Driving to Mammoth Hot Springs
Today we moved from the Central-West side of the Park to the Northern part of the park.
It was a great day that deserves it's own post.
I was just feeling rather sad about leaving Old Faithful Inn after seeing one last eruption of the geyser, when I went for a coffee for the road.
I had to wait 18 minutes for this stupid coffee. I was in a bad mood.
We had no set plan for the day, except getting to Mammoth Hot Springs by 4pm. We took just about every side road available and saw some fun things.
The best was seeing a buffalo herd. We were able to find a legal place to park and get out to view them just across the river.
It was very cold and windy and these guys looked extremely cold.
We took another side trip to the Firehole Waterfall. This was a beautiful stop. I even saw a fish jump upriver, but not high enough to make it above the Falls (no photo). There was even a cave under a part of it.
A bit further upriver we saw a lovely section of the Firehole River.
We saw an abandoned osprey nest.
Later, at the information station,
the rangers told us the birds left after people wouldn't leave them alone, but they had their scopes trained on an inhabited one which was much smaller than this.
At this ranger station we also saw a herd of elk - made up of females and juveniles.
Then on to Torr Cliff, made up of volcanic ash that had fused together.
On to Gibbon Falls,
and more hot springs and geysers at the Norris Geyser Basin. (We were a bit "geyser'd out" at this point and didn't enjoy this very much. The traffic was also stupidly backed up because people were blocking those wanting to park. 'nough said.)
Most amusing was the caution sign. By the end of this portion of the trip, I was ready to throw some of the children (and their parents) into the thermal areas to get cooked.
Most impressive was the ability of the staff to predict the geyser eruptions.
Finally, we arrived at the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins. The hotel was built in 1883 in the Queen Anne architectural style. It was considered to be the grandest hotel in the park and served as the very first stop for visitors entering Yellowstone via stagecoaches and observation wagons from the Northern Pacific Railroad.
We have a cabin which doesn't have much space for unpacking, but the feeling of the place is much nicer than the Old Faithful Inn.
It might be because we saw a bunny practically in front of our cabin!
Mammoth Hot Springs is the location of Fort Yellowstone. The fort was established by the U.S. Army here in 1886 to protect Yellowstone National Park from poachers, vandals, and developers.
For Lisa, and my other friends from prior trips, I include a photo of the Mt Sobek van, which means this must be a good hotel.
Dinner was gouda/red pepper soup which tasted suspiciously like tomato soup. And a Waygu/bison burger with fried onion rings. I hadn't had anything to eat today and was very hungry. Chris had a Greek salad. Dessert was lemon cream cake which was a huge piece.
We're here for 5 nights, so more at the end of our stay.
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