May 15, Yellowstone

May 15, Yellowstone

Another comfortable night and a relaxed breakfast.

Today we are going to explore the area around our campground which  is near the end of the closed road we couldn’t drive through from the other direction.

First we drove a mile down the road the Lake Village.

There is a huge hotel and lots of cabins next to Yellowstone Lake which is still partially frozen over.

Beautiful  views of the lake and mountains on this sunny day.

We then drove north towards the road closure which is at the south side of  Yellowstone Canyon Falls.

It was a great drive , only 14 miles through the Hayden Valley along the banks of the Yellowstone River.

Wonderful river views and also open grasslands with the occasional plume of steam from a hot spring.

Saw lots of bison and stopped at The Mud Volcano which is a hot spring of bubbling and sometimes erupting mud.

The smell of sulphur was really strong .

At the road closure was a turnoff to the south rim of the Yellowstone River Canyon which ends at Artist Point with  great views of the falls and canyon which is called The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

It was truly spectacular and we were glad we made the trip. So different from the much busier west side of the park.

We had sandwich for lunch at the viewpoint then headed back to the campground.

The return drive went very quickly .

We filled up with gas at the previously unknown gas station and we were back at the trailer before 2pm.

It was nice and warm so we sat out in our chairs with a glass of wine and enjoyed the peace and quiet and fed the whisky jack’s.

Mickey climbed the snow bank but couldn't get down

Tomorrow we leave for Idaho Falls , stopping in Jackson ,Wyoming on the way.

Hopefully about a 4 hour drive through the Grand Teton’s .