Sometimes, when you take a trip with lots of driving, when you get home you are tired. But there is much to do to unpack, clean up, do laundry, buy groceries. About the second or third day home you collapse in exhaustion. That was yesterday. I could not even write a blog. All my effort just to make dinner. Eduard slept in a long time. He was feeling it, too.
So now I will proceed with my Yellowstone Park review of Accessibility- Day 2. Pictures will be included as they get edited.
We entered the park a little later in the morning. Almost 9 am. No line. Fast entry with passes. All the lanes are open to passes, but the far right lane is only for passes and pre-paid tickets. It moves a little bit faster than the other lanes, but on this day, there was little traffic. We entered and drove the 14 miles to the intersection. We had planned to head north this time. The north side takes you to the turn for the Canyon, Norris geyser basin, and the Grand Staircase- Mammoth hot springs. There are a couple of other things along the way.
Our first stop was Gibbon Falls. This is a lovely overlook of the river and falls. The base of the river is hard black stone. It contrasts well with the foaming white water. A beautiful river and the falls have several levels. The upper viewing area is great for accessibility. Railings, smooth walkways, gentle slopes, good parking. If you walk down a bit you get to a viewing platform for a better look at both the first and second falls steps. I stayed on top and enjoyed the sound and view of the river and first step of the falls.
We drove on north to the intersection of- West to Norris Geyser, North to Mammoth Hot Springs, East to the Almost Grand Canyon. This time we went north. We were planning on going North again on the last day so we skipped Norris Geyser Basin. this is where we started to notice the smell of sulfur. It starts out smelling of gun powder or fire crackers. Then the smell gets stronger as you head north.
We did not see much wildlife or birds. The weather was cool and clear, the roads were nice. Not much traffic. We stopped at Artist Paint Pots. This area is pretty flat. Good parking. Out house style toilets. There is a 1/2 mile walk to the viewing areas. The right side takes you to some low level mud pots and a nice walk way for viewing them. The left side takes you to the not too accessible mud pots and geysers. I went left. I could do this with a walker. There were no benches or seating areas. There was one area of the walk that was messy, and there was a nice platform before the stairway. I stayed on the platform. I could see the continuous geyser and some other bubbling pools. The water in the stream was somewhat like the prismatic springs. Colorful but not large. Eduard climbed the stairs to the top and took lots of pictures. There is another geyser up there and some colorful pools. After he was done with the stairs, we walked over to the other viewing area. Flat with bubbling mud pots. Nice wooden walkway, but not very interesting.
Norris Geyser overlook- This is a nice parking lot. Not much else. You can look out over the geyser field hidden by trees and see a couple of frequently shooting geysers. Far away. You can skip this. We didn't even get out of the car.
Mammoth Hot Springs- This feature has an upper and lower level. We went to the upper level. The first parking lot has an accessible walk way for going out on the springs for a close up view. The next up parking lot is bigger and has lots of stairs going down. This is where we parked. I got out and walked around the upper flat area but did not attempt the stairs. Eduard took pictures for about a hour and we had lunch in the car. There were no picnic tables or other facilities, but the views were great. Like surround sound only visual. 360 degree features. The sulfur smell is strong but not unbearably. When we left we found even more lovely features. We stopped three times before we exited this area. I was able to walk with my cane to these sites. Close to the road and some you can see from the car. There were no toilets up here so we continued north to the lower level.
Traffic jam. Road work. Long wait. We made a U-turn at a pull out and headed south. It was a long day already and we were going to head home through this area, so we skipped the lower level for today. It took over an hour and a half to drive back but this was actually a shorter day than the first day. We stopped at an outhouse style toilet part way down to Norris Geyser Basin.
This area has some mobility issues and some sulfur issues. If you have sensitive breathing issues you may actually need to skip this part. After we got back to the hotel, we noticed that we smelled of sulfur. Our urine smelled of sulfur for two days. You are breathing it in and ingesting it.
Here I want to remind you that this is the inside of a volcano. It is a risky place all the time. The features change over the years. The trees die or fall, the ground moves, the ground has thin spots, the streams change paths, the air is less than good quality, but it is beautiful and exciting. Don't push yourself too hard.
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