Yellowstone, Day 1
Greetings to all.
Our first day in Yellowstone. Our plan was to see the Obsidian Cliff and Mammoth Hot Springs. As we set out (thinking we were going counterclockwise around the upper loop), we found the Mud Volcano site. Of course, we had to stop.
Xavier was excited to see the paint pots, which we had planned for tomorrow's trip around the lower loop; the Mud Volcano turned out to be a single, giant paint pot. We did see some small mud puffs along the one mile loop.
The path passed several springs, but nothing too impressive for Xavier. We had, as part of a class assignment in April, done a virtual vacation and Xavier chose Yellowstone. We had watched YouTube videos and researched some of the volcanic features of the park back then. Apparently, the mineral springs and pools on the surface of the ground did not interest Xavier.
We eventually found a few pools and features to his liking, one being the Dragon's Tail.
Walking along, we enjoyed the colors and the thermophiles in the pools and streams. Xavier showed some interest. It would be when we started reading how the ground several years ago heated to 200° and killed the trees that he took renewed interest and started asking questions about how the heat caused the trees to die and fall over.
After circling back to where we started the walk, we took the loop in the opposite direction. This lead to the Dragon's Mouth, and Xavier's favorite feature of the park.
The Dragon's Mouth was a cave with a boiling vent of water. The sloshing of the water in the cave made the sound of a roar and then steam would belch out.
Though we thought we were going counterclockwise around the Northern Loop, we were, in fact, going clockwise—a fact we would not realize until the end of the day. The mistake kept us from seeing the meadows and wildlife on the northeast side of the loop.
But the error in our navigation did bring us to Mammoth Hot Springs much sooner than we planned.
This turned out to be a blessing, as Mammoth closed several hours after we left and did not reopen again for at least three days due to a broken water main that closed the entire west side of the upper loop and part of the northern side.
We drove through town and had our first encounter with big wildlife: a herd of elk, all does and young ones.
We fixed hamburgers out of the back of our van in a park not far from the elk, who had obviously been in the park not log before us—lots of elk droppings in the grass to avoid.
The hike and walk along the hot springs was long, about a two mile circuit. Xavier was not too thrilled about the walk. Ironically, he said as we started out "Let's walk to the end of the boardwalk, then come back." He had no idea just what "the end" meant; he thought it would be a few hundred feet.
We got about three hundred feet from the end of the walk, Xavier wanting to turn back at that point; in fact, he dug in and refused to go any further. I reminded him of his earlier statement with "Don't you want to get to the end of the boardwalk? I'm going to!"
That challenge stirred in him a passion to get to the end, touch the fence, then begin the walk back. His attitude greatly improved on the walk back after we raced to the end of the boardwalk and completed the goal.
Our next planned stop was the Obsidian Cliff. This is when we learned we navigated the loop backward from our plan. We had passed the Cliff on our way to Mammoth.
We found the Cliff. Xavier found the obsidian really interesting. After a brief sorte from the van, we headed back to camp.
When we arrived back in camp, Rebecca wanted to take a walk down to the marina, but neither Xavier nor I were up for the walk.
As Xavier and I prepped the camp for the night's fire and for dinner, one of our neighbors told us about a five-point elk that had settled in at the end of the road.
Of course, Xavier and I walked down to see the animal. The buck was impressive and well worth the walk to see it.