9-7-18 Mammoth geyser basin and Lamar Valley:

Checking out the view from our patio in the morning.  Other than the kitchie cabins in the foreground, the view is pretty impressive.

Layla ad I got to spend a lot of morning bonding time.  Josh usually brought her into the living room around 6:45 and I'd play with her while he and Angie slept a couple more hours.  Then when they got up, she would be ready for her morning nap---and I'd be ready for the pool.

I'd usually try to feed her when we had our buddy time, too.

She sure loves her banana star crackers

When she was up from her nap (about 11 or so), we'd get packed up and head out the door.

Just a couple miles into the park, we encountered a really neat experience---a buffalo swimming across the river.

He was pretty fast.  Didn't get stopped and ready to take a good picture until he was climbing out of the water.

More of the road along the West entrance.

One of the resident elk along the way---which caused many a long delays getting back to the resort in the evenings!

Saw a lot of fishermen throughout the week.  Wonder what they were catching?

The weather was spectacular again.  As was the scenery.

Today we decided to head South.  Didn't get too far when traffic was stopped, so we turned around and headed north.

Seems we headed into more mountains to the north.

and followed the river quite a ways.

One of the geysers we saw frequently as we were driving north.

The dry geothermal grounds look like snow.  

Another lone buffalo.

But we forged on---ever so slowly.

We came upon a sign saying "possible 30 minute delays".  It was just possible, it happened.  Lots of road work going on this way.

Enjoyed the ever changing landscape along the way.

OK, it didn't change a lot here---just my perspective of it.  Had lots of time to take lots of pictures of the same thing.

I don't think that's a real parking spot!

Bet this would be fun.

I didn't realize how high we were getting until we came around the corner here.

Looking back at the river as we went by

At one point we came across this cool white rock area.  Didn't get good pictures of it today, but we went back a couple days later to check it out again.  We were on the hunt for mountain goats, but never found any.  This area was suppose to be a good place to find them.

Finally reached our destination---Mammoth Hot Springs.  It is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine.  If we were really energetic, we could have parked up here and walked down the mound.

Instead we just pulled off along the road and took a few pictures of the upper area, then drove down to the lower area.

Mammoth is most famous for its travertine terraces.  Water containing over two tons of calcium carbonate from nearby Limestone flows into Mammoth each day.

apparently the wild flowers around here don't mind the different chemicals.

We lucked into a great parking spot at the bottom and went to check out the travertine terraces.

Liberty Cap is a dormant 37-foot high hot spring cone by the terraces.

  Algae living in the warm pools have tinted the travertine shades of brown, orange, red, and green.

The most famous feature at the springs is the Minerva Terrace, a series of travertine terraces.

The terraces have been deposited by the spring over many years but, due to recent minor earthquake activity, the spring vent has shifted, leaving the terraces dry.

Although these springs lie outside the caldera boundary, their energy has been attributed to the same magma system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas.

Mammoth hot springs is truly a unique area in Yellowstone and one of the largest of it's kind in the world. 

wild flowers growing in the calcium carbonate solution.

One more look towards Minerva Terrace.

One of the many tour buses in the park.

We didn't study up too well on the area, so totally missed the historic Fort Yellowstone here.  But we were on a bit of a time crunch.  We decided to go the back loop back to Madison junction to avoid the road work.  I'm glad we did.  More outstanding and different views.  Now we were coming into a high plateau area.

and the roads were good.  Looks like they were recently done.

or mostly done!  At least this road work really didn't tie us up.

another loan buffalo.  Angie had started keeping a count of all the animals we were seeing.  That was about to change, though.

Looks like rain that wasn't hitting the ground.

Around the East side of the park, we stopped at an overlook.  

We were there enjoying the views and giving Layla another breather from her car seat

 

A guy here mentioned that if we wanted to see a lot of buffalo, we should back track to the Lamar Valley road and a couple miles down that road were hundreds of buffalo. 

So we did.  We were only 5 miles or so past that junction, so it was worth the back tracking.

We had read that Lamar Valley was a great place to go to see herds of buffalo, but it made it sound like we had to go many miles into the valley to get to them. 

 

But today there were a bunch just a couple miles down the road. We could tell we were getting close to something with all the cars on the side of the road ahead.

Just a small fraction of them.

Lots of families, too.

an older "baby"

I was surprised to see so many really small ones.  I think the adults had just gone through the rutting season.

Fine specimens.

a young one scratching his neck.

And this is another reason why traffic gets backed up on the roads so often.  But I can't believe that guy is walking so close to them.  They are wild animals and they do have young to protect.

Layla enjoying the big puppies.  Wonder if she's missing Molly and Micky?

Our car---at least we parked far enough down that we didn't get trapped by the buffalo when we were ready to leave.

Those are some big beasts!

a buffalo with a collar.  I believe this is for tracking purposes.

another cute little baby.  Wonder how old this little guy is?

As we were heading out, we noticed 4 or 5 of these guys---Pronghorn sheep.  They were the only ones we saw in the park.

another tour bus.  At least the guy standing up was spotting for cars behind it and telling them when it was clear to pass (legally).

Back on the route we were on before the back tracking.  Still a couple hours from our resort.

Lots of color still in the park!  September really is a great time of year to be here.

Clouds building and a brownish haze in the distance.  I know there are forest fire still raging, I assume that's causing the brownish haze (and some spectacular sunsets)

Almost to our Madison junction. 

And back to our herd of elk by the west entrance---and another long delay while idiots stop in the middle of the road so no one can get by!

Finally out of the park.  Too late to go out to eat, so we picked up some Mexican food from this food bus.  It was pretty good.

Then back to the resort in time to enjoy another sunset from our balcony.

And Josh enjoyed a cigar or 2 and libations.

One last sunset picture from tonight.

It was a long day, but a great one!  So much to see, so little time.  Even Layla did pretty well.  At least when she was able to get out of her car seat.