Day 10 - Hiking in YNP

We got up early today, had breakfast together and then split up. A & I went for a longer hike and K & C went on two Ranger hikes.



A & I followed the Geyser trail down to Biscuit Basin. The geysers and hot springs are quite amazing. K & C did parts of the same trail on their Ranger hike. The two hot springs pictured here are the Morning Glory and the Sapphire Pool in Biscuit Basin.





At one of the pools we saw this little guy. He was just sitting there, staring at us. As I later learned, it's a Yellow-bellied Marmot, which are quite common in this area.




From Biscuit Basin we hiked up to an overlook that gave us a view of the entire Upper Geyser Basinwith all the geysers steaming away. In the background of this picture you can see the various steam cones.



We hiked on into the back country. The whole Old Faithful Inn area is teeming with people. But as soon as you leave that area it's just you & nature. There really isn't anyone around for miles. The only steady companion out there are mosquitos - they are all over you. We sat down to eat our apples and we had a swarm of them all around us, despite being sprayed with insect repellent. We quickly got up and on our way again.


Being in the back country, we expected to see some other wild animals, but other than some birds, it was pretty quiet. We returned to the main path down to Mystic Falls (see picture), took a quick picnic break above the falls, and then proceeded on our hike down. As we were continuing on, I was in deep thought and not really paying much attention to my surroundings. I heard a noise to the side of me, looked up and was staring straight into the face of a male Elk with huge antlers - no more than two yards away from me. He was standing there, chewing grass and looking at me curiously. I backed away slowly, as the park regulations advise. A was right behind me. We tried to figure out how to get past the animal. According to park regulations, you are supposed to stay at least 30 feet away from any wild animals - but this one was right next to our path and we had no other way around. We waited a bit and he moved a bit away and we walked past him. A then took this short video of the animal:




After that excitement, we hiked back to our lodge and rewarded ourselves with a big ice-cream. We met K & C back at the room. C had received his second Junior Ranger badge on this trip and had certainly learned a lot about geysers and hot springs.