We started our day off at 9am since there is a lot of driving to do between the hotel and the first sight we were going to see. We entered the park and got back on the Grand Loop to head towards the Norris Area Junction.
On the Grand Loop from Mammoth to Norris Junction we past many wonderful sights to visit. The first thing we did was stop at the Golden Gate turnoff. From here you can see a little waterfall and just the sudderening scenary. Further down the road we saw a herd of moose in the distance grazing on grass. This section of the Grand Loop is the best possible place to see wild animals. After we stopped and looked at the animals the next biggest attraction was Roaring Mountain. It is a large, acidic thermal area (solfatara) that contains many steam vents (fumaroles). Driving on the Grand Loop you notice the steam vents and that makes you want to stop and see what it is. As you get closer to the Norris Geyser Basin there are more hot springs and geysers alongside the road.
The biggest sight to see in the Norris area is the Norris Geyser Basin. It is the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone's thermal areas. Steamboat Geyser, the tallest geyser in the world (300 to 400 feet) and Echinus Geyser are the most popular features to visit. Echinus Geyser erupts about very 2 hours and lasts about 3 minutes. Echinus is the largest acid-water geyser known. We arrived just in time to see Echinus Geyser erupt. We had to wait 20 minutes for it to erupt. It was very cool. That was our first geyser we have ever seen erupt. It was a good one to see. The basin consists of three areas: Porcelain Basin, Back Basin, and One Hundred Springs Plain. If you have time walk around one of the basin to view all the different thermal activity. We spent a good hour and a half there by walking around the basins and because we waited for the geyser to erupt.
Then we proceeded on the Grand Loop from Norris to the Madison Junction area. There was construction on this section of the loop so it take a bit longer to drive. Along this stretch of road was Beryl Spring A little further down the road there is a turnoff to see Gibbon Falls. It is a 84ft waterfall tumbling over remnants of the Yellowstone Caldera rim. It was nice and the surrounding landscape was nice also.
After stopping at Gibbon Falls we drove a little south of Madison Junction to drive the Firehole Canyon Drive. The drive takes sightseers past 800-foot thick lava flows. Firehole Falls is a 40-foot waterfall. Here we stopped to wade our feet in the Firehole River and just take in the scenary. At the end of this drive there is the possibility of swimming in the Firehole River.
After taking the short Firehole Canyon Drive we headed back up to the Norris Junction area so we could head over to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. On our way back we saw a couple of mule deer grazing on grass and wading in a river. A little while later on the Grand Loop enroute to the Canyon area we saw 4 elk grazing on grass. That was cool to see the antlers. Just pasted the Norris Junction heading east we stopped at the Virginia Cascade. A three-mile section of an old road takes visitors past 60-foot high Virginia Cascades. This cascading waterfall is formed by the very small (at that point) Gibbon River. There really wasn't a good place to take a picture of this waterfall because the road was so narrow and it was only a one-way road.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is a must see. It is so beautiful and it doesn't look real. It is roughly 20 miles long, measured from the Upper Falls to the Tower Fall area. The canyon was formed by erosion rather than by glaciation. The Upper and Lower Falls are a definite must. The falls are erosional features formed by the Yellowstone River as it flows over progressively softer, less resistant rock. The Upper Falls is upstream of the Lower Falls. The Upper Falls is the smaller of the two famous waterfalls on the Yellowstone River at 109 feet tall. The Lower Falls is the tallest waterfall in the park at 308 feet. You need to stop at very lookout point there is. Each spot provides a different prespective of the canyon and the falls. Here is a list of the ones you should spot at: Inspiration Point Platform. At this location is where the canyon wall juts far out into the canyon allowing spectacular views both upstream and down.View from Lookout Point. You get a view of the Lower Falls and the canyon. Brink of the Lower Falls, The Brink of the Upper Falls, Upper Falls Viewpoint, View of the Lower Falls from Uncle Tom's Trail and Artist Point. I would really recommond walking to the brink of each falls. The views are spectacular. We spent a good 3 hours looking at the canyon because of the driving to each spot and then the walking down to the brink. I would plan the most time in this area.
After spending so much time at the canyon and it was getting late and we were hungry we decided to go back to our hotel in Gardiner, MT. We got back on the Grand Loop at the Canyon Junction via Tower-Roosevelt via Mammoth via the North Entrance. On the way back we saw a little baby black bear. Boy was there a road jam in that area. Near Mammoth we stopped at the two waterfalls I mentioned in Day 1. The first one we looked at was Wraith Falls. There is a short 1/2 mile walk each way to see the fall. The other fall was Undine Fallss, which is viewable by turning into a turnoff. Back in the Mammoth Junction are there were about 6 deer or some other kind of animals just grazing on grass. They were grazing on the grass in a very residental area. That was neat. Before leaving the park we stopped at the 45th Parallel Bridge sign. It is a sign near where the road crosses the Gardner River marking the 45th parallel of latitude. The 45th parallel is an imaginary line that circles the globe halfway between the equator and the North Pole.
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