We decided we had to stop to see Yellowstone Lake, and after a short walk through some sagebrush we found a nice spot on a pebbly beach. Yellowstone Lake is like an inland ocean guarded by mountains. After hanging out on the beach for a while, we got back in the car and drove to Kepler Falls. The 100 to 200 foot cascade was already shrouded in shadow as the sun began its rapid dive into the mountains. We watched the sunset from a small observation platform suspended over the valley. In the colorful twilight of Yellowstone, we continued our drive to Madison, yet even as the sky began fading to an inky black we found another excuse to pull off of the grand loop. Our headlights flashed across a sign that read Biscuit Basin as we approached a field full of eerie steam geysers that were still visible in the last traces of twilight. We stayed there until the stars punched through the night, before finally completing our drive to Madison to our campground.
We cooked Ramen in a small tin percolator, which also served as a strainer and communal eating vessel next to the first campfire that Pri constructed. As we ate, we decided to spend half of the next day at Yellowstone, and then drive directly to Redwood eliminating Mount Hood from the itinerary. This night was warmer than the last, and we were more tired, so we fell asleep quickly.
The next morning we got up and broke camp and were on the road by 9:30. We sped to the mud pots. These freaky geothermal anomalies are difficult to describe. Imagine a large pond of mud, bring it to a boil complete with steam, and you have a mud pot. We explored a short steam-worn boardwalk through several unique mud pots, one of which had a periodic eruption of steam that sounded like an angry creature hiding in the adjacent hillside. We left with our geologic perception expanded toward the even stranger and more beautiful idiosyncrasies of Yellowstone.
[adam]
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