Yellowstone | Southern loop

Updated: Jul 20

Park of fire and water; and perhaps the origin of the end of the world - Yellowstone National Park 28

What and Why

Yellowstone National Park possesses two firsts in history: the first national park in the world in 1872 CE (this might be disputed depending on definition) and the first UNESCO WHS together with 11 others, inscribed in 1978 CE. The park is well known for its geothermal features and extensive wildlife and is so huge (close to 9000 km2, around the size of 15 Singapore (Malay: Singapura)) one should spend at least a week to explore even only the main acts.

Toponymy

See below in the Canyon Village.

See

Yellowstone organises itself approximately like a figure of 8 with the main entrance at the west-side of lower southern loop, called Madison. Most people will take an anti-clockwise from the west entrance and work its way back. The only way you can access is by driving a car as there is no shuttle within the park. Sometimes you will find student-workers, including my own students, hitch-hiking around the park. We shall do a similar round. In this blog, we do the southern or lower loop first.

Old Faithful and Geyser Basins

The focal area of Yellowstone where it houses most of the geysers and amongst them all, the most famous of them is the Old Faithful. It is the most famous, because it is large, though definitely not the largest, and it has been 'faithfully' erupting very regularly every 1.5 hour, although the eruption does vary from 45 minutes to 2 hours from time to time. In the area is also the largest service and recreational area of the park.

Near the area of Old Faithful there are literally hundreds of geysers, and they are divided into Upper, Middle and Lower Geyser Basins, with all geysers being active and erupting at regular intervals. There are signboards telling you when they erupt. All of them are surrounded by very well managed boardwalks.

Old Faithful.

Grand Prismatic Spring

The second most important spot to visit is the beautiful Grand Prismatic Spring, pictured above, which is also the third largest hot spring lake in the world. There is now a very good viewpoint from a nearby small hilltop, which is easily accessible from Fairy Falls Trail. The vivid colours in the spring are the result of microbial mats around the edges of the mineral-rich water. The mats produce colours ranging from green to red; the amount of colour in the microbial mats depends on the ratio of chlorophyll and carotenoids and on the temperature gradient in the runoff.

Geysers everywhere near the Old Faithful basins

West Thumb

Continuing with the loop, one will reach the West Thumb along the humongous Yellowstone Lake, which was a caldera lake formed from volcano eruption. The area contains another big loop of geysers and sapphire-coloured fumaroles and in particular the fishing cone.

It is an urban folklore that visitors, usually dressed like a chef, would fly-fish fresh trout from the lake, standing next to this hole and then dip the fresh trout into the boiling water of the hole. The signs say this is more of an urban myth, but clearly a lot of people have attempted, or pretended to attempt this feat, while damaging the hole around it. Many visitors were reported scalded by the hot water while photographing the nonsense. This is now officially banned and access to the hole is totally blocked off. Next to it, is another similar underwater cooking cone. This cone usually submerges due to high tide.

Along the road you will also find the line and the sign of the Great Continental Divide, which partitions North America into two pieces geologically.

Lake Village

Near the Lake Village, which is along the North end, one would find the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Cauldron. Amongst the famous mud-vent is the Dragon Breath.

Canyon Village

The second largest service area in the Park would be Canyon Village, where one will find probably the most beautiful sceneries in the Park, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The name Yellowstone comes from this site as the Native Americans called this river the Yellow Rock river, due to the brownish sediments along the river bank.

The most beautiful spot would be to walk down the infamous Uncle Tom's Trail, which is an extremely steep steel staircase leading to the mid-level of the water fall. The scene and view at the viewing platform is unsurpassable and is definitely worth a walk. However it must be emphasised with precaution, this is definitely not for the faint-hearted (literally). This is a 328 step-down and then up-return along a narrow steep metallic staircase which even for an athletic person like me, it is a very strenuous hike. The reward is usually a double rainbow across the canyon.

The double-rainbow.

The video from the bottom of Uncle Tom's Trail.

Another view of the same waterfall from the other side.

There are other nice and scenic trails around the canyon, which will always lead you to a good photogenic spot.

Buy and Do

Tonnes and loads of souvenirs in the various shops around Yellowstone, the biggest of them are in Canyon Village and Old Faithful areas.

Eat and Drink

Old Faithful Inn buffet

One of the steals in eateries in the Yellowstone, everyone must try the buffet offered in the Old Faithful Inn. Again one must book early, and even if you do book, you may end up eating at 9:30 pm at night. It offers some of the best prime-ribs and the smoked trout is also damned good, and the price is very reasonable. The atmosphere itself deserves the wait.

Getting There and Around

We flew to Bozeman and after a two-hour drive, you will reach the West Gate. As mentioned, you cannot do anything in the Park without a car. It is important to know that there is absolutely no cellular or global position system (GPS) service signal inside the park, even at the service areas or hotels. It is hence next to pointless to bring a GPS into the Park. However, there is no other access roads other than the figure of 8, and all trails are well-marked and managed, so you have only yourself to blame if you do get lost.

Notice that during winter to spring, many of the north and east entrances are closed.

You can also access the South entrance through Jackson Hole, but you will have to pass through the Grand Teton National Park, which is a great park itself. The drive would be around two hours.