Three days in Yellowstone and not one bear! This is a little shocking since Yellowstone is known for its constant “bear jams” and relatively high population of grizzlies and black bears. We even went looking for them in their most popular haunts. Fine with me :-).

With only one day left in the Yellowstone area, we had to choose our destinations carefully. As I’ve mentioned before, the park is immense and you can literally spend an entire day in any one small section. We decided to head to the Lamar Valley, an area of the park known for its abundant wildlife (bison, elk, bear, pronghorns, eagles, and WOLVES). We are staying on the west side of the park and the Lamar Valley is all the way on the east side, so we took the upper loop road all the way through the park.

We hiked down to the boardwalk on the bottom left!

It was truly amazing to watch the changes in scenery and environments as we made our way to Lamar. Sweet-smelling pine forests gave way to a deep canyon (the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone). We made a quick stop to see the most popular falls in the park, Lower Yellowstone Falls. It was an obscenely windy day in the canyon. Some gusts were enough to make you readjust your footing. We found it to be somewhat unpleasant, so we quickly took the very steep trail down to the falls, took a few quick shots, then left.

As we wound our way around the canyon, we passed incredible cliff faces made entirely of basalt columns. Gently sloping hills that were prickly with the remains of old lodgepole pines subtly transitioned to sage-covered slopes littered with random glacial boulders. Occasionally, we’d pass a steaming area of ground—a constant reminder of the park’s geothermal personality.

Look! Basalt columns! I’m looking up at them. These hexagonal features are created when the molten basalt cools slowly. The slower the cooling, the bigger the columns.

The drive to Lamar was punctuated by very dramatic skies.

A few miles later, we found ourselves in the Lamar Valley, ready to experience all the wildlife it is known for. We expected to see elk herds stampeding across the plain, pronghorns frolicking in the grass, bears by the dozens stuffing themselves with huckleberries, bald eagles circling overhead, and wolf packs on the prowl. I’m sorry to say we only saw one species. Our friends, the bison! It’s not that surprising since Yellowstone is home to almost 5,000 of them!

If you were an animal, how could you NOT want to live here?!

We were pretty sad that we didn’t see wolves. Bill was sad we didn’t see bears. You already know how I feel. We headed to another area of the park to check out the biggest spring complex: Mammoth Hot Springs. On the park map, there is just a little dot indicating where it is. We thought it would be a quick, “let’s walk up and get a few photos.” What we found was something far more involved—a complex network of boardwalks that looped up and down and around all the features in the area.

Check out this detail from the side of one of the giant springs. The formations are made out of crystallized calcium carbonate.

This was our favorite spot. It was at the top of the complex and was desolate and gorgeous all at the same time.

Billy had an “I could take it or leave it” attitude about visiting the hot springs. He’d seen enough springs the previous two days. But Mammoth won him over 🙂

What we thought would be a 15-minute affair, turned out to be more than an hour as we took in the sights. Some areas looked post-apocalyptic in their stark, sulphur-scented beauty. All of it, intricate and amazing. The elk thought so, too.

Pretending not to see or hear all the cars passing just feet in front of her.

While bison seem to rule most of the park, the elk were definitely in charge at Mammoth. They were on the lawns of the visitor centers, in the street, and even romping through the “very fragile geothermic areas” of the springs. They don’t seem concerned about preserving the delicate formations. I was waiting for them to start doing a “hot foot” dance. None of them did.

We left just in time to catch a gorgeous sunset over some snow-capped mountains. Another perfect end to a splendid day. Tomorrow we head to Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. Big driving day!

P.S. Billy really wanted to craft a post this evening, but instead figured out our lodging for tomorrow night. Tomorrow, it will be back to his regularly scheduled program. Thanks, Billy!