Sept 3, 2016
Yellowstone is located on a volcano that blew about 2 million yrs ago, then again 1.3 million yrs ago and finally 640,000 yrs ago. The central part of the park collapsed forming a large caldera that is heated by the underground magma. Yellowstone Lake, which is much larger than I anticipated, is central to the park and our campsite was adjacent to the lake. The breadth and variety of features in this park is truly amazing.
The park is huge and the roads form a figure 8. We drove the southern loop that was 96 mi long and it took us about 5 hrs. Being Labor Day weekend, we feared crazy traffic but that wasn’t the case although parking was tough at the park highlights.
We hit the usual suspects including the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River that are at the beginning of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
There are several geyser basins on the loop and we got lucky at the Lower Geyser Basin. Great Fountain Geyser is a beauty and just as I started to focus, she blew! The eruption lasted 3-4 minutes and we were all giddy like a bunch of kids. Too bad that I didn’t have a blue sky to highlight water and steam 😦
DC Airstream 