2020 Road Trip Journal: Yellowstone day 3

I’m going to try to be brief on this one, not because I did less on day three at Yellowstone but because I’m writing all the posts at once in order to catch up, and I’m getting tired! I have to finish, though— at my next destination I’m staying in a lodge inside the park again, so it’s likely I’ll lose internet access again, and I don’t want to fall further behind. So:

Day Thirteen: June 22 (posted June23)

	Another early start this morning, and I was greeted by a dense fog and chilly temperatures. My plan for the day was to drive along the shore of Lake Yellowstone, then head up to walk the trail at Norris Geyser Basin that I skipped on the first day, and then play it by ear after that.
The lake was is supposed to be just past those trees, but it appears to have been removed.

The fog was stubborn, hanging on all the time I drove along the shore, so I could neither see nor photograph any lake views. Even after it began to break up over land, it hung over the lake. It was still there when I visited the West Thumb Geyser Basin on the lake shore.

Finally the fog dispersed completely around 10:00, and it became the nicest day I’d had in Yellowstone so far: sunny, temperature around 70, and no threat of rain all day. But I’d already left the lake behind by the time that happened.

I did a short (1.5 mile round trip) hike to Daisy Geyser. It’s at the far north end of the Lower Geyser Basin (Old Faithful is at the south end of it) and you can also reach it walking through the geyser basin from Old Faithful, but I wanted to do at least one walk here that I could call a hike.
	Besides, by taking the hike through the woods, I got to see some other hot springs I would have missed coming from the other direction. This is Black Sand Spring, and standing near it you could feel a slight tremor in the Earth, almost like a heartbeat, and after each beat a cluster of bubbles would spray up in the pool. Which was a pretty cool thing to experience.
Daisy is a predictable geyser, with expected eruption times posted by the park service, so I timed my hike to arrive and see it erupt.

Then it was on to Norris— that’s right, yet more hot spring pictures!

This is Isa Lake, a small nearly stagnant pond that seems to have nothing remarkable about it except its population of lily pads. But it has a hidden twist. Most of the year, it receives rain and runoff from the adjacent hills, but has no outlet: it’s just a stagnant pond as it appears. During winter, it freezes over.

But during the spring snow melt, enough water pours into it for it to overflow its basin, and two streams flow out of it. As it turns out, Isa Lake straddles the Continental Divide, and one of its outlets eventually reaches the Pacific while the other ends up in the Atlantic. But that’s not all— the shape of the hills makes both streams do U-turns as they flow down the slopes. It’s the eastern outlet that ends up in the Pacific, and the western outlet that ends up in the Atlantic.

In the afternoon I head back the way I came to see if the lake had returned.

	Yes, there it is!
	It was such a pleasant afternoon that I had the idea of renting a boat (which you can do on Lake Yellowstone) and drove over to the marina at West Thumb. But they were all booked and it would have been a two hour wait for my turn, so I moved on.

From the lake I head north to canyon again, then west all the way out the park’s west entrance, where I had dinner in the town of West Yellowstone. Then back in, and like yesterday I took advantage of reduced evening crowds to visit one final geyser basin: Midway, home of the Grand Prismatic Spring (there was a massive line of cars earlier in the day).

	Excelsior Geyser used to have explosive eruptions that gouged out this crater. The last, and most violent (recorded) was in 1985. It’s been quiet since.
The Grand Prismatic Spring is better viewed from above; there’s an overlook on the hill behind it, but it’s a long hike from a trailhead a couple of miles away, and I didn’t have time.
	Water from the spring doesn’t drain in a single stream but in a sheet that covers the whole hillside, and creates these terraces in the mats of thermophilic bacteria…
…and also set up this picture, which I couldn’t resist taking the moment I saw the view.

Yellowstone had one last surprise for me as I returned to my cabin by the lake, a family of elk with two fawns coming to graze on the lawn (and wander the empty parking lot).

And so my stay at Yellowstone comes to its conclusion, although I’ll get to drive through it one more time on my way out tomorrow.

Trip Report:

Miles driven today: 232.5
Total miles so far: 2577.2

Day 14: June23

Nothing to report today except mileage: I drove from Yellowstone to Salt Lake City, Utah. I don’t have a destination here, it’s just a layover because the drive to my next spot was too long for a single day. Which did give me time to write these posts and bring the trip journal up to date!

Tomorrow I drive on to Bryce Canyon. I’ll be staying at a lodge inside the park, which means it’s likely I’ll be without internet again, which is why I wanted to get all the Yellowstone posts done tonight. I’ll post if I can, if not I’ll play catch-up again the next time there’s wi-fi.

Trip Report:

Miles driven today: 387.2
Total miles so far: 2964.4