Yellowstone - Day 2

Thursday - May 29, 2014

Today I went on a tour of the southern part of Yellowstone. I drove all day yesterday and decided to let someone else do the driving today.  We were on a small bus and there were only 11 of us and the driver.

The tour is the "Circle of Fire" and well worth the $74 dollars, I would have probably spent that much in gas driving around in the RV all day. The driver/guide picked us up at the campground. The tour was scheduled from 9:15 am to 6:00 pm, but we didn't return to the campground until 7:00.  We had a great driver/guide, he was very knowledgeable of Yellowstone. The amount of information was amazing.

There were many stops along the way, we walked on the boardwalks and a few short trails.

I logged 7 1/2 miles for the day on my LifeTrak pedometer/watch.

The first stop was at Lake Yellowstone Hotel.

The weather today was cooler, but it was a bright sunny day. 

Some areas of the lake are 410' deep - Elevation 7783'

 There was still ice on the lake, it was starting to break up and flow down the river.

I would like to go back and stay at the Bridge Bay campground

and go on a boat tour of the Lake. 

Our next stop was the "West Thumb Geyser Basin" to see the pretty blue thermal pools.

The color of the pools is determined by the temperature,

if the water is not hot enough, the algae will grow 

and the pools will start to get an orange looking color.

After the West Thumb area we headed towards Old Faithful.
We drove over the continental divide two times on the road between West Thumb and Old Faithful.
There was still some snow on the side of the road.

There were many stops along the road on our way from one area to the next main feature.
 We stopped to take pictures of the animals and other interesting features of the park.

We arrived at Old Faithful around 12:50, waiting for Old Faithful to go off around 1:10

and then we had lunch before boarding the bus again at 2:00.

As we were leaving the parking lot of Old Faithful, we saw "Castle Geyser" going off,

 this one is not as predictable as Old Faithful, so it was an unexpected sighting.

There are four types of thermal features:
 steam vents, mud pots, geysers and hot springs.

The "Fountain Paint Pot" area is north of Old Faithful

Violet-green swallow

As we drove from area to area, our guide pointed out some side roads and places
that we should visit in the future. He said some roads were not suitable for trailers and large RV's.

We drove through Madison and Norris to our last big stop of the day...
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Upper and Lower Falls.

We then drove south through Hayden Valley to return to Fishing Bridge Campground.

There was a last minute quick stop at the bridge to watch the ice breaking up.

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I've seen many bison and a few elk.

I will need to go back because I want to see

the bears and wolves.