Yellowstone Park - Day 3

Tuesday was our 3rd full day at the Big Sky Resort. This morning our friends from Beulah, ND, the Schmidt’s, who stayed with us for three nights, left to return home. They got an early start and we in turn departed for the park shortly after 9 AM. We can sum up the day by saying that it was an “animal” filled day. We saw bison aplenty as soon as we entered the park. Margaret was driving so we alternated taking pictures as we made our way to Madison which is 14 miles from West Yellowstone. Big Sky is approximately one hour of travel from West Yellowstone so using that west entrance to enter the park we can consider it as a one hour commute from our base of operation.

From Madison we took the northern route to Gardiner which is a 40 mile drive. Along the way we stopped at Gibbon Falls and Artists Paintpots. We then stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs and walked some of the board walk laid out around the terraces. There are signs in several languages warning people to stay on the pathways at this and other locations because the ground is so unstable and the springs are very hot and unpredictable.

We arrived in Gardiner around lunch time and stopped there to have lunch. We decided to take the same route back to West Yellowstone in order to see some things that we had missed on the way up. Tim was feeling better so he drove in order for Margaret to take pictures as she wished. On the way into Gardiner we had stopped to take a picture of the North Entrance Arch sometimes called the Roosevelt Arch. We also photographed it when we re-entered the park. Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone and dedicated the arch in April 1903. It’s inscribed with the words “for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

Our only museum visit of the day was to the Museum of the National Park Ranger which depicts the life of early park rangers. Originally they were under the jurisdiction of the Army and didn’t become an official force until some time after 1900. From there it was a short drive to the Norris Geyser Basin where we walked to see Steamboat Geyser. This geyser is the biggest in height attained but is very unpredictable. The last time that it erupted was on May 23, 2005! So we missed it by four years and three days.

Basically from that point we made no more scheduled stops until we arrived back in West Yellowstone. As I mentioned earlier we had a very animal filled day. Besides Bison we saw Elk, Big Horn Sheep, Coyote, Pronghorn and Canadian Geese.

Check out some more pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/38560987@N02/?saved=1.