Motorcycling around USA: Done Ravin' about Yellowstone

We had only a short distance to travel from our motel to the west entrance of Yellowstone NP to continue exploring this wonderland. It was impossible to see enough in one day. Two days are minimal. We flashed our newly acquired National Park pass, and were admonished for not having photo ID ready to show with it. With our wearing full face helmets, why bother?

A white swan dipped its head in a lake. The next view that greeted us was a herd of buffalo. About fifteen buffalo were with their calves resting in the sunshine on soft green grass with a huge mountain as a backdrop. Some were calmly grazing or drinking from a meandering river that sparkled in the morning light as a busload of tourists tried to come in close to take photographs. It was an impressive sight.

We turned south at Madison Junction and a short distance down the road turned off onto the Firehole Canyon Drive. A raging torrent crashes beneath a sheer cliff. The pines are quite small in this area.

Further up the canyon the river spills noisily over Firehole Falls.

Another detour along the main road is Firehole Lake Drive. There are a number of impressive geysers and hot springs. We missed the eruption of the Great Fountain Geyser, (a 4 metre hole) by 10 minutes, and it only goes off twice a day, so we knew we wouldn't see that spectacle.

A few buffalo could be cooked in these.

Just when we were feeling deja vu all over again (having missed one of Old Faithful's eruptions yesterday by 10 minutes). the nearby White Dome Geyser (4-5mertes high) suddenly put on a show, so we got the consolation prize.

Further along Firehole Lake Drive was the eponymous lake, where boiling water bubbled from the depths into an upper pool that drained into the larger lake across a steaming cascade.

We contiued south on the main loop road around the Park. This climbed steadily to Craig's Pass on the Continental Divide at 8262 ft altitude. There Lisa Lake sits exactly on the divide and drains east and west to both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

A second, higher, unnamed pass further along the road at 8391 feet takes the road across the Continental Divide a second time before the road descends to Yellowstone Lake.

We stopped at Grant Village for lunch. From here the road follows the shore of Yellowstone Lake for 21 miles befor turning north to follow the course of the Yellowstone river. The LeHardy Rapids hinted that the river could become wild...

We stopped briefly at the Mud Volcano and then the Sulphur Cauldron.

From there we took a detour to Artist Point, a lookout high above a most spectacular and colourful canyon that offered a view of singular majesty to the dramatic Lower Falls on the Yosemite River.

We even had chipmunks to entertain us...

While we were here a storm came through, and it was into the wet weather gear again. We stuck to our sightseeing in spite of the conditions, heading to the Upper Falls.

Our last stop in the area was at the brink of the Upper Falls.

We refuelled in Canyon Village before taking the road north across Dunraven Pass which at 8859 ft altitude still had a fair cover of snow.

As soon as we crossed the pass the weather changed again - as abruptly as when it started raining. The sun came out as we descended to Tower-Roosevelt where we stopped for coffee and to get out of our wet weather outfits which were fast becoming sauna suits.

Leaving the park we stopped for photo shoots of elk. Whenever we saw a group of parked cars we stopped, as there was sure to be something to photograph. At one, there was supposed to be a bear up in a tree, However, we couldn't glimpse it - like most others there..

As we followed the Lamar River Valley on our way out of the park, there were several herds of buffalo. We were delighted when one herd decided to cross the road in front of us. They were slightly startled by our motorbike engine, carefully examining us before deciding to continue on to greener pastures on the other side.