To the east, the sloping shoulder of Roaring Mountain smolders, as countless steam vents send expanding pale white clouds slowly skyward, repeating a scene captured by Ansel Adams in 1942. Where the road bends west, I stop and hike the boardwalks of Norris Geyser Basin, the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone’s thermal areas, before heading west along Madison River to the small town of West Yellowstone.