Yellowstone Wildlife

The Super 8 at West Yellowstone was adequate. For the daily rate, it should have been outstanding, but it was clean and quiet which are our minimum requirements for lodging. Although it is called the West Yellowstone Super 8, the motel is several miles west of the town of West Yellowstone. Since the town is very much like any resort town, there are lots of overpriced shops, restaurants and bars with names like The Slippery Otter Pub, Wild West Pizzeria & Saloon and The Buffalo Bar. Rates and taxes in the town would certainly be higher, so it is not surprising that the Super 8 was out of the main business thoroughfare.

As usual, we awoke around 5:30 and did some things in the room like our daily German lessons. Then we went to the front desk for the grab-and-go breakfast of a granola bar, Danish, apple and water bottle before getting on the road.

We stopped by the post office in West Yellowstone to mail our quarterly state and federal taxes as well as a few postcards to family. We got into the park using Mark’s lifetime National Park pass, saving us $30 for admission. The outside temperature was in the upper 20s, so our long pants and jackets felt pretty good. Like yesterday, the smoke from forest fires is not as bad as we had in Idaho.

Our first stop today was Roaring Mountain, a bleached hillside marked with fumaroles and hot springs. The dissolved minerals in the hot water precipitated out when the water cooled on the surface, giving the rocks a coating of hardened minerals. Trees growing near the mineral water flow took up minerals through their roots along with the water. Eventually, the minerals clogged the vascular tissue of the trees causing them to die; the bottom foot or two of their trunks are white from the minerals. The name, Roaring Mountain, came from the hissing sound made by the fumaroles and vents.

Our next stop was at Obsidian Cliff, where the lava flow cooled rapidly without forming crystals, producing the obsidian volcanic glass. Natives as far back as 11,000 years visited this area to obtain the obsidian for tool making. It is believed that much of the obsidian found in ancient burial sites throughout the Midwest originated at Yellowstone’s Obsidian Cliff.

We stopped at Willow Park, a wetland near the road to look for moose. A ranger told us that looking in this area, especially around dusk, is the best place in the park to see a moose feeding. Since we were there early in the day, there did not appear to be moose in the area.

Sheepeater Cliffs are comprised of hexagonal columns of basalt from a 500,000 year old lava flow. Because the lava cooled slowly in this area, the minerals crystalized into the hexagonal columns. The area is named for a band of Shoshone commonly called the Sheep Eaters.

We made a quick stop at Swan Lake to look for wildlife but saw only the water fowl, bison and pronghorns that we have seen throughout the park. We drove on to Mammoth Hot Springs where we hiked the upper and lower trails, sometimes on boardwalks. This area had many geysers, hot springs and fumaroles throughout the entire area.

The underground acid water dissolved the limestone bedrock. Once the water cooled on the surface, the calcium carbonate deposited as travertine that forms the terraces throughout Mammoth Hot Springs.

We drove the short distance into the town of Yellowstone which, unlike West Yellowstone, it entirely within the National Park. Mary went into the Albright Visitor Center to get her National Park Passport stamp while we walked around the streets of the small town that is now operated by the National Park Service.  Several mature elk walked through the streets of Yellowstone unbothered by the gawking tourists. Cindy checked on the dining room for dinner and was advised that our best chance of getting seated was if we were at the door when the restaurant opened at 4:30. We agreed to a small lunch then an earlier evening meal.
We understood that Undine Falls, a three-tiered waterfall, is a Yellowstone “must see” so we made a stop to take photos and enjoy the view. While these falls are certainly beautiful, many waterfalls across the park are just as scenic.

We took the Blacktail Plateau Drive, a six mile drive, to the Bannock Trail where we looked for wildlife. We had seen plenty of bison, elk and pronghorns, but we were hoping to see a bear or moose. We understood that the elk population is much smaller than before the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone. While we hoped to see a wolf, sightings are not common.

We made a stop at a Petrified Tree that is believed to be about 50 million years old. The tree species is now extinct, but it is most closely related to the coastal redwoods of California. On seeing the petrified trees in Yellowstone, frontiersman Jim Bridger commented on the “peetrified trees a’growing with peetrified birds a’singing peetrified songs.”

We drove to Lamar Valley looking for wildlife. Since this is a popular location for viewing bison, elk and pronghorns, there were more cars here than we had seen earlier. We drove nearly to Yellowstone’s Northeast Entrance, turned at Pebble Creek and drove back along the road watching for wildlife. We saw herds of bison throughout the drive, including several herds that stopped traffic while crossing the road. Some bison were dusting in shallow pits near the road. Lots of cars stopped along the road to take snapshots, and some viewers got dangerously close to the bison attempting to get a snapshot with a cell phone. We were driving by a bison herd feeding near a pond and saw a bison calf fall into the pond and struggled to get out for nearly 30 minutes. We were afraid that she would drown, but she made it to an area where she could pull herself up to safety.

We made a stop at Soda Butte, a cone near the road. The name came from a belief by early visitors that the white material making up the cone was soda. However, it is composed of the same type of travertine that makes up the Mammoth Hot Springs area. 

We hoped to hike the Trout Lake Trail, but so many cars were in the parking area so we moved on. We had read that the 1.2 mile loop is especially scenic, but we didn’t want to wait for a parking spot. We decided to walk the Wraith Falls Trail, a one mile hike to waterfalls, marshes and forests.

We returned to the town of Yellowstone around 4 pm and walked around the streets. A bull elk was grazing in a lawn and bugling his presence to all. It cracked us up that we scanned every hill and canyon with binoculars looking for elk when they were walking around in town. I am sure that the increased pressure from the reintroduced wolves has the elk staying closer to places with more people, affording them some degree of protection.

By 4:30 we were in line for dinner at Mammoth Hotel Dining Room. As promised, we were seated promptly in the elegant dining room and given menus with lots of great choices. Mary had elk sliders, Steve had a bison burger, Mark had mac and cheese and Cindy had strip steak. Everyone enjoyed their meals, and we did a lot of sharing at the table. There was a nice rain while we were at dinner, which I am certain was welcome.

We drove back the 14 miles out of the park to West Yellowstone, happy to be getting in early for the first time in a long time. Traffic wasn’t bad except when elk or bison were near the road causing cars to slow for photos.

We stopped for gas in Mark’s pickup in West Yellowstone. Because it is a resort area, prices for regular unleaded ranged from $3.50 to $4.00 per gallon in town. Several stations offered gasoline for $4.50 or more. We went to a local supermarket for breakfast and snack items for the next couple of days. As expected, everything was overpriced. Fortunately we brought most supplies  with us, so we only needed a few things to get us through.

We arrived back at the West Yellowstone Super 8 and did some preparation for Tuesday before turning in. We would be checking out of the Super 8 and spending Tuesday night in the park lodge near Lake Yellowstone. We were looking forward to Tuesday, spending the morning in Yellowstone in the Old Faithful geyser area then traveling to Grand Tetons National Park in the afternoon.

So far, the trip has been very pleasant. The parks have not been overly crowded, and the weather has been great. While the morning temperature has been in the upper 20s, the sun warmed quickly to the 70s for most of the day. We really enjoy traveling and spending time with Mark and Cindy since we share so many interests. Having them with us really enhanced our visit to Yellowstone.