2018.09.26 - Yellowstone National Park (South)

09.26.2018 - Yellowstone National Park (South) - Since we really saw most of the park yesterday, we figured that hitting Old Faithful and a few of the geyser spots along the southern half of the park loop would make for a shorter day (the north half was 12-hrs). Accordingly, we had a more leisurely start and didn't get thru the west entrance gate until almost 11:00am. About 10-miles in, we encountered what we surmised to be our first "animal jam".  Since traffic in our direction was down to a crawl and almost no traffic was coming from the other direction, we figured it must be more than something along the side of the road and more like something on the road.

Well, it took over 2-1/2 hours to crawl about 3-miles eventually to see that it was a herd of bison that was the culprit.

    The Morning Animal Jam Begins

Walking Bison Roadside Hazard

The strung-out traffic jam wasn't really due to people slowing down to take photos. It was mostly due to much of the herd deciding (as they normally do, we are told), to walk on the road instead of on the shoulder. What we thought yesterday as "something that would be quaint to experience" turned into something we hoped to avoid entirely in the future.

Once we got past the bison jamb, we quickly made it to Madison Junction and turned south towards Old Faithful, 18-miles away. Since we had the rental car again today, we were able to take some side roads where trailers and RV's were disallowed, including the loop road along the Firehole River, which flows thru many of the south geyser basins. 

  A "selfie" at Firehole River Falls

We made it to Old Faithful in good shape, but a lot later than we had planned. Since it was already 2pm in the afternoon, lunch was first on the list. Since Old Faithful had just did it's thing, we had about 90-minutes to kill before the next estimated eruption.  The way it works, about 30-minutes before Old Faithful's predicted spewing, the benches in front of the visitor center start getting occupied. We got a spot right in the middle, with an unobstructed view of the geyser. About 10-minutes before the eruption, crowd pressure starts "filling the gaps" in any seating left with a wall of "standers" building shoulder-to-shoulder behind the benches. Then there were those who just decided they'd take a seat on the boardwalk in front of the benches and pretty soon, testy comments as to someone blocking somebody's view started. Old Faithful was right on time, however, so soon all the attention was diverted to what everyone came to see in the first place. 

Old Faithful - 3:40 pm - Right on time!   

By the time Old Faithful completed her show, it was going on 4pm, so we headed over to the Old Faithful Inn to see the infamous lobby and fireplace. It's the largest log hotel in the world and was built in 1904 using native lodge-pole pines and local rhyolite stone (to build the 85-ft tall, 500-ton stone fireplace, for example). It appeared that the place was pretty well booked and folks were already lining up in an attempt to score a last-minute reservation for the dining room (dinner starts serving at 4:30pm). We walked around a bit, checked out the gift shop, took some photos and grabbed a cup of coffee in the snack bar.

 Old Faithful Inn - back side

Multi-story lobby and infamous 4-sided central fireplace

Dining room service starts at 4:40pm

  

Since yesterday's exit from the park was so late, we decided to head out early and were on the road by 5pm. On the way out, we took a couple of side roads passing by a few geyser sites off the main highway, then headed for Madison Junction, where we hoped we wouldn't have a repeat of this morning's bison jam. 

 Sun setting above Lower Geyser Basin

We were well on our way along the Madison River, thinking we had clear sailing when it happened again. This time, when  traffic stopped, we were closer to where the bison herd had the road locked up and could hear the rangers "herding" the bison along using chirps of their truck sirens. They were also using their loud speaker to tell folks to keep moving close together so the bison wouldn't get between vehicles and make things worse. After about an hour's wait, the herd came around the corner ahead and headed towards us in a leisurely pace, grunting as they walked right beside the cars. Once the herd passed, we were on our way again - for about 2-minutes. Alas, another animal jam, this time, just an elk in the river. A quick passing shot while traffic was stopped, then we were on our way.

     The Bison are coming - ya think you could move a little faster?

A bison close-up (like really close-up!)

An Elk in the Madison River

The rest of the way back to West Yellowstone was uneventful. We took a last side road along the Madison River, catching a great subset along the way. We stopped for dinner at the Madison Crossing Restaurant (also recommended by the nice left turn guy), scoring a window table where we enjoyed a great halibut dinner and nice bottle of wine. 

The end of a nice day in Yellowstone National Park

Tomorrow - get the rental car returned, find a place to gas up, then cross Yellowstone (again), headed this time for the east entrance.