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After finishing our chores in Billings, MT, we made it only as far as Buffalo, WY, for our next overnight stop. It was a rather gloomy day of driving with smoke from fires adding to overcast skies. This will be an excellent day to post some of the extra Yellowstone pictures. All of the following were taken in or near Mammoth Hot Springs.
We were surprised how much elevation drop there is just before reaching the Hot Springs from the rest of the Park. Road builders used some very creative methods of construction to put the windy, precipitous road in:
The Hot Springs area was brightened by something blooming that couldn’t be missed:
Despite my assertion that climbing is absolutely necessary to see the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs, we realized later that we had missed one. So, we stopped to visit it as we left the area and it is a gorgeous creation, indeed. Best of all, little climbing is required to see it.
These terraces, apparently, have been expanding in recent decades. We deduce that from the old asphalt trail on the right that is closed off. Terraces now cover the ground where the trail once passed.
If you continue down a few more twists of the road, you eventually reach Gardiner, MT. This is the main business street with empty fields belonging to Yellowstone Park on the opposite side:
We were struck by the old-time western feel of the place long before we spotted two cowboys working on a pickup truck, one wearing chaps, the other spurs. .... I know, I know, they were probably tourists from Brooklyn.