Canyon Village and Fishing Bridge, Montana // 18 September
For our first day in Yellowstone we planned to head to the southwest of the park and work our way back north. There’s a lot of distance to cover so we tried to break up the areas of the park into different days. We entered at Mammoth Springs ( the north entrance near Gardiner) and headed for Canyon Visitor Center. All of the main areas of the park are really well serviced with visitor centers, lodges and cafes being one of the USA’s oldest National Parks. When it first opened it was quite an undertaking to visit via horse and buggy and it’s still several big days in a car!
We were lucky to see a herd of elk in the Mammoth Springs area every time we entered and left the park. They seemed to have decided that was the best place to graze for the week. Rangers were always on hand to keep the traffic moving and ensure tourists kept a safe distance. There was a large bull looking after his herd and several of the females had young calves… super cute!
From Canyon Village we headed to Fishing Bridge, on the bank of Lake Yellowstone, stopping at our first steaming springs and bubbling mud puddles on the way.
From Fishing Bridge we stopped along the Yellowstone River and then viewed the falls along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The falls were super impressive and so were the colours on the canyon walls. Lake Yellowstone is the highest elevation lake in the US and also has hot springs seeping through the lake bottom.
The stunning views continued as we followed the canyon back north to Mammoth…
