Last Year, Part Two

On the way out of the park, I saw a huge herd of bison on the lawns around the buildings in Mammoth. This mother had two calves – this year’s calf is on the left, last year’s is on the right. Mom didn’t seem to care.

This mother only had one and was totally unconcerned about the crowd and the constant click of photos being taken. I guess even bison get used to paparazzi.

The next day, on my way back to canyon falls, I went into the Norris Geyser basin. It was overcast and not easy to see the various features. It was obvious there were a lot of geysers there. A couple of days after I went through, some fool decided he was going to walk across the surface (strenuously discouraged) and fell into some feature. They never found his body, or even his bones. It was too hot for rescuers to try to search. It wasn’t like they could turn a switch and turn off the heat! The place was closed for several days because of this.

Some of the very colorful algae that grows around hot spots and geysers.

A somewhat strenuous hike up to the top of the upper falls (altitude and knee), which included stairs, allowed you to look over the edge of the falls and to see all the water rushing past. It was beautiful, but it could also give you a little bit of dizziness at the same time.

 Colorful algae was abundant around the area.

Then to the top of the lower falls. The same thing as far as rushing water, but it fell a lot longer to continue on through the canyon. The noise of thundering water was almost deafening.

I then went over to Tower Falls. It is near the northeast entrance to the park. It was busy but it was a very easy walk to take pictures. There were trails that led to closer views of the falls.

On the way home, I stopped at the recently completed road work through the Roosevelt Arch. The 100^th anniversary of the NPS was going to be celebrated here sometime in August. Rumors were that Obama was planning on attending, but it turns out it was just a rumor and it didn’t happen.

Enough for today.