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| | | Yellowstone Tourist Spots, WY | | | |
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Yellowstone Tourist Spots, WY
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| Hiking | 4.37 Miles |
634 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.37 Miles | | | |
| 634 ft AEG | | | | |
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| partners | | We spent most of the day visiting some of the popular tourist spots in Yellowstone. I had mixed feelings...lots of great stops that feel like must-see destinations when visiting the park, but it's hard to get too excited about that when everything is swarming with people, and this wasn't even peak season. Lots of waiting around and dealing with parking and traffic, both vehicle and pedestrian. But, when in Yellowstone...
Signal Mountain (0.53 miles)
Before heading north into Yellowstone, we drove up to the top of Signal Mountain and checked out the viewpoint on top, along with Jackson Point Overlook. The views to the east toward the Tetons were virtually non-existent from the summit because of trees. Jackson Point was a little better, but I still wasn't terribly impressed with the partially-obstructed views from up there.
Old Faithful (0.4 miles)
The first stop in Yellowstone was Old Faithful, the king of the tourist attractions. We got there ~10:50AM, and the next forecasted eruption was at 11:08AM +/- 10 minutes, so the timing looked pretty good. A few bison grazed in the middle of the boardwalk while we waited and the benches filled in. Old Faithful wasn't very faithful today, and we ended up waiting almost an hour for the geyser to finally erupt. The buildup had all the excitement of watching water boil on a giant stove. The eruption was cool to see, but if I'd known I'd be sitting there in the crowd for that long, I'm not sure I would've waited for it. [ youtube video ]
Midway Geyser Basin (0 miles)
The next planned stop was Midway Geyer Basin to see Grand Prismatic Spring, but we were stuck in a long line of unmoving cars in a turning lane, waiting to turn into another line of unmoving cars filling the drive into the parking lot. After a few stationary minutes, we bailed on that plan and decided to give it another try earlier in the morning tomorrow.
Lower Geyser Basin (0.66 miles)
Next up was Lower Geyser Basin, where we had more luck with parking. Again, crowded, but the thermal features were interesting to see, including Fountain Paint Pots and various geysers, fumaroles, springs, etc. I suppose boardwalks work well for preventing burns, but they're terrible for moving oblivious, slack-jawed tourists through an area efficiently...the NPS boardwalks need designated stopping zones and/or lanes for slow/unmoving traffic.
Artists' Paint Pots (1.09 miles)
It was a short drive over to the next stop, where we pulled off another parking miracle. This one was similar to Lower Geyser Basin, with boardwalks and a variety of thermal features. [ youtube video ]
Mammoth Hot Springs Terrace Trails (1.7 miles)
For the final stop of the day, we drove north to Mammoth and hiked part of the terrace trails, starting from the middle trailhead. We passed Minerva Terrace, New Blue Spring, and a few other features on the way over to Canary Spring, then came back the same way. Interesting stuff, but crowds were, as always, the main drawback. |
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