Canyon Campground
Today is our anniversary and we also learn it is considered "Christmas Eve" in Yellowstone and all the shops are festooned with Christmas decorations. Interesting!
Pancakes and bacon (!) for breakfast before the drive to the Norris Geyser Basin. On the way, we take a 3-mile one-way side road along the Gibbon River to see the Virginia Cascade and Meadows. More beautiful water!
The Virginia Cascade...
Once we got to the Norris Geyser Basin, we walked the 1.5 miles around the basin's boardwalk trails. Lots of beautiful views of the geyser's steam rising above the valley with mountains in the background.
Steamboat Geyser....
Geysers in the Valley....
Thermal Creeks....
We cruised around the Norris campground where we had wanted to stay (but didn't because they don't take reservations). Nice campground. It was full.
The View from Norris Campground...
We ate lunch at the Beaver Lake picnic area - leftover pancakes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Continuing on towards Mammoth, we were interrupted by bison in the road (much to the girls delight). We patiently enjoyed their slow progress across the road and the girls laughed at the "dumb" male calf for eating plastic tape off a marked roadside tree.
Bison in the Road...
Mother and Calf....
The girls dropped me off across Bunsen Peak, and I hiked the Howard Eaton Trail (Golden Gate to Mammoth). Traveling through the Hoodoos rock formations and into the back country of the Mammoth Hot Springs, this was my favorite dayhike in Yellowstone. It was an easy trail and there was so much diversity in landscape, gorgeous views, interesting thermal features, a MUST DO hike.
Start of the hike on the Howard Eaton Trial...
Looking back towards Glen Creek and Gardners Hole...
Mountain Views...
The trail to the Hoodoos...
Cool Rocks...
The Hoodoos!
Montana paintbrush...
The Trail Continues...
tree grove...
wolf prey????
nearing Mammoth Hot Springs...
busy insects...
ancient geyser....
thermal features only seen from the trail...
Kathi and the girls picked me up at the appointed time and we drove to Slough Creek to recon the exit point for my backcountry hike with Tom Crabbs.
Lamar Valley near Slough Creek...
Pronghorn in the Lamar Valley near Slough Creek....
On the way home, we scanned the Lamar Valley for Wildlife, got some provisions at Roosevelt, and continued back towards Canyon Campground. Suddenly, near the Mount Washburn trailhead, the car in front of us came to a stop, and there, not a couple hundred feet from us was a grizzly bear! Most astonishingly, he was peacefully eating flowers and seemed unconcerned with the growing line of traffic. Kathi and I switched seats so she could drive and I could take pictures out of the car window. Amazingly, and against all park runs, some idiots got out of their cars and approached the bear. We took our pictures and moved along so others could get a look before the idiots scarred the bear away or he ate someone.
Grizzly!!!!
Back at the campsite, we had a dinner of spaghetti, pasta and butter, and quesodillas with sausage and peppers. We uncorked a bottle of Pinot Grigio to celebrate our anniversary, built a fire to cook smores, and then fat and happy, hit the hay.
Merry Yellowstone Christmas!
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