Beartooth Highway is a scenic drive that connects Red Lodge to the Silver Gate entrance to Yellowstone. It’s a beautiful way to enter the park, and this is not a popular entrance, so we had no wait to gain entrance into Yellowstone.

We stopped for lunch in a picnic area east of Cooke City. Catnip enjoyed a quick exploration.

We made it to an official sign and Teepee, then experienced our first Bison-caused traffic slowdown and saw our first waterfall, Tower Falls near Roosevelt Lodge. There is a trail to hike down to see the river , and the sign correctly warns you there is no view of the falls from there. This helps prevent some disappointment, I’m sure. We wandered down anyway.

From the Tower-Roosevelt junction, we traveled west toward our night’s stay at Mammoth Springs campground. When we checked in I asked about a path back to the springs from the campground so we could leave Usain parked, and was assured there was a “nice little path” at the end of the campground near the amphitheater. We found the narrow path that said it would take us to the top of the hill, which seemed straight up. It did switch back a little, so it wasn’t too step, but very narrow and there was lots of evidence of critter usage, including scat and fresh urine. After the urine, we talked a lot and told whomever was nearby that we were just passing through and we were big and scary so they should stay away. It worked – ha ha, but we needed to make sure we were back before sunset as I would NOT take this trail after dark for fear of elk or bears sharing it with me.

The elk were up by the buildings at Mammoth Springs with several rangers with bullhorns to keep us all away from them. There was one big bull with magnificent antlers and his harem.

This evening we were able to see some of the absolute splendor of Yellowstone. The extremophile (extreme environment lover) archaea microbes give such beautiful colors to these hot springs.

When trees get flooded with hot spring water, they absorb calcium carbonate which blocks their xylem and phloem (veins) and causes death. But this makes the trees “rock solid” and they stay standing for decades.

The “white stuff” seen here is calcium carbonate deposition forming travertine, which forms these terraces. Travertine is found under the soil several miles from here showing locations of ancient hot springs.