Thu, 7/3/08
Yellowstone NP, WY: Got a fairly early start this morning and drove up to Mammoth Hot Springs. This is located on the north side of the park and it’s also where the main park headquarters and historic Fort Yellowstone are located. We walked around Fort Yellowstone first. For 30 years the US Army—namely the Calvary—managed and administered the park. The Calvary came in around 1888 after having problems with poachers, looters, and squatters. After that the Park Service was started and they took over. It took 2 hours to get over there. ( This park is huge—about the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined.) And it was very different over in that area of the park—more desert-like buttes. The drive over was fantastic. The road between Roosevelt-Tower and Canyon is the highest in the park. Pretty high up and no guard rails in places. And I was driving. We saw a black bear and her cub, two elk, two deer, two more black bears, and a grizzly was near the road in a wooded area, bringing traffic to a halt, but we never did see him. After Fort Yellowstone we walked around Mammoth Hot Springs. In the early days of the park people used to bathe in these springs. Drove out to the north entrance and took some pictures of the stone Roosevelt Arch at this entrance. Drove into the little town of Gardiner, MT. Cute little place. Had lunch at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel which was great. On the way back we took a side dirt road up to Blacktail Plateau. Beautiful up there—lots of wild flowers. Stopped at Undine Falls, Tower Falls, and finally at a picnic area to relax and have a soda. Back to the campground finally. A ten-hour day today. I don’t know how people come in here for a day and think they’ve seen it all. It’s huge.