Yellowstone West – North Loop 08/03/2014
We headed out of our Henry Lake Idaho campsite for West entrance to Yellowstone at 8:15 AM with an ambitious plan to cover the Norris Geyser Basin, Mammoth Springs and then do rest of North Loop.
After we viewed Gibbons Falls, we spent considerable time and energy at Artists’ PaintPots. These had outstanding geothermal features that were wonderfully presented by the Parks Department. You can find the pictures below which only partially covers what we could see.
When we had trouble parking at Norris Geyser Basin and visitors center, we decided to come back here on our way back from the loop. We never did make it back. After spending considerable time at Mammoth Springs, we were tired. We did see more of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone but again we skipped the north and south rim drives as well as views of the famous falls. We decided to save these and other locations skipped for our next future visit here next year. This assumes that we will be spending several months at Star Valley next summer.
We did stop at visitors center at Canyon City to go over the exhibits and watch two different Yellowstone movie presentations. It was 5 Pm when we finished so it was a long day without Fred’s nap.
On the way home, we stopped in West Yellowstone, Montana for dinner. We picked Bullwinkle’s. It was a very good restaurant with good atmosphere. Fred had a porterhouse steak while Milly went for chicken and ribs combo. Fred ate Milly’s chicken which was broasted. (Milly hates fried food and Fred convinced her that broasted wasn’t fried – sorry Fred ) Fred ended up with a doggy bag – 1st time that he could recall.
We leave in the morning headed for Bryce Canyon, Utah. We will stay a night near Ogden, UT.