Glacier + Yellowstone : Day 6
This post is part 6 of the "glacier_yellowstone_2009" series:
- Glacier + Yellowstone : Day 1
- Glacier + Yellowstone : Day 2
- Glacier + Yellowstone : Day 3
- Glacier + Yellowstone : Day 4
- Glacier + Yellowstone : Day 5
- Glacier + Yellowstone : Day 6
- Glacier + Yellowstone : Day 7
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After a good night's sleep and a decent breakfast (first non-camping night in the past 4 days), we drove into the park, and headed south to explore the middle and upper geyser basins. Since it wasn't even past 8AM yet, the roads and the sites were virtually empty, and we didn't have to fight past herds of tourists. The two basins were beautiful:
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Afterwards, we headed northeast to the Tower campground to grab a campsite for that night. Along the drive, we spotted a bison standing at the side of the road, which of course triggered a massive traffic jam. When we arrived at 11AM at the campground, there were only two sites remaining. After snagging a spot, we continued north and then west to Mammoth Hot Springs. I seemed to remember there being alot more thermal activity 20 years ago, but today, the majority of the area is dried up. The portions that were wet were still beautiful, but most of that was only viewable from the upper terrace drive. At this point, it was mid-afternoon, and there were storm clouds on the horizon. We decided to head back to the campground and get the tent's rainfly installed and stake it so that we didn't end up with a mess if and when the rain came. After that, we continued south down to the Canyon area to check out Yellowstone Falls. The upper and lower falls were nice, although the entire area was massively congested with tourists.
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We headed back to the campground for the night, with a storm seemingly closing in from the west. However, the storm appeared to pass just to the north, and we though that we were spared. As we finished dinner, David spotted a Western Tanager in the tree above our tent. I fully expected it to fly away before I could grab the camera, but it just sat there for several minutes looking around. As we were watching the bird, I heard a faint rumbling noise off in the distance, and when it started to grow louder, we knew that another storm was moving in fast. We retreated to the tent as the thunder grew louder, and soon we had lightening too. As the storm passed over, first we had a good downpour, followed by actual hail. Within an hour, the entire storm had passed, and we got to enjoy a nice sunset.
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Additional pictures are posted here and here.
This post is part 6 of the "glacier_yellowstone_2009" series: