Exploring Yellowstone NP: Bison and Geysers and Sulfur, Oh My!

“A thousand Yellowstone wonders are calling, ‘Look up and down and round about you!'”

John Muir (1898)

We took an easy morning to get some laundry done and relax around camp. Ron cooked bacon and eggs on the outside grill, and the kids played at the KOA playground. At the laundromat, we met a lovely couple from Arkansas. They shared some great tips for exploring Yellowstone, so now we have a good game plan. By noon we were all loaded in the truck and off to explore Yellowstone!

You would not believe the excitement when we spotted our first bison.  Even I was giddy. The journey we’d planned through the park would take us to Mammoth Hot Springs, Lamar Valley and Norris Geyser Basin. But, even before we reached any of the big destinations, we saw several geysers just off the road. Those gave Ron and I an opportunity to explain the Yellowstone Supervolcano to the kids as we drove through the caldera in real time. 

The Yellowstone Supervolcano erupted 2.1 million years ago, 1.2 million years ago and again 640,000 years ago. These eruptions, respectively, were 6,000, 700 and 2,500 times larger than the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. We also talked about why there are hot springs and geysers here in the park.  Below ground, the water accumulates and is heated by Yellowstone Supervolcano. It then travels upwards to erupt from acidic geysers, rise from steaming fumaroles, and collect in pools. Essentially geysers are a rare kind of hot spring that are under pressure, due to boiling water, which causes them to erupt.

The kids also learned that the hot springs and geysers produce sulphur—which smells very much like someone passed gas inside the truck. They learned more about sulfur at Roaring Mountain, too. There, the mountainside geysers release so much sulfur gas that the mountain is barren. The gas makes it inhospitable to humans, but creates the perfect habitat for sulphur loving bacteria. 

Around the time Ron was starting to regret my decision to pay for the Herd of Bison Tour (at this point, we’d only seen one lone bison), we finally saw our first herd. I can now check that off my list of what I really wanted to see in Yellowstone. I took so many pictures. The kids loved to see the baby bison in the herd, and we all enjoyed hearing these majestic animals communicate with each other. While we were taking pictures of the herd we also saw some antelope. Ron was super excited about this! We saw several more bison herds throughout the day and never tired of it. To think that there were 30 million bison that roamed across North America at one point in time. I wish there still were.   

We left our campsite with no lunch and limited snacks. I know you’re thinking, “what no lunch and few snacks after the last fiasco at Glacier National Park?” Well, we’re still learning. We were hoping to stop and get a little lunch in the park, but the park’s many Covid restrictions have limited dining. As 3:30 approached we were all getting hungry. At Mammoth Hot Springs, we stopped at a gift shop and grabbed a little snack to hold the kids over. Then, we were back on the road to Lamar Valley.  We saw many herds of bison in the valley and we also noticed that many tourists were already getting set up for evening wildlife viewing.  Apparently wolves and bears come down into the valley at dusk.  We will have to remember that for next time.  

We continued to Norris Geyser Basin to see the Steamboat Geyser.  It is the world’s tallest currently active geyser.  It has infrequent and unpredictable eruptions, but it produces the tallest column of water when it erupts and is supposed to be spectacular.  We hiked it and sadly it erupted on September 9 at 3pm.  We waited, hopeful that it may have another eruption while we were there, but sadly no.  It erupts anywhere between 3 days to 50 years so we could have been waiting a while.  

We made our way back to our campsite and had a quick dinner.  By this time it was 7pm.  We ate by the campfire and watched the stars as they slowly emerged in the night sky. I always wanted to be an astronomer and so I loved talking to the kids about the stars and our grand universe.  Maggie curled up on a chair with Wyatt, while the rest of us put our feet up and had a family cuddle moment.  Remi being a pup thought it would be fun to bark at anything at moved in the dark so he had to go to bed.  Tomorrow we’ll be up early to visit Old Faithful.

Goodnight from West Yellowstone!

Our first bison and the amazing scenery:

We had to take a selfie with the bison (from a safe distance, of course)!

More exploration of this stunning park:

Wyatt enjoyed seeing the bison:

The pups stretching their legs, unfazed by the herd of bison behind us!

Mammoth Springs post office. The village was so cute.

Roaring Mountain:

Lamar Valley:

Soda Butte:

Norris Geyser Basin, Emerald Spring, and Steamboat Geyser:

One last bison selfie!