Road Trippin

[MannyIsGod]

I have pics from the last 2 days in the park but I just need to actualy size them and all that too - I'll post those later.

[MannyIsGod]

Thursday hiked up to Bunsen Peak. Like most of the mountains in the area, it had a lot of snow cover. Made for an interesting hike. I didn't take pictures until I got to the top because my batteries were near dead.

That ridge in the distance was our previous days hike. That landslide/rock formation is called the Hoodoos.







This shows Sheepeater Canyon, which we drove through the next day.




This is the view of where Jess is staying, the town of Mammoth, WY, and the town right outside the park of Gardnier, MT. The Mammoth Hot Springs are the white stuff in the middle.



Me at the top of Bunsen Peak.

[johnsmith]

Why are you wearing such a tiny hat?

[MannyIsGod]

I just have a big head

[MannyIsGod]

I have a ton of pictures from the next day since we did a huge loop through the park stopping at a bunch of things.

This is at the Artist's Paint Pots.





We stopped at Beryl again since it wasn't cold and rainy.



Sign telling people the obvious: Stay away from the big ing things with horns. (People are stupid and don't listen)

[MannyIsGod]

I think this was Silex Spring at the Fountain Paint Pots area but I'm not totally sure.




We crossed the Continental Divide twice on this day.



Congress Pool at the Norris Basin.



Interesting bacteria mats at the Norris Basin.

[MannyIsGod]

Apparently they had just reopened the area near the Fountain Paint Pots because they close it every spring due to the abundance of Grizzlies. The Park Geologist wasn't able to check his equipment collecting data in the area that entire time so this is him doing just that.



Firehole Falls in Firehole Canyon



The tall geyser here is Clepsydra Geyser which hasn't stopped erupting in quite some time. The smaller one is Spasm Geyser and its named pretty well. It just erupts in irregular spasms.




Daniel the Bison had a party that day in front of Jess' room and invited his whole herd.

[Mugshot]

Awesome pics!!!

[MannyIsGod]

Great Fountain Geyser - next eruption wasn't till 10:30pm so we coudln't wait.



Hurricane Pool - pretty ty name for this imo. It was meh.



First Geyser I saw that day at Norris. Pretty small but pretty cool.



Buffalo hanging out near the Mud Volcano area. This is where we saw the sign above, yet I saw people walking within about 5 feet of male bison. Darwin is that you?



Mud Cauldron/Volcano area. Some of these pools were going really really harshly.

[MannyIsGod]

Some mud pots - I think this was at the Artist Paint Pots area. These may have been the ones that erupted on Jess's foot. hhahahahahaha



Obsidian Cliff. We drove past this early in the day then again late in the day when the sun was on it. It was ok the first time, but with the sun on it the volcanic class is pretty damn amazing. Sadly people keep stealing the glass from the rocks there so its looking less and less brilliant as time goes on.



I spent nearly a week and Yellowstone and visited old faithful for maybe 5 minutes. We had just missed the eruption when we arrived on Friday (I saw the top from the car) so we just moved on since there was a ton we wanted to see still and I'll be back at least once this summer.



Pink Cone Geyser



Porcelin Basin in the Norris Area

[Summers]

I swear I think that's the same sign they had up when I was there more than 20 years ago! And, yeah, people still walk right up to them.

[MannyIsGod]

Sheepeater Canyon. Named for the indians who lived there (I guess they ate sheep). The collums are old lava formations that you see a lot in the park.




Suprise Pool



White Dome Geyser



White Tailed Jack Rabbit who apparently lives near Jess' building since we saw him almost everyday. Its funny cause someone wrote a paper about these being extinct in Yellowstone a few years back. Uh what?



And finally, a view across Yellowstone Lake.

[Fernando TD21]

Awesome places and pictures.

[MannyIsGod]

So the idea on the way back from Yellowstone was to swing down across Utah and Arizona to get the national parks we missed. We weren't able to do it due to time and money constraints but this weekend we're going to see Adele in SLC so we figured we could use the drive from Santa Fe to SLC to check out some things.

So far we're planing to hit up Four Corners, Mesa Verde NP, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP and Dead Horse SP in Utah. Any suggestions for things to see on the route?

[baseline bum]

Balcony House in Mesa Verde is incredible. Just don't look down on the 30 foot ladder.

[baseline bum]

Four Corners sucks BTW. It's basically a bunch of lame shops on one side and a bunch of super filthy toilets on the other. It's a complete waste of time, and you'd be way better off spending an extra day in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Arches, playing XBox, trolling the political forum, etc. Arches has some really awesome petroglyphs on the short hike up to Delicate Arch. The hike out to Landscape Arch (and some others I forget on that trail) is really cool too.

[baseline bum]

Also, have you driven the Beartooth Highway between Cooke City and Red Lodge (just outside the NE entrance of the park)? They usually get Beartooth Pass open for Memorial Day. Here's a pic taken there a little more than a month ago, lol.



EDIT: Looks like it opens on June 3rd
http://www.beartoothhighway.com/

[baseline bum]

Since you like biking, you might want to consider this too...

[MannyIsGod]

Four Corners sucks BTW. It's basically a bunch of lame shops on one side and a bunch of super filthy toilets on the other. It's a complete waste of time, and you'd be way better off spending an extra day in Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Arches, playing XBox, trolling the political forum, etc. Arches has some really awesome petroglyphs on the short hike up to Delicate Arch. The hike out to Landscape Arch (and some others I forget on that trail) is really cool too.

Yeah four corners was pretty lame but it was on the way and we just stopped to do the pictures. We did Mesa Verde yesterday and it was awesome. Doing a hike in Arches today and going to do some driving through the Island in the Sky portion of Canyonlands.

[silverblk mystix]

Cool trip and pics...

Lake Tahoe is gorgeous too if anyone gets the chance...

and...

Big Sur is just like a slice of heaven...unspeakably gorgeous if you are into nature, beauty, majestic views, great hiking,etc...

[lil'mo]

how can anyone visit yellowstone and not see that that whole place is fixing to explode. mega volcano people.

[baseline bum]

So when do we get a trip report of your time in Yellowstone?

[koriwhat]

i can see the resemblance, except for the smug look(maybe) and the big ol' head.

[SpursNextRomanEmpire]

Four Corners sucks BTW. It's basically a bunch of lame shops on one side and a bunch of super filthy toilets on the other.

I agree with this, Four Corners sucked

[MannyIsGod]

Took off Friday morning, drove out NW through NM but south of most of the mountains. Came to a sign that pointed to an overlook a bit off the road and since we like to stop at a lot of places when we take roadtrips we decided to pull over and check it out.



This was the view at the overlook toward Colorado. The mountains in the distance are the San Juans in CO.







Just some more of the views from there. It looked a lot like the Bandlands in SD.



Kept going and eventually came to Shiprock on the Navajo rez in NW NM. Its huge and the pictures don't do it justice. The rock "wall" moving off to the right is one of 3 volcanic dikes moving out from the center formation.




You're right about Four Corners being fairly boring but we had never been and you at least have to go. Got some fry bread, bought some stuff and took pictures then moved on.



Thats just a random butte we saw and I thought was cool after Four Corners.