The National Museum of Military Vehicles Trip: Day Three
The Last Day: Yellowstone and Home Again!
With no reason to stay in the Tetons, on the morning of September 16, I quickly headed up the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway, otherwise known as US 89/US 191/US 287, to Yellowstone National Park only an hour away. Along the way, I stopped at a convenience store and filled my vehicle with gasoline while purchasing some coffee as a pick-me-up in the Coulter Bay area. Wanting to be home before sundown, I did not spend too much time in Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park. But any visit to the grand dame of national parks would not be complete without a visit to Old Faithful, the most famous of all geysers. Contrary to popular opinion, it does not go off every hour, on the hour, but it is the most predictable of all geysers. Park officials can usually predict an eruption within ten minutes either way. The average interval is about 80-100 minutes. Eruptions can last from ninety seconds to a full five minutes and can vary in height from 106 to 180 feet or more. The time between eruptions as well as the height of the eruptions can depend upon the previous eruption and its expenditure of water and steam. This geyser will erupt, on average, about seventeen times a day, and it can be predicted accurately within ten minutes about ninety percent of the time. Although I had a short, about thirty minute wait, the first eruption was a fizzle, only lasting about two minutes and not too spectacular. So, I decided to wait for the next one, and I was glad I waited.
From the Colter Bay area, it is about a half-hour drive to the south entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The eighteen-mile long Lewis River, which started at the Shoshone Lake, flows south, forming Lewis Lake before merging with the Snake River just north of the Grand Teton National Park border. The drive along US 89/US 191/US 287 roughly follows this river valley, with some mild rapids, before passing Lewis Lake. From there it is less than nine miles to the West Thumb Geyser Basin, which is located at the southeastern corner of what is referred to as “the Grand Loop Road.”
From West Thumb Geyser Basin it is a little less than twenty miles west to Old Faithful Geyser. Without stops, Googlemaps says it should take about thirty minutes to cover this distance. Of course, who can drive through Yellowstone National Park without stopping several times. I can’t.
After leaving Old Faithful, I debated on going up to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, my favorite spot in the park, but I wanted to be out of the park before dark, so I decided that would be another trip. Following what is known as The Grand Loop Road, actually US 191 to West Thumb and then US 20 to Lake Junction allows plenty of views of picturesque Yellowstone Lake. At 7,732 feet, this is largest body of water within Yellowstone National Park and is the largest freshwater lake above 7,000 feet in North America. To put that in perspective, the highest point east of the Mississippi River, Mt. Mitchell of the Appalachian Mountains, in North Carolina only reaches 6,684 feet above sea level. This 136 square mile body of water can reach depths of up to almost 400 (394) feet and will freeze over during the winter, with ice reaching three feet in depth over much of the lake. On a good day it can take about three quarters of an hour to cover the twenty six and a half miles to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Along the way, US-14 E/US-16 E/US-20 E, otherwise known as the East Entrance Road, skirts Sylvan Lake before crossing Sylvan Pass, which at 8,524 feet is the second highest pass in the park, before losing altitude as you approach the East Entrance. From here, this US Highway, known as the North Fork Highway winds for fifty-two miles up the North Fork of the Shoshoni River canyon before ending at the city named for the famous Buffalo Bill Cody. In Laurent Parent’s Scenic Driving WYOMING it’s Drive 5: Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway: Cody to Yellowstone.
A not-so-quick pick-up supper from a Dairy Queen (due to the pandemic, it was the drive-through window only) and I was still on the return trip to Billings before sunset. Wyoming State Route 120 to the border, where it became Montana Highway 72 saw me to the merger with US Highway 310. This in turn took me through the towns of Bridger and Rockvale before its merger with US 212. This famous road saw me to the town of Laurel, from which I was able to access I-90 and the final miles back home.
