Yellowstone Day 3: Sightseeing, Gale-force Winds, Early Departure

Our third day at Yellowstone started out as beautiful and picturesque, although windy.  Mammoth Hot Springs is a center of activity with lodges, stores, campgrounds and hiking trails.  We decided to visit a spot with several geothermal features, which can be viewed on foot via a boardwalk, or in a vehicle on a paved loop.  We did a little of both, getting the best of both worlds.

Our original plan was to drive through parts of the park we hadn’t yet gotten to, but the increasing winds demanded our attention.  The problem was that we had set up our canvass tent, intending to be there for several days.  It is our most comfortable tent of the three, overall.  It blocks rain and moderate wind very well, and is the easiest to live in.  You can stand up and move around with plenty of room to spare for gear storage.

We thought it would be wise to go back and check on the tent – as in make sure it was still standing.  The winds were easily 25 mph, gusting to at least 40, possibly higher, and this tent is not designed to withstand that kind of wind.  Our campsite was also situated on top of a hill, with big open spaces and no trees to serve as a windbreak, so it was probable that the winds would be even worse up there.

Upon arriving back at the campsite, our suspicions were confirmed, and the poor tent was really taking a beating.  Nothing was broken, but a couple of poles had slipped out of their proper position and the slackened heavy canvass was flapping vigorously – not a good sign.  We thought we should check on what kind of system was causing the high winds, and if it would be bringing something worse with it.  The NOAA weather forecast called for high winds with gusts up to 60 mph, as well as thunderstorms that would likely produce hail.  Thunderstorms on top of a wide open hill, with us serving as one of the highest points in a tent is not what we signed up for – and a far cry from the weather forecast we got before arriving in Yellowstone.  It would be foolish and unreasonable to stay there unless we had a death wish.  The constant wind was whipping everything about as we packed up our gear.  At one point, a sudden gust threw our folding table off the roof of the Jeep and almost onto my head.  Thankfully Ken’s reflexes and the door of the Jeep deflected the blow, otherwise I might be headless, and that’s no exaggeration!

While declaring that we must revisit Yellowstone, we got back on the road and hoped for better things at our next destination.

In spite of our efforts to dodge bad weather, we drove through some that afternoon for a bit.

It did stop raining eventually, but never really cleared up.

We would spend this night in a warm and dry hotel room before heading toward Glacier National Park the next day.  I did get a few other nice photos earlier in the day, and you can see them here.