After we passed our lone Bison walking the line we got this day trip moving along. At Madison we turned south. This is an area that has a lot of geysers and paint pot areas, which we totally skipped. Our experience the day before with the strong odors pretty much halted all further stops at the geysers and pots and pools. Hate to say, seen one, seen em all, so, instead lets just say, smelled one, smelled ENOUGH. Yes, we really did find the odor that objectionable. We were actually quite surprised to see parents taking babies in strollers on the board walks around the geysers at Norris Geyser Basin. We had a chat with a employee in that area who said the Bison frequent the geysers during the winter because, they are no fools, it is w*a*r*m! However, if there is any weather inversion, where the winds do not blow and the fumes from the geysers are trapped near the surface, and, well, they have found Bisons that have passed to their great rewards from the fumes.
Anyway, Man and I decided that we just did not want to subject our lungs to any more odors, so we passed up all further visits to geysers, except, for one, Old Faithful, stay tuned, I'll chat about it in a few days.
We did however, drive past a lot of thermal areas, I love this photo, cold blue rapid running water, visitors fishing away and steam puffing out of the ground in the background.
On the drive between Old Faithful and Lewis Lake you cross the Continental Divide three times. We will go from an elevation of around 6800 feet at Madison to 8391 feet at the middle crossing of the Continental Divide.
Below, yes, lots of snow, we are here on June 21, 2011. There are several picnic areas along the way, but they are still un-opened, in fact, they are full of snow, the plows had not attempted clearing them. I am not sure if they ever do plow them or just hope that Mother Nature melts the snow.
Here we pass the 2nd and highest point of the Continental Divide, 8,391 feet, the right corner of the sign is still "in" the snow bank. These roads are closed from early November till mid May to automotive traffic, I believe they do allow vehicles like snowmobiles on some of the roads during the winter, but only with guides. Since there was no chance Man and I would be there during these snowy months, I did not take extensive notes on the procedures! LOL
This is Lewis Lake, the wind had pushed the ice onto the eastern shore, it looked cold, crisp, clear and stunning!
Lewis Falls, my brochure indicates they drop 29 feet.
Below: Sony zooms us in:
To get our bearings, we are traveling south from Yellowstone National Park into the Grand Teton National Park, along the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway. Our first destination will be the Colter Bay Visitor Center, but, first, one of our first really good views of the Tetons, believe this is over Jackson Lake.
*Wait till you see where we had our picnic lunch! OHHH MYYY!
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1 comment:
I remember being shocked out roads just opened in July with snow piled on the sides. A beautiful part of the country.
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