Independence Day

As I write this sitting in the town of Gardiner just outside the northern gate of Yellowstone, the evening fireworks have just started for the 4th of July.

Officially we are now in the peak holiday season, and with a long weekend there were lots of people in Yellowstone. Today was our day to see the north of the park, but before we left Canyon Village we did an explore of the North Rim of the Canyon, and became one of those people we waved at from the other side yesterday.

Principally we did three walks to the canyon rim to see various views of the Lower Falls which we saw from a little further away yesterday. First up was a long walk zig zagging our way down 200m (vertically) to the river level to stand next to the falls themselves, and see the water rushing over. After gasping our way back up to the carpark, we then stopped at Lookout Point for a different angle, and finally at Inspiration Point, which was anything but, as the path was closed and you couldn't see the falls at all.

Then it was finally off northwards up and over the caldera rim for the last time, and down a very pretty descent to Tower-Roosevelt where we turned east down the Lamar Valley, which is renowned as the best wildlife spotting strip in the park.

It's funny how you so quickly get immune to the amazing. Just like in Africa where zebras went from exciting to so common that you didn't even mention them, it's got that way here with bison and elk. So we set the ground rules before we set off. We weren't going to stop for a single bison and not even for a herd. We decided we were only going to stop for a large herd of bison if it had at least one large bull, a number of calves, and they were right along side the road. OK. Well that took about 5 minutes. Tick. What we hadn't factored in to our agreement was that the bison might have other ideas - and they did. Several times we had to stop as a herd of bison just decided to casually stroll single file across the road.

However, we had intended to stop for any bear sighting. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that way, as when we came across a black bear near to the road, there were already four park rangers waving every vehicle through and not allowing anybody to stop. Disappointing, but fair I suppose. It was only a two lane road with double lines and no pull offs, so you can imagine the traffic jam and chaos if every car just stopped in the middle of the road for 5 minutes to get that magic photo. So, apologies, we saw one but have no great photos to prove it. Other sightings included elk, pronghorn and bighorn sheep.

Lunch was at the end of the valley beside Pebble Creek, attended by a colony of gophers (or were they squirrels or muskrats), before we retraced our steps down the valley, turning north at Tower-Roosevelt and heading for Mammoth Hot Springs.

Parking at Mammoth was insane but we eventually found a parking spot we could fit into, and set off on a 3km walk around both the Lower Terraces and Upper Terraces on boardwalks overlooking a large number of thermal springs which have created beautiful terraces or flat shelves of travertine, which is created when geo-thermal springs bubble through limestone (now being outside the caldera).

Lastly it was on to the village of Mammoth which now inhabits the old Fort Yellowstone buildings originally erected by the US Cavalry who were responsible for law and order in the park from the saddles of their horses for the first 30 or 40 years of it's existence, until the park ranger service was incorporated. The buildings have been beautifully preserved and restored, and now house various park functions.

Wandering up and down the main street and sitting in the town square were lots of elk, attended by a number of rangers on elk duty to keep the tourists from doing silly things. At four o'clock on the dot the rangers started jangling bells, banging tins and waving bright coloured streamers to galvanise the elk into wandering off at a slow pace to wherever elk go when they are dismissed from amusing the tourists for the day.

We stopped at the famous historic north gate of the park for a commemorative photo, and then on 1km to the town of Gardiner for the night at an RV park with power, as some of our devices like camera batteries were almost dead. Walked down into town for dinner at the Cowboys Lodge and Grille overlooking the river and the fireworks.