Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BEST PLACES IN YELLOWSTONE TO SPOT
WILDLIFE
The following places all offer an excellent chance to get a glimpse of some seriously charismatic megafauna.
Maximize your chances by arriving at dawn or dusk and renting a spotting scope from Silver Gate or Gardiner.
»
Roosevelt Country
The Lamar Valley (
Click here
)
is known as the 'American Serengeti' for its dense popula-
tion of wolves, bison, grizzlies, pronghorn, elk and trumpeter swans; try also Antelope Creek (
Click here
) for
grizzlies and wolves.
»
Mammoth Country
Elk trimming the lawns at Mammoth Junction, bighorn sheep on Everett Ridge between
Mammoth and the North Entrance; wildfowl at Blacktail Ponds (
Click here
)
; moose at Willow Park (
Click here
); bears and wolves in the backcountry Gallatin range.
»
Lake Country
Birdlife at Sedge Bay (
Click here
)
; bison, moose, marmots and waterfowl at Storm Point (
Click here
); springtime grizzlies and moose at Pelican Creek (
Click here
)
; moose around Lewis Lake; grizzlies
around Fishing Bridge in spring.
»
Norris
Elk Park (
Click here
) for, well, elk, as well as bison.
»
Canyon Country
The Hayden Valley (
Click here
) for bison, coyotes and bears; ospreys in the canyon; south
of Mud Volcano (
Click here
) for bison.
»
Mt Washburn
(
Click here
)
For bighorn sheep, black bears and grizzlies.
»
Geyser Country
The Firehole River and Madison Valley for bison.
PORCELAIN BASIN
One mile of boardwalks loop through open Porcelain Basin, the park's hottest exposed
basin. (The name comes from the area's milky deposits of sinter, also known as geyserite.)
The bleached basin boils and bubbles like some giant laboratory experiment and the ash-
white ground actually pulsates in places. Check out the overviews from
Porcelain Ter-
race Overlook
, near the Norris Museum; views that, in the words of Rudyard Kipling,
made it look 'as though the tide of desolation had gone out.'
As you descend from the museum, veer left before the continually blowing fumarole of
Black Growler Steam Vent
, which has shifted location several times in recent years. As
with most fumaroles, this vent is higher than the basin floor and is thus without a reliable
supply of water. Below here is the large but currently inactive Ledge Geyser.
Going clockwise, the boardwalk heads left past
Crackling Lake
, which bubbles like a
deep-fat fryer, and the
Whale's Mouth
, a gaping blue hot spring. The swirling waters of
Whirligig Geyser
became dramatically acidic in 2000, helping support the green cyanidi-
um algae and yellow cyanobacteria that create many of the stunning colors in its drainage
channels. The color of these bacterial mats indicates the relative temperatures of the water,
