Saturday, 17 September 2011 Gardiner, Montana - Gardiner, Montana

This morning woke up refreshed and ready for the adventure that would be Yellowstone NP. So we had breakfast and were able to extend our stay for an extra night, so with somewhere to sleep sorted and fully caffeinated we were off to Yellowstone http://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm.

Now the North entrance has an impressive stone gate to remind all of how and what the National Park is about. So we proceeded through the gate and saw the first of animals - pronghorns, an antelope type of animal and the second fastest land animal on the planet. There nearest relatives are the giraffe!

Then it was onto the main gate and no entrance fee for me and my National Parks pass. We were heading to the eastern end of the park which is supposedly wildlife heaven, or hell for a few visitors that were killed there this year.

We travelled along reasonably well maintained busy roads past Tower Roosevelt and onto the Lamar Valley. Once on the roadway in the Lamar Valley we encountered Bison. They were everywhere, on the hills in the valley, crossing the road and generally enjoying themselves.

Now it is hard to picture what it would have been like when there were six million bison running across the plain, but the sound and sight of forty odd bison was very impressive. So after having them run between the parked cars and viewers we moved a little further down the road. Here some viewers with very powerful lenses were watching a game between a pack of wolves and some bison. Now I tried to see this and failed miserably, but the people who were there with the expensive lenses were able to see all this.

We decided to continue on up the roadway to see if there were more animals to view, we spotted a couple of eagles and then went a little further only to have the rain join us for a bit. So after the shower we turned around and headed back toward the bison. It was now lunchtime and we had been in the park for over 3 hours and not seen too much other than the bison. Again on the way back we encountered the Bison, this time they were all over the road, cows really don't have nothing on these beasts.

So we stopped and dined while the bison meandered past us. We had our lunch, which is mainly salad with some meat. After finishing our lunch we decided to continue on our park tour and attempt to find some coffee for me. Being this time of year many of the places were closed. We drove toward Tower Falls, the drive presented some great scenery and also highlighted the fact that this is a volcanic area. The road showed signs of rock falls that had occurred recently.

At tower falls we stopped in for a coffee and then a walk down to the falls area. Part of the falls pathway had been washed away so you could only make it to the river which still provided some excellent views of the scenery.

After leaving the falls we drove toward the turnout to Mt Washburn, we took Clancy up the beaten track to the parking lot. We got out of the car and were lucky not to be blown off the hill it was very windy and cold. With time for some photos we were back into the relative warmth of Clancy and heading back down the hill.

From here we headed to canyon village and the visitors centre. We wandered around and looked at the shops, even bought some things. At the visitor centre we got some ideas on where we could spend the few days and the rest of the afternoon for the most viewing value.

The falls behind the centre with the sun in the west would be good value, so we headed off to the Lower Falls and Artists Point to look at the views. It was quite inspiring looking at the canyon formed by the river.

Next it was off to Upper Falls and we looked at this from both sides of the river, we drove around. Then all falled out we headed through the centre of Yellowstone and then back toward the Mammoth Hot Springs, the drive took us past some of the engineering feats completed to make the park navigable, including the golden gate a bridge cut into the side of the hill.

At the springs we decided to drive the Upper Terraces Area before heading out of the park. We decided we would eat in Gardiner this evening. The restaurant was packed and had a 20 minute wait so we went to a nearby coffee shop and had a tepid coffee. Which I did complain about but only after drinking it, silly me.

Dinner was a different story with great service and good food. Serving sizes were still too large for us to have desert and we packed up and headed into the campground for the night.

Animals Spotted: pronghorns, bison, eagles, ravens, squirrels and chipmunks

Day Sixty-three

Animals Spotted: ravens, squirrels

Day Sixty-three