Yellowstone National Park, Mammoth Campground, day 7, The Loop Tour

Day 82 Saturday September 4, 2016                     Mammoth, day 7

It was 47^o outside this morning.  Turned on the furnace and sat inside at the dinette with our coffee.  Was able to post the Baker’s Hole blog this morning.  Trying to catch up.

We’ve been to Yellowstone many times and have seen all the major tourist attractions.  But today, we decided to play tourist again.  The number 1 tourist attraction in Yellowstone is the geyser known as Old Faithfull.  So we decided to go there to get some awesome pictures of it. 

It’s a fifty-mile drive from Mammoth Hot Springs.  But that’s 50 miles through Yellowstone National Park.  The one thing we got going against us that it’s Labor Day Weekend.  Expected lots of people at the geyser basins and Old Faithfull area.  We were right.  Especially at Biscuit Basin. 

Biscuit Basin traffic.  Cars parked everywhere.

And the bear jam I experienced yesterday was still there.  The bear must enjoy being photographed.

On the way we stopped at Madison Campground to see if the dump station was working and it was.  We need to use it when we return to Baker’s Hole Campground on Tuesday for a couple of nights.  After leaving Mammoth Junction, we took another little one-way road that parallels the Firehole Canyon and allows spectacular views of Firehole Falls.  The road joins the main road again near the Firehole picnic area.  We continued on past all the geyser basins to the Old Faithful area turnoff.  Parking was a real hassle, as expected, but we managed.  We were real hungry by then and the first order of business was food. 

Firehole Falls

We went into Old Faithful Lodge and went into the Bear Pit Lounge to eat.  When I used to come here with my Traverse City buddies, we would come in here once in a while if we had been fishing the Firehole River.  It was Marsha’s first time because it was closed last year.  You had a choice of a regular burger with fries, or a buffalo burger with fries, topped with sautéed onions and mushrooms.  They added lettuce and tomato to it, also.  That’s what we both ordered and it was really good.  Along with Marsha’s bloody Mary made with locally distilled pepper vodka.  I had a Bent Nail IPA from Red Lodge Ales out of Red Lodge, Montana and a Going to the Sun IPA, Great Northern Brewing Co., out of Whitefish, Montana.  Took some pictures of the inside and outside.  Old Faithful Lodge is 112 years old.

Made by Red Lodge Ales, Red Lodge, MT

Old Faithful Lodge

Sign over the main entrance,

Inside the bar  Look at the wood ceiling, the detail on
the support beams and columns, and the unique chairs.

View out the lounge window at one of the wings of the lodge.

After eating, we got a front row seat on the viewing benches and waited for the 3:40 showing (± 10 minutes) of the Old Faithful Geyser eruption.  It was right on the money.  It taunts you at first with a few steam blows and mini eruptions.  Then quits.  But at 3:40 it erupted in full splendor.

This is one of the pre-eruption squirts.

This is the real thing.

Another view.  It erupts for about 2 minutes.

This is what it looks like when it's not erupting.  Just some steam.

We met our goal of the day, photograph Old Faithful, and it was time to leave.  We didn’t want to go through the mess at the geyser basins again so we decided to take the long way home.  It would take us through the Yellowstone Lake area and the Hayden Valley and Canyon area.  We seldom visit these sections of the park. 

We have some pictures of the West Thumb area of Yellowstone Lake.

The big building in the center is the Lake Lodge.

Next was the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, which, in my opinion is as beautiful as the Grand Canyon in Arizona.  Here’s our photos from that area.

Lower Yellowstone Falls.  One of the most beautiful sights in the world.

Looking down the canyon.,

Looking up the canyon.

Another view of the lower falls from another lookout.

Another view.

Then there is the Hayden Valley.  The Yellowstone River almost looked like a creek.  I have never seen it that low.  All the rivers in Yellowstone are low as I’ve mentioned before.

The Yellowstone River

Bison are very common in the Hayden Valley.

Buffalo jam.

The target of the buffalo jam.

At Canyon Junction, we went right, which goes over Dunraven Pass, at 8,878 ft.  It is the highest pass in the park.  Here’s some photos from Canyon to Tower Junction.

And finally here’s some pictures on the Tower-Mammoth road.  The sun was getting low by then and the low light really made for some good pictures.

When we got to Mammoth Hot Springs, the bull elk was blocking the road in 3 directions and was bugling to round up his girls.  He even attacked a KEEP RIGHT sign.

The sign in the upper left is the one he attacked.

We got back at 20:00 after driving 145 miles.

This started out as "Let's take a ride to Old Faithfull and get some photos of it erupting, and then come back to the campground."  It turned out to be the nickel tour of Yellowstone and we enjoyed it tremendously.