| Norris Geyser Basin
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I originally booked a three-night stay in West Yellowstone, but to return a day earlier,
replaced the third night here with a stay outside the east end of Yellowstone.
So we packed up, checked out, and crossed through Yellowstone for the last time on this trip.
Our first stop was Norris Geyser Basin
to see
geysers in the Porcelain Basin,
then others in the Back Basin
such as Steamboat Geyser and (smelly) Veteran Geyser.
When we drove north of Norris on the 142-mile Grand Loop,
we were surprised to encounter substantial road construction
with a long, controlled one-way section of dirt road.
This delayed our next arrival by at least a half hour.
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| Mammoth Hot Springs
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When we arrived at Mammoth Hot Springs, we brought the children to the Visitors Center
to complete their Junior Ranger badges.
Then we had lunch at the Mammoth Hotel Dining Room,
before hiking onto the Hot Springs to take pictures.
We returned to the hotel area to buy a few last souvenirs from Yellowstone and
ice cream.
When we returned to the car numerous deer were grazing on nearby grass, allowing us to
see this wildlife up close.
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| Crescent Hill
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We continued navigating Grand Loop towards the eastern half of Yellowstone.
Visually the volcanic nature of the area is not as obvious,
giving way to a rolling landscape of fields and trees.
Evidence of past forest fires was clear.
Meanwhile the rest of my family napped.
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| Washburn Hot Springs
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We passed by Tower-Roosevelt.
Had not lost so much time to road construction,
we may have had time to explore Lamar Valley to see wildlife, to the northeast, like we planned.
Instead we continued around Yellowstone's northern Grand Loop to
drive through miles and miles of forest.
I thought it was great driving.
Here I stopped at a lookout over Washburn Springs while my wife and children napped.
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| Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
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We passed by Canyon Village so that I could drive the
North Rim Drive to see some spectacular views of the
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
The size and steepness is reminiscent of
the real
Grand Canyon, but
smaller but surrounded by rhyolite and many more hydrothermal features.
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I took pictures from Lookout Point while my family, not knowing there was more to see, napped,
but when I returned they awakened and wanted to see the view.
Only then they appreciated why I wanted to stop here.
A breathtaking panoramic view of the canyon and Lower Falls convinced them.
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Then we stopped at Grand View to enjoy the another view of the Canyon
one last time.
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| Mud Volcano Area
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Continuing south, our final major geothermal site to visit was the
area around the Mud Volcano, a
bubbling mass of mud.
Here the smells of Hydrogen Sulfide are
very pungent.
We also saw the Mud Caldron and Dragon's Mouth Spring,
which sounds and smells like a fire-breathing dragon as the water
surges in and out of the rock fissure.
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The area is also well known for sightings of Bison.
After we drove south we saw many Bison grazing in the surrounding grasslands.
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At one point we found a place to park just south of LeHardy's Rapids so we can watch and take pictures of
Bison safely on the other side of the Yellowstone River.
Bison are known to charge at humans if they get too close.
My daughter wanted to take many pictures.
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| Fishing Village
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Continuing on the Grand Loop, we passed
by the Fishing Village to head east.
Again we dealt with more road construction.
We pulled over at the Fishing Village Visitors Center to
have one final bathroom break before leaving the Park.
We knew there was the last opportunity.
We drove east on highway 14 towards the east entrance of Yellowstone.
It was a beautiful curving drive, first along the coastline of enormous Yellowstone Lake, then
up into the hillsides where we could see past forest fires.
Soon we were on Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Highway,
and down we went through the valley.
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| Yellowstone Valley Inn, Wapiti, Wyoming
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| Time | Event | Range Remaining |
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| 8:35 am | Departed West Yellowstone | 238 |
| 8:23 pm | Arrived Grand Lodge at Brian Head | 78 |
Range/Distance ratio: 0.963
Conditions: Mostly Downhill
A few more miles beyond Wapiti proper,
we arrived at
Yellowstone Valley Inn.
We checked in, unpacked, had dinner, showered, and settled in for the night.
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I found
this Inn via Plugshare,
where it is clear many Tesla's have visited before.
With a few NEMA 14-50 outlets on the property, this is the best charging for a hundred miles.
The staff seemed like they understood the needs of electric cars.
The closest outlet to our room was behind the restaurant.
It was definitely an out-of-the-way place, but most importantly
this made possible our jumping the gap between Yellowstone and the Supercharger in Sheridan, Wyoming,
to return home a day sooner than using the string of Superchargers on I-90 in southern Montana.
Cost to Charge: $0
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Dean E. Dauger holds a Ph. D. in physics from UCLA, where his group
created the first Mac cluster in 1998. Dr. Dauger is the award-winning
author in multiple American Institute of Physics' Software Contests and
co-authored the original, award-winning Kai's Power Tools
image-processing package for Adobe Photoshop.
After founding his company,
Dauger Research, Inc., its debut product,
Pooch, derived from Dr. Dauger's experience using clusters for his
physics research, was soon awarded as "most innovative" by IEEE Cluster
and continues to revolutionize parallel computing and clusters worldwide
with its patented technology.
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