From Mammoth Hot Springs To Old Faithful

I swear the lady at the front desk said that we’ll be riding with the Tamarac. A real tour bus drove us (and another 20 some people) from the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel up to the snowmobile hut where the road closed for all but snow vehicles only. The snow coach drivers were standing by the hut. I approached one of them and asked her if she was the Tamarac. She took our tickets laughing and said that, yes, indeed she was THE Tamarac. Only 2 days later was Nick able to convince me that Tamarac was actually our driver’s name…






And so we set off for the Old Faithful Geyser area. Our ride was going to be about 50 miles and would take a little over 4 hours, including stops. A heard of bison was lying around on the road in the Swan Flats area. The snow coach moved very slowly trying to get around the animals, and would patiently wait until the animals moved if going around was not an option. During the winter all animals try to conserve energy, so the goal is not to startle them and to avoid making them run.

Tamarac has been working in the park on and off for over 20 years, and bald eagles seemed to be one of her passions. She got all of us trying to spot them while we rode the snow coach. One of the first places we stopped at was near the Roaring Mountain.

Today Roaring Mountain is a quiet thermal feature—a lot of steam rising from many fumaroles in the bulging hillside. However, when it was first encountered, the violent roar of the mountain could be heard at least 3 miles away. The load roaring ceased after an earthquake, which brought about changes to many thermal features in the park.

After a quick stop for bathrooms near Norris Geyser Basin, our drive continued along Gibbon River, and our next stop was by Gibbon Falls. Nick and I remembered stopping here back when we visited the park in 2005.

We passed by a carcass of a bison, that has probably been taken down by wolves no more then 2 days ago. The snow around it was very compacted and lots of tracks have been left around. When we saw the carcass again 2 days later on our way back to Mammoth, there spine has been detached, and hardly anything remained of it all.

Further on, the snow coach turned off onto the Firehole Canyon Drive, which runs along the Firehole River and made another stop so that we could enjoy the view of the Firehole Falls. Along the river we saw several Trumpeter Swans and a few American Dippers—little birds that sit on stones and logs in the shallow rapids and bob in and out of the water searching for food.

When we visited Yellowstone in September 2005, all the elk herds we saw had a single male elk. I expected to see the same now, but it turns out that males and females stay nearby only during the mating season (which is September). So during the winter most male elk stayed solitary, while the female elk walked around in smaller groups.

To see all the photos from this snow coach trip: Helen's photos, Nick's photos.