Of sulfur and steam

It was cold and overcast, but the information desk at Canyon indicated that with 20-degree temperatures on the way, precipitation was out of the question for the day. Lesson learned later that day: Yellowstone microclimates defy prediction.



After a monstrous buffet breakfast, we piled into the car and headed for the Old Faithful area. We stopped first at the Norris geyser basin, home of Yellowstone’s biggest geyser, Steamboat. We hiked the back loop trail for a couple of hours and got a pretty good dose of geyser. The landscape is parched, sandy, and steamy. There are times when the earth appears to just seethe steam from the surface. It’s beautiful in a ghostly way, eerie and desolate, and the smell of sulfur hangs everywhere.









From Norris, we resumed our wandering ways pointed south. Free to take side roads and loops off the main road, we are rewarded with herds of bison, beautiful views, and the breath-taking Firehole Canyon and Falls. The Firehole River has carved a canyon through a lava field, and the exposed volcanic substrate is riddled with gas pockets and layers of swirled rock.





From Firehole, we follow the Gibbon River to a peak where the Gibbon Falls thunder down the mountain. Great viewing areas if vertigo isn’t a problem. The river meanders down into the major geyser basins around Old Faithful. They are huge, dramatic, and roadside, so we declined further opportunities to stew in the sulfur and went straight to the Old Faithful Lodge, now in its 104th year of service.




The huge log and pole structure with its monumental 4-sided fireplace is a wonder – even moreso when you imagine building it in this wilderness in 1904. We ate lunch and explored a bit before catching a 3:30 eruption. A not-so-quick stop in the gift shop, and then back on the road.









After a year of record snowfall, it snowed every day we were in Yellowstone, and today was the heaviest. It really made the drive through the geyser fields a surreal trip, but I was concerned about making it back through the mountains and kept my fingers crossed that the roads would remain open. I’ve never been so glad to get back somewhere as I was when we crossed the Canyon intersection and rangers were closing the road north to Tower. A drive “the other way around” the loop wouldn’t have been much fun at that point.

We enjoyed one of our in-room picnics and turned in. Tomorrow to Montana.