Vacation Day 4

I had one more breakfast at the lodge, then relaxed a little before heading off for Yellowstone. Around 10am I started the long 6.5 hour drive. Thankfully the scenery was fantastic the whole way and I never really got bored. There weren’t as many pull-offs as I’d like to capture the great views and I had to drive past some really nice picturesque shots.

I finally made it to the hotel in Gardiner and relaxed for about an hour. There’s lots of spots in Yellowstone on my list, so I wanted to knock a few off today.

Just inside the Gardiner entrance is Mammoth Hot Springs and Liberty Cap. Liberty Cap is 37 feet tall and was formed by a hot spring.

Right next to it is Mammoth Hot Springs, which live up to their name. There are lots of interesting colors and textures to capture here.

From here I headed to Tower Falls which had a short 500 ft walk to the viewing point.

From here I started to head back. I saw quite a few pull offs I wanted to take and a few areas where I wondered what it was.

I almost missed this incredible shot because the sign just said Calcite Springs. I thought ‘hmm, I wonder what that is’ and there were only two cars there, so I decided to stop. I climbed a few sets of stairs and this is what I saw. Glad I stopped!

On the way back there was a traffic jam thanks to about 20 elk that decided to cross the road.

There was one last pull-off I wanted to take right as you leave the park. I had seen people up here earlier, but there was no place to park.

And finally, a few shots of the Roosevelt Arch and national park sign.

I got back to the hotel around 8:30pm and was quite exhausted.

I’ve got a lot more on my list tomorrow and it’s a lot of driving!