Yellowstone Family Trip-3

A slightly later start this morning, but through the entrance by 8 a.m. Today we are headed to Yellowstone Lake. But on the way, we would go by the Norris Geyser Basin, the hottest, most acidic, and most active thermal area in the park. It is relatively small but mighty. We pulled into the parking lot about 9.

Norris is divided into 2 major areas— the Porcelain Basin and the Back Basin. We chose the smaller Porcelain, and were not disappointed. You enter the basin from up on a hill, so most of it is visible spread out below. This most active thermal area is alive with color, steam, and sound. It is a most surreal landscape. There are aqua-blue boiling lakes, hissing steam vents, roaring, rumbling, and popping geysers, all painted with an extravagant beige, rust, and ochre palette. The boardwalk winds in and around the features in such an intimate way, giving you a close-up view of everything.

After Porcelain Basin, the two youngest were getting tired, so Nancy and I hung out with them while the rest of our crew walked the Back Basin. Then we were off to Lake. The drive down was through Haden Valley, which is filled with wildlife, especially elk and buffalo, which we saw many of. We made a brief stop to see the Mud Volcano and the Dragons Cauldron, two fun boiling mud springs. Then we drove on to the lake for a picnic.

It was cool and partly sunny with a bit of wind, but we had a fun picnic anyway. We finished and drove the 3 miles over to Bridge Bay Marina where we had a lake cruise booked for 1PM.

The trip lasted an hour with narration about the history of the lake and the challenges of managing the largest alpine lake in the USA. It was a fun adventure. After the cruise, we had a quick look at the ranger station and then drove back the hour and a half to West Yellowstone. We finished off the day with a big spaghetti dinner.