Yellowstone North

Mammoth Hot Springs was our destination in north Yellowstone, and we arrived in time to catch the late afternoon sun on some of the springs on the Upper Terrace.  The setting sun heightened the orange colour on Canary spring and also brought out some beautiful reflections on the springs.

Canary Spring

Mammotth was only an hour's drive from Canyon but we took our time exploring the sights along the way.  One of the must visit places on the way was the LeMar Valley mainly because of the wildlife. We were not hopeful to see much because by the time we arrived it was close to midday.  But as luck would have it, five minutes into the valley, we saw cars parked beside the road with a photographer and a tripod.  There was a pronghorn by the roadside - that was a lifer for me.  It actually strolled slowly to our side of the road before heading off into the valley.

Pronghorn

The expansive LeMar Valley

As we headed further into the valley, we saw a bison on a hill beside the road and decided to stop. After I got out of the car to move closer to the bison, the woman in the car ahead of me rolled down her window and said: "Excuse me, there is a bison behind you." I turned around and saw the bison behind some long grass. I scrambled back into the car as it headed towards me! Whew! It then headed across the road and did a dust bath before sitting down for photos.

It was literally 3 feet from me when I was outside the car!

Dust bath

Tower Falls on the road between Canyon and Tower-Roosevelt

Calcite Springs - a spring can be seen on the side of the mountain

Basalt columns that looked like a fence above the canyon walls

Undine Falls - between Tower-Roosevelt and Mammoth

Mount Everts - they call it an inverted mountain

The Roosevelt Arch - the north entrance to Yellowstone commeorating Roosevelt who was instrumental in making Yellowstone the first National Park in the United States

This looked like a fortress just south of the north entrance

The graceful staircase in the renovated Mammoth Springs Hotel

We hiked up the Lower Terrace of the Mammoth Springs and was surprised to find it's much smaller than we expected.  Other than Palette Spring which could almost be seen from the road, the Minerva Terrace and Jupiter Terrace, are the only ones of note.  Minerva Spring is mostly dried up but the lower part with the water in the terraces can still be quite spectacular, forming some amazing abstract lines.

What's left of the lower terraces of Minerva

 

Jupiter Mound

 

Jupiter Terrace

The Upper Terrace is reachable by car and one could drive from one spring to another.  The most impressive item here is the Orange Spring Mound (below).

White Elephant Back Terrace

Angel Terrace

This side of Canary Spring is better seen in the morning - but it's very far up

Liberty Cap - once an active hot spring

Palette Spring

We went out for a drive during the golden hour and caught some of the surrounding areas in the golden glow.  You would think it was an entirely different landscape if you had seen the same thing in the morning.

Mount Everts - almost unrecognizable

We headed south to Yellowstone West after two nights at Mammoth Springs.  We saw the Golden Gate on the way out of Mammoth, it looked completely different in the morning sun from the day before - it was indeed golden!

Bisons roam the area between Mammoth Springs and Madison.  Here's one standing right in front of our car.  We were able to drive around it because the bus in the other lane must have stopped for its passengers to take pictures, causing a long line of cars to form behind it. In this case, it was clearly not the bison holding up traffic rather the bison-watchers holding up traffic.

Roaring Mountain - so called because of the many steam vents on its slopes and it did make a lot of noise!

PRACTICAL TIPS:
1. We could probably have just spent one night in Mammoth Springs instead of two if we timed it right - visit the Upper Terrace in the late afternoon, the Lower Terrace in the morning and head south in the afternoon.
1. Visit the Upper Terrace at least two hours before sunset.  Any later and the sun would be too low to hit Canary Springs.

Next Post:  Yellowstone West (the highlight!)