
...a pool of boiling mud...
...and a beautiful hot pool with a long overflow trail that has killed a number of nearby trees.
Just a few miles south of the Midway Basin is the Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest hot spring in the country and over 370 feet wide.
When you pull into the parking area, you see how the 500 gallons per minute coming out of the spring flows down into the Firehole River.
A boardwalk leads along the edge of the spring.
The views are dramatic, but due to the size and the amount of steam, it's difficult to make out the details of the whole spring.
To get the full view, you can hike about a mile to an overlook (circled in the picture below), which we have done in the past but it was too late in the day to do this visit.
You can also try to find one of the amazing overhead drone shots available on the internet (see the boardwalk snaking along the top).
Tired after an extended day of sightseeing, we returned to the Ciaowagen. In a park as large as Yellowstone, even that took 75 minutes.
******
Wow, that seems like quite enough for one blog post. Coming up next: our visits to Grand Teton National Park and Glacier National Park. Please stay tuned!
Comments