YNP Part5 - Yellowstone Lake, Hayden Valley, Grand Canyon

We woke up to some sun but cloudy for the most part. At least it was warmer than yesterday. Our aim was to cover whatever was  left of the park. Some people from our group were keen on Grand geyser. We decided to skip it as there was a window of 3 hours and we had a lot to cover.

We headed for the Yellowstone lake village. Going to bay side picnic area. What a view! And the water is soooo beautiful and crystal clear! When you get down to the beach on the lake all you can see is water on all sides and mountains beyond the water. The lake is tremendously huge, I suppose it is the largest body of water at an altitude. We could even see some snow covered mountains.

Then we headed to the Lake hotel area to find something to eat. There's a café there. It was pouring while we had lunch and the weather cleared up pretty well after that. Lucky us! Heading back towards mud volcano and Sulphur caldron we stopped at El Hardy' rapids. A pretty site. A sign board said that in June July trout can be seen flying up steam at these rapids.

                              Lee Hardy's rapids. 

Next we stopped because of traffic to find a bull elk lazing around and then a herd of Bison and calves in Hayden  valley.

While we took pictures of the Bisson herd

The meadows of the Hayden Valley.

Our next stop was Artist point in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We were completely mesmerized by its beauty. Such deep canyon, bright colors, a huge water fall, abruptly shaped rocks and to top  it all a rainbow behind the mountains. Breathtakingly beautiful!

Loads of pictures were taken, we couldn't seem to have enough of it. A stranger took a lovely picture of ours with the canyon in the backdrop, lost with the memory card :( we then moved to another view of upper falls. Brink of upper falls was our next stop then Grand view and off we were towards Mt Washburn.

Upper falls view point.

Grand view overlook.

At the junction of Norris, Grand Canyon and Mt Washburn we were met by crossing spotted deer. I find them very pretty and calming. A few miles ahead we came across some more.

Posing for us.

 By this time Rishi was getting very very cranky. We had not taken him out of the car most of the day because of the cold weather and because he had caught cold too. We reached Mt Washburn, again a beautiful view of the valley below.

Mt. Washburn.

Stopped there to calm Rishi but he was too cranky and we had
to head back. It took us 2 hours or more to get out of the park. Lots of traffic jams because of wildlife on the road and some stops because of Rishi.

Traffic stoppers.

We stopped in Firehole village to get some sovereign for Yellowstone. I bought a hoodie and a shot glass. Veronica got a hoodie and a t-shirt. When we left from here Rishi felt better having spent some time in the open and immediately fell asleep. He only woke up next morning.

YNP Part4 - Mammoth springs, Norris Basic, Firehole Canyon

I was woken up in the morning by chilling air blowing at me through the open window. The cabin was not cooling well so someone must have left the window open. It was litteraly downpouring! A drastic change in the weather from yesterday. Yesterday had been a beautiful day.

We had planned to start early today, and thanks to Veronica's mom we were able to leave by 9 am. It was quite cold and the temperatures were further dropping. We were all kind of prepared with winter jackets. Rishi had been a darling yesterday, sleeping through the most of the day. The only place he was up was Old Faithful and I took a lovely picture of him there. Unfortunately I lost the memory card of my camera.

He fell asleep as soon as we started. We decided to drive to the farthest point which was Mammoth springs and then see every thing on our way back. The three vehicles tried to keep together but eventually we all separated and spent a lot of time trying to find each other and again ended up separating! So it was only us and Veronica.

The first thing we saw there was pallet terraces. This entire region is quite different and unlike any part of the park. The springs here are in terrace form and the entire hill looks like it is blanketed in white.

There's a lot of things at Mammoth springs as it the park headquarters and also it happened to be an army base in the past. We stopped for lunch in the restaurants in this area but they were all overcrowded mainly because of rain and cold. Lot of people seemed to be unprepared and trying to stay indoors. We picked up our lunch and ate it in the car. Rishi was awake and getting a little cranky from being trapped in the cars for a long time. At least there was lots of space in the back and he could play around while we were parked.
He fell asleep again as we started for Mammoth main terraces drive.

Again this was beautiful! White terraces with brown green and pinkish shades from algae and bacteria. The entire region can be seen from the start of the trail and the trail is quite long going up and down the hill. We spent almost an hour there.

We went about the one way drive and noticed another nice spot for photography, Rishi was up again so he got some pictures too :)

Here's Rishi in his various moods :)

We moved on towards Norris Geyser Basin and stopped on the way to take pictures of Roaring mountain. What an amazing site! As we moved ahead we were halted by a group of 3 Bisson. Then we stopped at one of the meadows on the way, I caught some lovely wild flowers in my camera :)

Reaching Norris Geyser basin we realized that its a huge trail and not stroller friendly so we kept to the top of the trail with view of the entire basin below us. Some amazing small geysers, small pools and vents could be seen. Going to the right as soon as the trail starts took us to a secluded section with multiple small geysers going off back to back.

Also this is the site many people may associate Yellowstone with. I have seen these kind of pictures loads of times.

Moving down south we stopped next at Gibbon falls. I and Veronica went ahead to look at the falls and Vivek stayed in the car with a sleeping Rishi. A few minutes at the overlook and the weather started to change drastically, we rushed to the car so that Vivek could take a look at the falls too and before Vivek could even reach the overlook hail storms started! What a day! We waited for the hail to stop before moving to our next destination. Gibbon falls were so very pretty but for me that was not the real attraction of the overlook. The real attraction was the valley ahead through which Gibbon  river flowed after the falls.

Our next and final destination of the day was Firehole Canyon drive and it also turned out to be our favorite of the day. Driving along the mountains one can the marks of lava flows through crevices and rifts in the mountains. The site of the Firehole river flowing along side it pretty.

We reached Firehole falls took some pictures and headed back towards Madison and west gate to the cabins.

YNP part3 - Old faithful, West Thumb, Grand Prismatic

Every one was tired from the previous day's drive and we all took our time to wake up and get ready. We were 11 adults, a 3 year old sweetie and Rishi. Every one else except us had driven from Denver, CO. So that was Ajay, Indira my old friends, their 3 year old daughter whom I met for the first time, their friend Veronica and her parents, Veronica's friend Keshav and his wife Kalindy. Quite a mix up - but we all gelled up pretty well and it was great fun.

When I stepped outside the cabin in the morning... I was amazed by the location and the beauty of the surroundings. A pretty lake about 100 meters from the cabin and mountains all around! No wonder it felt like driving to the middle of nowhere at night.

It was a beautiful day and past 12 by the time we left the cabin and headed for the west entrance. As we neared Yellowstone we stopped for pictures at the  entrance...with so many of us taking family pics, group pics and individual ones easily took us 20-25 minutes. 

As soon as we enter the Yellowstone I realized its a different world altogether. The road runs beside the Madison river and mountains run on both sides. The scenery is unlike any. We were all eager to spot some wildlife. Our next halt was in the Madison meadows as someone spotted a Bison. It was quite far. As we moved ahead we could see some sort of steam going up in the air on our right. That was our first stop and first experience of a geyser and a hot spring. It was a beautiful open ground with steam coming off the ground from geysers and vents. Taking the boardwalk we could see a couple of hot springs and fountain  - Paint Pot geyser.

As this was our first experience of both a hot spring and a geyser we were quite in awe. We moved ahead to Old faithful, stopped for pizza at the café there and headed to see the Old Faithful geyser. At that time I did not know that it erupts every 90 minutes. Luckily we only has to wait about 10 minutes. It is so majestic and beautiful that one would lose all interest in man made fountains. No wonder it is one of the main attractions of Yellowstone!

Our next destination of the day was West Thumb and the drive to west thumb is lovely! You may be lucky to spot Lotuses in a pond right next to the road. When we reached west thumb parking we had no idea that we were going to be spell bound by the beauty of the Yellowstone lake. It was an amazingly clear day with sparkling blue water. A small group of ducks added to the beauty. There are several small geysers and hot springs in West Thumb but one of them had us intrigued. We also spotted some wildlife.

It was already getting dark and we decided to head back to the cabin. When we neared the mid way basin we halted to see grand prismatic but because it was dark already we could barely make out any colors.

At that time I did not realize that it was the iconic spring I has seen in pictures of the Park and I had to see it else Yellowstone trip would not seem complete to me. Once back at the cabin I did a little research for best viewing point for Grand Prismatic -  Fairy falls trail and climb up a hill.