[You may view a map of Yellowstone National Park in PDF format and a map of Grand Teton National Park in PDF format.]

Had my normal breakfast. There was dull gray light and light snow. It was 38°F (3°C). Worked up a blog entry. Prepped the RV to move. We departed at 9:26 and headed south towards West Yellowstone.

Neither J nor I had taken this road in quite some time, and it was a nice drive.

We entered Yellowstone National Park through the West Entrance at 11:07. (You may view a map of Yellowstone National Park in PDF format.) The snow had stopped and it was brighter. I had some Clif Bars for lunch.

There was a bull elk by the Gibbon River just south of Madison. I dropped J off to photograph him and moved the RV because we had stopped in a "No Parking" zone. By the time I was pulling away, the bull elk was heading off into the woods. I came back and picked up J, then we turned around at the Madison Information Station parking lot and resumed heading south.

We stopped at the Old Faithful parking lot at 12:21. It was mostly cloudy and there was some blue sky between the clouds. J really wanted to photograph Morning Glory Pool which is near Old Faithful, but she needed to look up directions to it on her computer. She printed out a map of the area, then we left at 12:44 and headed back north ...

To Biscuit Basin at 12:53. We took the trail that leads south, away from the Biscuit Basin thermal features. We stopped to photograph a large pool with fantastic formations around the edge. There wasn't a sign with the name of the pool, and based on the map, we thought it was Morning Glory Pool. Later, I discovered it wasn't Morning Glory Pool, and J was disappointed. [I had identified it as Gem Pool and not Morning Glory Pool, and I was later corrected that it was Artemesia Geyser Pool — thanks ls.] Artemisia Geyser pool is very hot so algae doesn't grow around its periphery, and the crystallized mineral formations around the pool are a plain gray. I found it to be very interesting to photograph. The deep blue water was mostly obscured by the steam rising from it (below left), and the mineral formations were fascinating (below right)! We left at 3:29 and headed south.


We continued south at West Thumb at 4:00. There was a solid cloud layer with light snow at 4:15 as we went by Lewis Falls. We exited the park through the South Entrance at 4:30.

We stopped for a flagwoman at 4:35, and she said it would be about a 15-minute wait. Her old dog was in the capped back of her pickup truck. It's ears had been cropped, but the tips were flopping down — quite the amusing sight. We got underway at 4:50 and immediately went onto a wet dirt road.

We entered Grand Teton National Park at 5:03. (You may view a map of Grand Teton National Park in PDF format.) We got onto a freshly-paved road at 5:09 and out from behind the pilot car at 5:11. There was some color on the birch trees as we were approaching Jackson Lake. We kept to the left at Jackson Lake Junction at 5:28. We went through the Mount Moran Entrance Station and turned right (south) on US-89 at 5:34. We went by some pronghorn at 5:47.

We reached the Gros Ventre Campground at 6:08. The campground will close on October 9th. Only one loop was open, and it was almost full. We occupied Site 197. I cleaned off the Jeep windows to get rid of the dirty mist from towing it through the construction zone. Then I downloaded images from today and did a quick edit.

We had dinner at 7:07 of chicken enchiladas and stringy guacamole from the odd avocados we picked up in Alaska. I did the dishes.

I showered, then J showered. I processed an image for the blog, then worked up a blog entry.