Joe & Wilma's Excellent Adventures

 Wednesday, July 31, 2024

A long Day

The "campground full" sign was out last night when we came back from our little drive, so it was good that we got our rearranging done early. We have been having to run the furnace at night.  It gets in the 40s at night, and 70s during the day.  Just about perfect.

We got into a pretty long line entering the park, probably 15 to 20 minutes but by 10:35 we were inside the park. We no sooner got past the Wyoming state line and we hit another traffic jam. We finally got to the pasture along the end of Madison River and could see a big herd of elk grazing where we’ve been seeing them every night.  Apparently that’s the traffic jam. It’s now 11:15 so it took 40 minutes to go 8 miles in the park.  A park ranger was waving people on by the time we got to  

the jam.

At 11:25 we made the turn at Madison intersection.  Our plan today was to drive through Lamar Valley to the Northeast Entrance, then turn around and drive to Mammoth and the North Entrance, then try to find those bears we've heard about on up highway 89.  We knew we had lots of miles ahead of us.  There is no easy way to see this park -- it's lots of miles to everything and everywhere.

There’s a really pretty falls on this stretch of road between Madison and Norris named Gibbons Falls but there’s always such a crowd there and it’s a pretty good walk to where you can get a picture so I’m thinking that’s probably not going to happen this time.  But we see lots of other falls, we that's ok.    Joe drove and drove, and finally came to the drive up the Crittendon Road to the top of Mount Washburn, which is 10,342 feet. It was a bit washboardy. Joe thought with this amount of traffic they could probably grade it more than once a year. There were no moose bears or elk at the top of this mountain but it was a bit brisk up here.  We were above the tree line, so it was pretty barren up here.   But there were great views.

We topped out about 8,800 -- that was as far as the road went.  You had to hike the rest of it which we did not do.    We saw three patches of snow from up here on distant mountains.

After we stop for a hotdog at Tower Junction, we turned onto the NE. Entrance Rd.  We could see a few trail riders off in the distance.

 Shortly after that, we saw our first buffalo of the day and then got stopped by a Buffalo jam for a few minutes while they all crossed the road.  About a half mile up the road there was another small herd crossing the road so we got to stop again here.  A few miles further, we found another herd. These were right across the river. There were people on this side of the river, and there were Buffalo fairly close to them, also on this side of the river. 

Buffalo were scattered for miles along this valley and river.  We saw hundreds, if not thousands, of buffs today.

This one I could almost have reached out and touched.  You can see my mirror in the picture.  And if you want more buffalo pictures, we have them!!

We finally saw a pronghorn antelope walking toward us and got a good picture of him. He kept heading toward the road, getting closer to us.

We turned around at the north east entrance about 2:45.

We came back through the herds of Buffalo, had to stop again for a couple of jams.  We found the antelope again, across the road, right in the middle of all the buffalo -- just laying down.  Then we spotted five sandhill cranes which looked bigger than we had seen before -we had to turn around and glass them in order to identify them.

Our next stop was  at a pull out just to stand up and it turned out to be a pretty waterfalls. Undine Falls.  I guess we missed the sign announcing it, but as soon as I got out of the Jeep, I could hear it.  There was a little walkway with a few steps down to a viewing platform, so we got a good look.

We got to Mammoth Hot Springs about 4:15. There was a cow elk in the middle of town, standing in a green area.

That flood of 2022 really hit this area hard.  Last time, we had taken an old stagecoach road from Mammoth to Gardner.  The flood wiped out the main road and they have paved this old road and it is now the main road.  Very crooked, but the road was in good shape.  We could see parts of the old road from some of the corners.  

We stopped at a gas station and I got information from the clerk about where the bears are.  About 5:00 we started on our mission to find the Bears at Tom Minor Basin about  21 miles north of Gardner on Highway 89. The clerk at the convenience store said that the flood of 2022 had washed out the bridge and you have to go a few more miles and take a secondary road to get to the area.   Just out of town we came up on three cow elk walking in a field next to the highway, heading toward town.  If nothing else it’s a pretty drive right along the Yellowstone River.  For some reason, we always seem to find ourselves driving further away from home at 5:00. 

I thought I remembered that it was supposed to be 6 miles out of town. 

Joe put "Tom Miner Basin" in the GPS and I googled it on my phone.  The directions did not agree.  Joe's said 6 miles, and when we got to the Tom Minor Basin turn off at 6 miles, the road was closed and they are working on the bridge.  Of course, we had to drive back to the bridge just to make sure.

 

so we got back on 89 and continued on, based on my directions.  Up the road about 5 miles we turned off at the Old Yellowstone Trail Road. We crossed the Yellowstone River right before this turn off  -- Joe said,, "so that’s how this detour is getting us over the river."

We finally reached our destination. It was about 10 miles back  and we did see seven bears: two sows -- one with three cubs and the other one with two cubs -- but they were a long ways off. We could only see them through the binoculars. Fortunately there was another family there that had already found them, and they were very helpful in showing us where they were.  There were about four vehicles, another one coming in, as we were leaving. 

 Back on highway at 6:40.  The turn off was about 20 miles from Gardner, just passed Yankee Jim Canyon.  I want to write all this down in case we need to give someone else this information.  I doubt that we ever make it back to Yellowstone, but who knows????

We passed a herd of antelope and a couple herds of elk on our way back to Gardner. The last time we were in Gardner, I remember elk laying in front yards on the main road.  Now they have fenced all the yards in and so we didn’t see any elk in town. I had asked the clerk if there were still elk in town and he said yes.  He said when he meets new people, he asks them if they have met the Welcoming Committee (town elk).  We were 

back in the park at 7:00. 

I took another picture of the Hot Springs Terraces right  out of Mammoth but the light is fading.  

We saw two more antelope in the park on our way home.  We made Madison Junction at 8:15 and there was just a slight backup where the herd of elk have been every day.   We got back to the campground just before 9:00 and just before dark. A long day -- 270 miles.

We are loving the weather here and dreading the thought of the heat waiting for us in Arizona, but the time to head home is drawing near.  Our reservations here are through Friday, so on Saturday we either have to extend here or move on.  We have circled the park, but we still need to go to the "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" and the Upper and Lower Falls there.  That's a "do not miss."  I'm sure Joe wants to see if those bull elk are still hanging out at Bay Bridge.  And we heard of some more bears over by the East Entrance, so that's probably on the agenda.  It's nice to have the time.