Yellowstone part 3

Lewis Lake Campground - Yellowstone NP - USA

Yellowstone part 3

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From the start of our trip, it is a sequence of staying in beautiful nature and meeting nice people. We shoot a lot of photos and video. We really enjoy doing this and it takes no effort at all. Until we start looking at everything............sorting and figuring out where it was, that takes the most time. We are a month behind in sharing the photos. It all continues to be beautiful and more photos are coming in all the time!

Midway geyser basin

In 2010, we had stopped here "by accident." We had no idea what to expect. We found it so beautiful then, that we really wanted to go here again. Beautiful rust-brown colors, steam and blue water were the perfect picture for us. Because of the large amount of steam, we couldn't see much of the largest geyser this time.

Tip: Go to these geysers early or late in the evening. Parking is limited. Instead of finding a parking spot by driving around the grounds, Americans wait for someone to leave. Result: very long line, where you have to wait to get out again.

Lower Geyser basin

The name says it all: geysers! Haven't we seen enough of them yet: NO! There are beautiful hiking trails everywhere, it is really nice to be able to see everything so well. Besides beautifully colored pools, we found the paint pot and the dead fox very impressive.

Paint pot

Literally translated: a pot of paint. That's what it really looks like. It is a gray milky substance, only this paint pot is bubbling 24 hours a day. You keep watching it.

Dead fox

We didn't even see the fox at first; it was a ranger who pointed it out to us. He told us that in winter it is very tough conditions for the animals. This fox probably could not find enough food or drank something that could not be digested properly.

Flowers

Everywhere in Yellowstone you can find beautiful wildflowers/plants. Especially along the roadside are beautiful flowers, unfortunately we cannot stop everywhere to enjoy them. Even at the geysers where the acid content is extremely high, there are many kinds of wild plants blooming. Amazing don't you think!

West Thumb geyer basin

Many places in Yellowstone have road work being done, even during the high season. The workmen have only a very short period of time to carry this out. This is because the winters are long and harsh. Access to this geyser was closed at the beginning of our Yellowstone visit. After spending a week in Grand Teton National Park, to our surprise, the access road to this geyser turned out to be open again.

This geyser area is located on a lake. Everywhere you see smoke, smell sulfur, see lots of different colors of grass, water and there are even geysers in the lake. Really cool that we saw this too!

Camping in the park

Spending the night in a parking lot or picnic is prohibited. If you don't have a reservation at a campsite in the park, you have to leave the park. No idea if they really enforce that.

Most campsites have toilets, but no showers. The campgrounds are in a wooded area, some sites are spacious, at others you have front, back and left and right neighbors. We stayed at Brigde bay, Madison, Grant Village and Lewis Lake Campground. These are a bit scattered through the park, which we liked and so it was also possible to book last minute spots.

There are also nice picnic spots (e.g., Firehole river), some unfortunately off-limits to RVs. There are toilets there too, but they are barrels set over a septic tank. Besides the stench, there are lots of flies. With an RV you have all with you and it is very nice to be able to picnic anywhere.

Almost in all the parks there is a general store. Those are souvenir stores where they also sell some fruit/vegetables, bread and snacks. In America and Canada, a lot of people bake their own bread. If you read the ingredients that are in the long-life bread, it makes perfect sense. There is so much junk in it that has nothing to do with bread! It is not surprising that this bread keeps for weeks.

Finding varied, healthy, affordable food is a challenge anyway. Everything in the supermarket is processed with E numbers, contains sugars and unhealthy fats.