Mystic Falls

Firehole River at Biscuit Basin

Up and out of camp at daybreak today. This time of year sunrise is pretty early...even for me early. It is getting light around 4:30 AM even though official sunrise is quite a bit later around 5:45 AM. We decided to beat the geyser crowd and get on the road early. 

The hope was we'd increase the chance of a good critter encounter. Well it should have, but not on this day. Traffic was fairly light going in the direction we were traveling, but no animal jams...darn it!

Biscuit Basin

The geyser area of Yellowstone is VERY popular. Everyone heads to Old Faithful when they visit the Park. We've learned that it is super important to hit the geysers as early as possible to find a spot to park & enjoy the spectacle of spouting geysers.

The boardwalks are certainly less crowded if you can arrive before 8:00 AM. Otherwise you'll be out of luck & will be circling parking lots rather than watching geysers. There are several other areas that we like far better than the crowds that visit Old Faithful.

Grand Prismatic from the Overlook

Midway Geyser Basin is the location of the Grand Prismatic Spring is one of our favorites and of course it also has the smallest parking lot. A new trail was added a few years ago that lets you get a nice view above the Grand Prismatic...not quite as good as the illegal drone picture we've seen, but it does make quite the impression.

If you're lucky the steam will be blowing away so you can see the pool of turquoise water & bright orange colors.

Mystic Falls

Just down the road from Midway is Biscuit Basin which has several small spouting springs along the boardwalk. It has the added benefit of a couple of trails to a beautiful waterfall, Mystic Falls. The waterfall is about 70 feet tall along the Little Firehole River.

If you hike the longer of the two trails you may even catch Old Faithful Geyser going off without the extra 2000 people. Today we decided to do something different and do the shorter 2.4 mile trail. 

Cindi at Mystic Falls

Yellow-bellied marmot

As we expected no crowds and very few people on the boardwalk. No one on the hike...either going or on the return back to the parking lot. It was wonderful. 

A yellow-bellied marmot made itself known as we got to the Falls. She was very curious & posed on the rocks for quite some time. We assume she was calling to her young, but we never saw any other marmots.

Female yellow-bellied marmot

Golden mantle squirrel

Heading back we ran into...more like he ran up to us... a golden mantle squirrel. One could be confused & think it was a chipmunk on steroids. Cute little bugger though it acted like the 'tourons' have been feeding it. 

We wandered along the boardwalk looking for the dragonflies that are usually hanging out at the Firehole River. A few years back a poor girl starting screaming when she noticed them...afraid that they were going to 'sting' her. Totally harmless and such a pretty bright red color. Sadly none were seen on this trip.

Once back in the truck we headed towards Hayden & Lamar Valleys in the hope of more critter encounters. Those areas usually do not disappoint...although lately Hayden has been mostly misses at finding large animals. The bison herd has been MIA, the grizzlies are MIA, & the bull elk has been MIA too. Still Hayden was a beautiful bright green with large numbers of wildflowers that have not been trampled by the missing bison herd so that was at least something to photograph.

Shooting stars

Hairy clematis, aka sugar bowl

Glacier lily

A few stops were made to photograph a meadow of glacier lily on Mount Washburn & shooting stars. The lily is such a pretty flower that is one of the first to pop up as soon as the snow melts. Bears really like to eat the bulbs too...but none were about while I was photographing flowers. I did have my bear spray & kept a close eye on the woods. One does get a bit nervous about a surprise bear popping out while you're taking photos.

As luck would have we found a black bear out in a sage covered meadow near Slough looking for elk calves based on the 3 elk watching closely from above the bear. 

At least it picked a good spot with plenty of parking so the traffic never backed up.

Black bear

Coyote on the road

On our way back through the bear had disappeared, but a coyote decided to travel the road looking for road kill. It is such a thrill to be the first to spot an animal & have it to yourself for a few minutes. Once he headed off into the sage we drove on ahead to park & wait for it. 

As expected he came out from the brush near us searching for a snack. After a few minutes it headed back towards the road. A bit odd for this time of year to travel the road, but we figured it must be picking up the dead rodents along the way. 

Still no jam once it disappeared off the road.

Coyote

Black bear boar

Heading back towards camp we came across the same black bear boar that had been looking for love yesterday. A park ranger directed traffic & kept the people moving along. Lucky for us found a parking spot so we could take a few photos as the bear wandered by close to the road. 

The poor ranger kept one eye on the bear and the other on the traffic. She really tried to get the bear to move it along a bit faster...he evidently had other plans as he moseyed slowly towards the trees. 

Ranger pleads to move faster

A few miles later we saw a black bear sow with 2 yearlings on a hill above the road. By the time we'd safely parked they had started crossing the road behind us...darn it all. Oh well a distant shot is better than no shot. Quite a long day in the Park...a marmot, golden mantle squirrels, 5 black bears, and a coyote were the highlights of our day.

Black bear sow with 1st cub crosses road

2nd cub finally crosses late