We drove up a beautiful valley from Livingstone to the Mammoth Gateway in Yellowstone. The entry fee is excellent value - $25 per car for a week!
Mammoth was the original location for the U.S. army station; they were mandated to protect this first national park from Poachers! The orginal fort buildings now house the Park HQ and a museum. The nearby hot springs were beyond belief - the whole area is criss-crossed with geysers and hot spring activity. Due to the high Sodium Carbonate levels, there are interesting patterns from the solidified calcium salts.
We camped the night at Indian Creek which is considered primative as it only has camping loos. We watched ground squirrels close to the tent and thought it all rather idyllic until a gay couple of women behind us decided to keep us awake until late.
Next morning, we moved up to Canyon, the biggest of the camping sites, and one we had booked. We were amazed when we went to the allocated site - it was on a hill! We would have spent the next 3 nights rolling down it! Back to reception and they gave us another site - we couldnt spot where we were supposed to put up the tent, so back again to reception. Third time lucky, we were given a pitch we could actually put the tent up on!
Later we realised that you pay the same for a massive RV or a tiny one person tent. So, if you declare a small tent, you are given a tiny pitch but pay the same as the guy with the 50' Winnabaggo, trailing a 2.5 litre 4WD and a boat, plugged in to electricity, sewarage and water!
Canyon offers a scaled down v ersion of the Grand Canyon; it has amazing waterfalls and Ospreys ride the thermals above. We walked the Wapiti trail twice as it offers spectacular walking over pastureland, through Aspen forest and over thermals. One night we came across a male bison on our path, so we hastily retreated.
One morning, we drove early to the foothills of Mount Washburn and watched 2 wolves and a coyote hanging around the periphery of a herd of Bison. We saw Pronghorn grazing and accidentally set them off running when we tried to photograph them.
Herds of Elk secreted themselves away in the Forests during the day, but came out at dawn and dusk to ensure maximum disruption on the roads. The Bison were even worse; they didnt care if they stopped the traffic altogether and were hilarious to watch. We found ourselves stuck in several 'Bison jams!'
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