Well well well now that’s a horse of a different color….said the wizard of OZ and that’s how I feel about Yellowstone! What a bizarre and amazing National Park!
Yellowstone is basically made up of two huge drivable loops, the north loop and the south loop. The south loop is larger and contains most of the volcanic activity stuff. It also hosts a huge valley area where a lot of wildlife can be spotted (and a beautiful spot to watch the sunset!)
We had a couple days in the area to explore Yellowstone. We thought we would give each loop a full day. We decided to do the south loop first and it did not disappoint!
We got into the park around 2 or 3 after doing laundry (that hadn’t been done in 2 weeks!!) and eating lunch. We got home around 10:30pm, we saw soooooo much!
So neat to see and learn about so many new things! Our first stop, the “Fountain Paint Pots Trail” area gave us a unique sample we weren’t expecting. It really might have been our favorite spot because it was so unexpected and had so much! Hot springs?!?! (Picture 1) Boiling mud?!?! (Picture 2) Fumaroles?!?! (Picture 3) Geysers?!?! (Picture 4) —Fun Fact: When driving in a normal neighborhood now days seeing a sprinkler go off Merrick calls it a geyser….not correcting that sweet comment just yet. So crazy how much they are learning and soaking up!
Next we saw the Grand Prismatic Spring….the 3rd largest hot spring…..in the WORLD! All the different colors present different microorganisms that live at different temperatures. Red is actually the coolest part and blue is the hottest… completely opposite of the normal temperature visual we see…which I just thought was really strange!
We saw Old Faithful going off while we parked but then didn’t want to wait 1.5 hours for the whole thing so we trekked on to see the rest of the loop!Â
In the Hayden valley we saw bison after bison, herds of elk, swans and geese. After every curve there was a new view to take in and beauty to see. I loved being there at dusk and getting to witness all the animal activity and take in the sunset. Â
After that FULL day we decide a day of rest was what we needed so we never made it to the north loop, which we hear has more big views…not the volcanic activity type thing. On our rest day we did not leave the camper. I don’t know the last day we had rested and it just left so good. That night some friends pulled in and we shared a meal with them. It was a beautiful day….even if we didn’t see the other half of Yellowstone!Â
