Yellowstone Falls – The (Mostly) True Adventures of Lupe

Day 5 of Lupe’s 2012 Dingo Vacation to the West Coast.

Yellowstone National Park was close to where Lupe was staying on the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River. After a wonderful long day spent out in the Beartooth Mountains going to Beauty and Becker Lakes the day before, Lupe was going to get to tour Yellowstone, the first National Park in the whole world!

Lupe entered Yellowstone National Park at the NE entrance W of Cooke City, MT. The highway followed Soda Butte Creek downstream to its confluence with the Lamar River. As frequently happens in Yellowstone, suddenly there were vehicles stopped ahead on the highway. The cause was soon clear. A herd of buffalo was using the highway, too!

Buffalo approach along the highway unaware that the Honda Element is protected by a ferocious predator.

Lupe was astonished to see the herd of huge buffalo coming right for the Element. This alarming situation demanded immediate action! Lupe’s hackles rose up from her head to her tail. She sprang to the defense of the Honda Element, as it became completely engulfed by the buffalo herd. She leaped wildly from one window to the next barking like a Dingo possessed.

Lupe loves to bark at cows. She may have thought the buffalo were cows. If so, these cows weren’t acting right. None of them ran away. In fact, none of them seemed to pay the least bit of attention to the frenzied Carolina Dog just a few feet away as they ambled by the Element.Lupe was undeterred. She gave it everything she had. She bounded back and forth. She scrunched herself up on the dashboard in front of the steering wheel, barking till she foamed at the mouth. The only real result was that Lanis got battered by a wildly swinging Dingo tail.The buffalo herd passed on by. The proud American Dingo could finally rest. Her barker was totally dry. She needed a drink! Who knew Yellowstone would be so exciting? The place was just swarming with gigantic, dangerous wild beasts!

The proud American Dingo that chased away an entire herd of buffalo and saved Lanis, SPHP and the Honda Element rests satisfied with a job bravely performed. — The proud American Dingo that chased (well, ambled) away an entire herd of buffalo thereby saving Lanis, SPHP and the Honda Element rests satisfied with a job bravely performed.

Lanis turned S at the Tower-Roosevelt junction. Lupe, Lanis and SPHP soon stopped at Tower Falls. Regulations in Yellowstone don’t allow dogs on any trails, or in the back country. Unfortunately, that meant that Lupe wasn’t going to get to see all the glories of Yellowstone up close. The entire time Lupe was in Yellowstone, Lanis and SPHP were going to have to take turns staying with Lupe while the other checked out Yellowstone’s scenic wonders.

SPHP stayed with Lupe, while Lanis checked out Tower Falls.

Tower Falls was nothing to sneeze at, but it wasn’t anything to compare to what was soon coming up a short drive to the S – Lower Yellowstone Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Looking down on Lower Yellowstone Falls from the N rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The Yellowstone River just above Lower Yellowstone Falls rushes toward a clearly (final) class VI whitewater rafting experience! NOT recommended for ages 0-120.

Lower Yellowstone Falls plunges 308 feet into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Don't let a disastrous failure of a poorly conceived and executed erosion control program turn your farm or ranch into this! (Unless you want to be able to sell tickets.) — Don’t let a disastrous failure of a poorly conceived and executed erosion control program turn your farm or ranch into this! (Unless you want to be able to sell tickets.)

An American Dingo wasn’t the only dangerous canine in Yellowstone National Park on this day. Right beside the highway, not far from Lower Yellowstone Falls, a black wolf was non-chalantly sniffing around. At least, it looked like a black wolf to Lupe, Lanis and SPHP. If it was really someone’s lost Fifi, it sure was doing a convincing impression of a black wolf.

Say, there's an idea! Lupe wonders if she might be an even scarier stealth predator as a black Dingo? Think of the possibilities! — Say, there’s an idea! Lupe wonders if she might be an even scarier stealth predator as a black Dingo? Think of the possibilities!

From Yellowstone Falls, Lupe, Lanis and SPHP headed S toward Yellowstone Lake. SPHP stayed with Lupe at several stops along the way, so Lanis could get a look at some geothermal features. Lupe got to see the ones that were close to the highway and visible from parking areas.There were warnings signs for those who thought ideas like whitewater rafting above Yellowstone Falls would be a great experience. Despite the graphic depictions, a buffalo wasn’t too worried about it.Lupe got to visit Yellowstone Lake, a huge natural lake at 7,733 feet elevation. Yellowstone Lake, which has a very interesting shape and would be great fun to explore, is the largest body of water above 7,000 feet in North America. Lupe, Lanis and SPHP waded out to some rocks near the shore for a good look.

Lupe & Lanis at Yellowstone Lake. Lupe tasted the lake. It seemed to be constructed entirely of water.

No trip to Yellowstone is complete without stopping by Old Faithful geyser. Lupe got to see it, too, from a distance.

Old Faithful doesn't disappoint. — Old Faithful doesn’t disappoint.

Old Faithful Inn. Despite being called an Inn, Lupe stayed Outt. — **Old Faithful Inn**. Despite being called an Inn, Lupe stayed Outt.

From Old Faithful, Lupe, Lanis and SPHP headed N toward some other geyser basins along the Firehole River. Poor Lupe was kind of left out, since many of the geysers weren’t close enough to the parking lots or the highway where she could see them. A few were, though. Lupe did get to sniff around near the Element some, and she seemed happy enough with the situation. Lanis and SPHP took turns staying with her.

Excelsior Geyser in the Midway Geyser Basin was a highlight of the geyser basin tour. The Excelsior Geyser was once the largest geyser in the world, but its last known major eruptions occurred in the 1880’s. Back then it spouted boiling water 300 feet into the air. Now it is a large blue pool of water which boils up vigorously at frequent intervals, and then dies down again without really erupting.

The Excelsior Geyser in the Midway Geyser Basin is a steaming hot spring these days.

Water near the boiling point flows at 4,050 gallons per minute from the Excelsior Geyser into the Firehole River.

Lupe didn't get to see the Excelsior Geyser, but she did see the hot water from it entering the Firehole River. — Lupe didn’t get to see the Excelsior Geyser, but she did see the hot water from it entering the Firehole River.

Near the Excelsior Geyser in the Midway Geyser Basin was another very impressive hot spring. Grand Prismatic Spring is best viewed from above, from which vantage point it appears as a large steamy blue sun rimmed with greens and yellows. Orange flames radiate outward wherever water overflows the pool’s edges.

The different colors are caused by different types of algae and organisms that thrive in different temperature bands. It’s hard to get a good impression of the whole from the ground, since Grand Prismatic Spring is so large.

A fiery colored arm of the Grand Prismatic Spring.

Near the Firehole River, Lupe waits for the return of SPHP from the Midway Geyser Basin.

The sun was getting low by the time Lanis and SPHP were done taking tours of the Midway Geyser Basin. There were way more basins, trails and rare thermal features, even in just this little section of Yellowstone National Park, than could possibly be visited in a single day.

The last area Lupe, Lanis and SPHP visited before sunset was the Lower Geyser Basin. Again, Lanis and SPHP took turns staying with Lupe while the other toured the walkways to see fantastic sights found few other places on earth.

The Fountain Paint Pots are steaming, moist mud. Where there is enough moisture, the mud gloops and blurps and bubbles continuously.

Some pretty pools of water steam endlessly away, seldom or never erupting.

Some vents don't have any pool of water at the surface. Steam just hisses out of the ground. — Some vents don’t have any pool of water at the surface. Steam just hisses out of the ground.

The Lower Geyser Basin featured some pretty active small geysers that erupted frequently. The steaming, erupting, sulfuric waters against the setting sun made for a scene that might easily have been from another world.

Why, there's an alien being here right now! — Why, there’s an alien being here right now!

Back at the parking lot, while Lupe waited, the sun sank behind dead trees cooked by a change in the flow of waters heated by the giant Yellowstone caldera. The Yellowstone caldera is the site of a supervolcano which has erupted at intervals of roughly 650,000 years three times in the last 2 million years. The last eruption was 640,000 years ago, so on a geological time scale, the next Yellowstone supervolcano eruption is coming due soon.