Old Faithful - 2026

 

Old Faithful just started to erupt as I was walking up to the Visitor's Center.

Always interesting to watch these eruptions...they are all so different yet the same.  The eruption starts, it goes higher and higher and higher, then it settles down and starts lowering and lowering.  The stream of hot water goes from 100 to 200 feet high, expelling 3,500 to 8,000 gallons of water.  All of this happens withing a 2-5 minute time period.  These eruptions take place about 20 times each day, within an interval of around 60-90 minutes.

 

I needed to go to the Visitor's Center to pick up another Jr. Ranger booklet for my Granddaughter Addie.  They also had a "Jr. Scientist" booklet too, so I think I have four, perhaps five of these now. 

As we headed back to West Yellowstone and on to Henry's Lake, we had traffic issues as we got to Biscuit Basin, Midway Geyser Basin, which includes the Grand Prismatic Spring, and the Fountain Paint Pot areas.  The worst was Midway Basin...where cars were trying to pull out and pull into various parking lots and parking areas along the roadway.

The traffic thinned as soon as we passed Midway Geyser Basin, and there are many views along the way.

One side road I would highly recommend is the Firehole Canyon Drive, just a mile or two from Madison Campground.  Autos, vans and small Class C's can make this drive, larger units will not do well.

 

This two mile one-way side road will bring you out onto the main highway.  It is a seldom used side road, compared to others, and is one of the nicer side roads in Yellowstone.

Another side road is found as you get close to the West Entrance.  It is called Riverside Drive.  It follows the main highway, and is a two-way road.  It gives you a chance to slow way down, since few take this route, and see the Madison River and the areas on the other side of the river.  

It took us just under 4 hours from when we left Henry's Lake, to when we got back. We encountered no rain along our route...but today (Saturday) we have been drenched.  Other than a trip to get Propane and a store down in Island Park, we have stayed close to Frome Park.  Doubt I will do a blog Sunday, but we do intend to move Monday to the Southwest side of the Tetons, and on Tuesday we will visit the Tetons again.

 

 

Lamar Valley, 2026

 

If you have never been to Yellowstone, do it!  Yellowstone is one of my top 5 National Parks, up there with Yosemite (my favorite), Zion, Arches, Rocky Mountain and Glacier.  Frankly I have not been to a National Park that I did not like...it is just that some are better than others.  Yellowstone is one of the best.

The red lines in the map above are the major roads of Yellowstone.  It is laid out like a figure 8 loop, with five entrances/exits, and the grand loop covers 142 miles.  To get from Henrys Lake to the West Yellowstone entrance is 20 miles.  From the entrance to grand loop is another 12 miles.  Depending on how you drive the "Loops", it is another 58 to 66 miles.  Lamar Valley is another 8-12 miles depending how deep you go into the valley.  I figured it was nearly 100 miles since we went through Mammoth Hot Springs to get there.  Our trip home was about 90 miles.  Once in the park, maximum speed limit is 45 mph, with many 35 and 25 mph zones.  All of this needs to be taken into consideration, including the 20 minute wait at the entrance to get in due to it being 10 am...so the entire trip was close to 8 hours in length.

So, next will be a few pictures BEFORE we got to Lamar Valley.

 

So these pictures take us from the West Entrance to Madison Campground Area, then up North to Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces area.  As you can see, there are many things to see, many walks to take, many views to cherish.  I have read about people who have taken a full day just to cover the area from Madison to Mammoth.

We turned right to head towards Lamar Valley, passing through the Hot Springs "mini village" where you can find a General Store, one Gas Station, a few Restaurants, and lots of bathrooms, which seemed to be the most popular of all places.

See the Elk bottom center in this picture

 

There is a large herd of Elk that are in the Mammoth Hot Springs region.  A few small groups live in the "mini village" year round.  Sometimes they are in competition with the roads you are driving on!

 

The pictures above is from Mammoth the start of Lamar Valley.  You typically see Pronghorn as you enter the Lamar Valley area...this year we saw much less than we did last year.  This group had just run down the hills to the North, went across the road, and out into the open valley.

So, WHY drive so far to Lamar Valley???  Well, there is ALWAYS the huge herd of Buffalo.  Around 2,500 Buffalo are in the Lamar Valley area.  This time of year, they have typically given birth, and the calves start thriving.  Another thing in the Lamar Valley is the Wolf.  Wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone, specifically Lamar Valley region, back in 1995 when 14 gray wolves were brought down from Canada.  Today there are 80 to 120 wolves, in 8-10 distinct packs.  Although they now roam through the entire park, and outside of the park, Lamar Valley is not only the best place to see them...but the premier place in the World, according to experts, to view active wolf packs.  We did not see any this trip, but saw some of the "Pros", with their fancy huge cameras, concentrating on certain areas of the valley.  In the past I did see a few wolves, but I did not get any good pictures because I don't have a "pro camera".  

At first you see the buffalo far away...but as you go deeper into Lamar Valley, they come closer to the roadway.

 

 

Not too many places you can see a Bison (Buffalo) Calf feeding from its mother...

After staying the valley for nearly 2 hours, we headed back home.  But first, I got this picture to to east where the Northeast entrance is, and where the Beartooth Highway starts.  

 On our way home, we did finally see one bear...  It is hiding in those bushes.

It RAINED much of the trip back to Henrys Lake, very hard in places...hence, no pictures after the bear.  We enjoyed our visit...you always wonder if this is your last visit when you hit your upper 90's like Marcia is getting to.  This trip was taken on Thursday.  Today, Friday, we went over to Old Faithful, a much shorter, easier trip which I will blog about tomorrow.