Norris and Mammoth Hot Springs

We started the day with the plan to go to Mammoth Hot springs and hike a five mile loop and then do the short hikes around the hot springs themselves. Well...there was more to see on the way to Mammoth than we realized. He had to stop to look at wildlife, waterfalls, mudpots, geysers, and thermal springs. Around the Norris junction, we took a 1.2 mile hike around the Norris Geyer basin and saw Steamboat Geyser, the largest geyser in the world. When it erupts, somewhere between 4 days and 50 years, it shoots upwards of 300 ft in the air. It last went off in 2005. I'm kind of glad we didn't see it go off, we would have been too close for comfort.

Artists paintpots (mudpot)


A thermal spring


Part of Norris geyser basin


By the time we got to Mammoth, it was later in the afternoon and the afternoon rainclouds had started to form. We went to the visitor center and realized that the trail we were going to hike had bear warnings on it. A trail close by had a mountain lion warning. Yikes.

We took a self-guided tour of Fort Yellowstone. The army managed Yellowstone before the NPS was formed. It was interesting because a lot of the original building remain. Most of them are now residences.

Tomorrow morning I have scheduled a 2 hour horseride. We will be leaving from the Canyon area, a new part of the park for us. In order to get there on time, we have to leave the RV at 7am!