Northeast Tower Falls to Cooke City and Beartooth Highway--best drive in Yellowstone and BeyondWe headed out early this morning heading from West Yellowstone with intentions to drive through Northeast Yellowstone and the Beartooth Highway--by all accounts the single most scenic drive in America. Beartooth usually opens the beginning of June following the winter, but when we hit the Yellowstone entrance this a.m. we saw the signs for Beartooth closure, apparently a combination of a lot of snow and avalanches. But on the recommendation of a park ranger we opted to head that way anyway--he said he considered the northeast part of th epark the most beautiful and a bit less trafficked.
Headed out through Norris to Canyon Village. There we stopped at the Visitor Center. I am a total nerd when it comes to guidebooks and one of my faves was there: Roadside Geology of Wyoming, which includes all the geologic info on Tetons and Yellowstone. If you want a more detailed guide to the park's history, features, geology, etc--hit the Canyon Village Visitor Center. Great interpretive gifts for kids, too.
From Canyon Village we headed north to Tower-Roosevelt. We stopped to see Tower Falls. When we headed east from Tower-Roosevelt toward Cooke City the landscape turns alpine.
This stretch of roadway is calendar-scenic. If you have been wondering where you can see the sprawling alpine meadows with snow-capped mountains rising in the background--this is where you'll find them, just look in every direction. The landscape is verdant, starting to color with wildflowers, and bison and elk are everywhere. The bison is my new favorite animal.
This is just an impressive beast. Plenty of photo opps even for close-ups. In fact a few rangers drove a whole herd of bison with babies across a busy roadway yesterday evening. Amazing thing to witness.
By the time we reached Cooke City the elevation was much higher and still quite a layer of snow-cover in areas. We grabbed lunch in Cooke City at the Beartooth Grill. If I lived here I;d be a regular: dark lodgepole building, very rustic, good food and well over 100 kinds of microbrews. (Gas here was $4.25!) We turned around in Cooke City, our plan retrace our steps to Tower-Roosevelt and onto Mammoth Hot Springs before the end of the day.
In Tower-Roosevelt we turned west toward Mammoth, instead of south--the way we'd come. I'd only seen photos of Mammoth Hot Springs and I just learned that it was the discovery of this geologic phenomenon that was a key inspiration for the very creation of Yellowstone.
Yellowstone and GeysersI had heard of Old Faithful before---yeah, yeah, yeah there's a geyser. I didn't know anything. This is the thing about Yellowstone and geysers: Old Faithful is just one of hundreds of geysers, hot springs and steam vents in Yellowstone. In places steam just sputters from the belly of the earth in boiling little sulphuric pools right alongside the road and there are a number of very notable geyser spots. But Mammoth hot springs is a destination, a must-do.
Our drive west from Roosevelt toward Mammoth was, um, hurried and thankfully not much traffic. All I'll say is if you need a bathroom in an emergency--there's one M/F restroom between Roosevelt and Mammoth. (It happens....what can I say?).
Mammoth Hot Springs--How Yellowstone Got its StartWe entered Mammoth from the east. Our first taste of Mammoth was elk lounging in the small town square. You are not supposed to approach them, but you have plenty of photo opps just passing by. In downtown Mammoth you'll find a general store stocked with all kinds of gifts for everyone you need to buy for, including an array of huckleberry food-stuffs--a regional favorite.
Mammoth Hot Springs rise like a huge whitish mound, not impressive from ground level, but you must follow the boardwalk up around the terraces. The sign at the bottom suggests visitors allow 2 hours, but you can see most of it in about an hour. We walked part of the way up and saw some spectacular crystalline formations, jutting out in natural terraces and icy-looking blocks. Hot springs are active in various areas. When we drove out of the area we continued heading west and then the road turns south. We rounded the back side of Mammoth up at the top of the hill--the first couple of turnouts offer spectacular vistas of the upper most terraces of Mammoth
Hot Springs. From here you can easily view the nicest of the emerald green pools.
Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone is a must-see for anyone with even the slightest interest in geology and natural phenomenon. Pick up a comprehensive Yellowstone guidebook that contains information about the geologic structures in the park, it's very helpful.
Yellowstone Animal Sightings and Traffic JamsOn the way back to the West Entrance we ran into a traffic jam for about an hour. This is another thing about the speed limit in Yellowstone--visitors will literally just stop in the middle of the road for a wildlife photo opp., so you can't fly along the roadway. This traffic jam was due to an apparent grizzly sighting. People were actually leaving their cars to run up ahead of traffic for a possible photo opp. Sorry, but I'm not leaving my car to approach a grizzly. It turned out to be an impossible sighting from the road, but it nevertheless tied up traffic for probably a few hours. Kind of ridiculous, but just an fyi about park travel in the busy summer. But seriously, anyone at any one point can stop pull out a camera and in most cases the very act draws a slew of curious passersby.
Our wildlife sightings for the day: bear cub up a tree (amazing sight), plenty of bison, wolf, elk, antelope and a huge crow.
Packing--if you're unaccustomed to this part of the country make sure to bring a variety of clothing. Even in mid-June the nights are cool and it can snow on just about any day of the year.
Regardless of gas prices topping $4.25 per gallon in some spots, I've already argued that folks are still packing their gear, their kids, their music, their kids, and hitting road. Here is my top 4 list of utterly jaw-dropping scenery and adventure to be had well worth the gas dime:
Route 66, any segment of it is a slice of Americana. This strip of roadway traverses hundreds of miles between Chicago and Santa Monica, California. In between are cities like Tucumcari, Oklahoma City (don't miss the Oklahoma City bombing memorial-extremely beautiful and moving at night), Albuquerque and Flagstaff, Amarillo, and Tulsa, not in any particular order. The roadside is punctuated with kitschy 50s motels, greasy spoons that still serve some of the best travel food in America, and large swaths of landscape between map points.
