East Yellowstone

Since Yellowstone is so big we decided to camp in two different places. At first we would camp at Fishing Bridge in the east central part of Yellowstone (north end of Yellowstone Lake) then we would camp at Madison in the west central part of Yellowstone. This proved a good decision. Going from east central (Lake area) to the northeast (Tower area) is 45 minutes - hour drive in the funmobile depending on traffic; as is a trip down to the southeast (Lewis Lake) area.

Oh by traffic I don’t mean Bay Area kind of traffic, I mean this kind of traffic:



Yep almost every time we end up waiting for Buffalo. It’s pretty amazing and kind of intimidating the first time but after you’ve been here a few days you get used to it and kind of wish they would get out of your way (though it’s still pretty cool). Sometimes there is a whole herd crossing the road. When this happens the adult males plant themselves in the middle of the road and wait for the females and especially the young to cross before moving on themselves. If it’s a big herd this can take awhile.

Sometimes they just decide it is their trail not these square shiny animals. Then they just walk right along it, frequently in the middle, and you just need to do your best to go around them. The monster (motorhome) fairs a little better though, they tend to go OK that square shiny animal is pretty big and get out of it’s way.



The first full day in Yellowstone we went down to Lewis lake (southeast). We kayaked across Lewis and up the river that connects it to the largest backcountry lake in the US (Shoshone Lake). It was a fairly long kayak (6 miles each way) but worth it. It was beautiful particularly the river that connects the two lakes:

The burnt trees you see are due to a fire that burnt over 30% of Yellowstone in 1988. For the most part they just let it burn (natural way of things) and it burned and burned all summer long. This was very controversial at the time as in the beginning they could have got it under control; however after a few weeks of letting it burn, there was nothing they could do anyway except pray for rain. They didn’t get any rain all summer and it wasn’t till the snows started in October that the fire finally went out.

There were also nice size trout all over in the river that connected Shoshone and Lewis. I could see schools of them as we paddled up. Periodically a fish would jump right near us as if to say, “Neener, neener, neener, you didn’t bring your pole, you dude!”

We also hit the West Thumb area of Yellowstone lake on our way back up from Lewis. This is a geothermal area. The one I liked the best is called fish pot hot spring. It’s a hot spring right on the edge of the lake (when the lake is high it’s actually in the lake). A few decades ago people would fish there, catch a fish then immediately swing their pole around and dunk the live fish in the hot spring to cook it. Unfortunately they don’t let you do that anymore. We also saw our first Elk and bison up close here.

Day two we biked up to a natural arch, hiked a 800 foot elevation gain to an overlook over Yellowstone Lake and then went and checked out another geothermal area called Mud Volcano and Dragon’s Breath. Most of the geothermal sites are right off the road so getting to them is no big deal.

Day three we woke up early and went out to the Hayden valley to see what animals we could see. We then did a bunch of hiking up, down and around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (Uncle Tom’s stairs, Artists Point, Lower Yellowstone Falls, Lily Lake, etc.). Finally we hit another geothermal area nearby. The Yellowstone canyon is pretty cool, it’s a very deep and steep gash in the earth. The canyon walls are various shades of red, yellow, gray, etc. with the Yellowstone river run deep down in the bottom.

Day four we drove up to the tower area (northeast Yellowstone). We hiked up to the top of Mt. Washburn, elevation 10,243ft, unfortunately we didn’t get any good pictures as the view was spoiled by smoke from a wildfire in Montana. It was very windy and cold up there. The hike itself isn’t too bad, a gradual and constant gain of 1200 ft from the trailhead, but the lower oxygen at this altitude takes some getting used to. After Mt. Washburn we checked out tower falls and the rest of the area.

This woody is rock hard (petrified tree):

During the last four days we have seen various wildlife up close and personal including: bison (lots of bison), a bear and her cubs, Elk (including a 7 pointer), deer, a coyote, a fox and various birds.