Yellowstone National Park – July 6
Old Faithful
So much for planning a picnic lunch – the deli only serves breakfast in the morning (what where we thinking?). No worries, we know that there are several eating options where we are heading. And now that our bellies are full from breakfast it hardly seems a concern now.
We’ve allowed a full day to see Old Faithful. I’m taking my tripod along to see if that makes for better photos – not sure if that will slow us down, but I want to get familiar with my gear and learn how to set it up and move it efficiently. Scott is a good sport and encourages me to take my time and figure this stuff out.
Old Faithful is located on the southwest corner of the lower loop. It is a nice ride over there from the Lodge. I’ve read that it is harder to view this area in the early morning because of all the steam in the chilled morning air. It makes it hard to take photos and sometimes even hard to see things out there.
We stop in at the visitor center and get a trail map and write down the estimated times for the most reliable geysers. We don’t plan on trying to hit all the active geysers at their eruption times because some of them have 2-4 hour windows of wait time. But if we are close to one that is 30 minutes off we will hang around to see if it goes off.
Old Faithful is the most “on-time” of all the geysers so we decide to sit down and wait for that one. It gives us a chance to read up on the area and get a good seat. I set up my tripod and get the camera leveled and all set to go. I was in a front seat off to the side so I was out of the way where no one would sit in front of me. Don’t you know someone steps off the platform and sits right in front of my camera filling half the frame with his head! The geyser starts to bubble so instead of wasting time arguing with the guy I move my camera down off the platform – so now it really is impossible to get in front of me. Once the geyser starts I can’t remember how long it is supposed to last so I’m shooting like a crazy person. I just guessed on how high it might shoot and was happy that it all fit in the frame when it reached its peak. I can see how someone could camp out all day on one geyser just to get a good shot.
After Old Faithful is done the crowd disperses and the bison come in! I guess they like the warm water on their toes.
There is a boardwalk so you can walk around all of the geysers and features. This is a great way to let you get close but not destroy things or get burned. The lodge here is right in front of Old Faithful (big building in back with white roof). I had wanted to stay here, but it was booked. Later when we came back for lunch and saw the crowds we were happy for our quieter lodging over at the Lake Lodge!
The patterns, textures and colors of the life growing in the pools is just fascinating. It is so varied and intricate. Some of it even looks like coral branches!
The yellow, orange and brown colors are actually heat loving microbes called thermophiles. They grow in odd shaped mats and layers depending on the water temperature.
It is hard to believe that each pool is more colorful and textured than the last. I love the ones where you can see caves and tunnels disappearing into the depths.
This is the Chromatic Pool. It had the most intense color of all the pools.
I even liked the all gray stacks. They look like dead volcanoes come back to life! And the variation in size and shape of the thermal vents was fascinating. The sounds and smells added to the experience. Obviously this is not a place to be missed!
We did a large loop and came back down to the cafeteria for lunch. We passed the new visitor center. It wasn’t open yet, but it looked like they were putting the finishing touches on it. The building was just gorgeous.
I was stunned how many people had come into the area since we had started our day! The visitor center was packed inside and out. The area around Old Faithful was overflowing. We had a late lunch so I was relieved to see that the cafeteria was practically deserted. While we were at lunch we got one last look at Old Faithful going off.
Black Sand Basin
We left Old Faithful and continued to drive around the lower loop heading north. There is more thermal activity along here. Don’t Miss Black Sand Basin – there are some larger pools here – and more color.
The size of some of these pools is just amazing! When the wind shifted the steam from this pool totally obliterated the boardwalk that we were standing on.
Midway Geyser Basin
Grand Prismatic Spring in Midway Geyser Basin is the largest, most colorful pool I’ve seen in the park! On the left you can see how small the people look in comparison. This area also has what looks like the deepest pool I’ve seen. Excelsior Geyser (below) is filled with that great blue color.
It is tempting to put all the geyser and thermal photos in here (I took hundreds of images), but I’ll stop now and leave you something to go and see yourself. I would love to come back and see this area in the winter time. I’ll bet it looks just incredible when it is covered with snow! We heard that more animals come into the geyser area for the water and warmth. Sounds like we are already planning the next trip – and we aren’t done here yet!
Firehole Canyon Drive
As we approached the Madison area there was a traffic jam. We decided to do a short loop along Firehole Canyon Drive (this is a one way road). What a beautiful little side trip! We found ourselves in in the forest along the firehole river. One side of the road is sheer road heading for the sky, and the other side of the road drops down into the river. The photo on the left is of Firehole Falls. There is a swimming hole that is feed from a thermal pool at the southern end of this little loop. We didn’t climb down to the swimming hole, but you could see that it was a popular spot – there wasn’t much parking left.
By the time we did this loop the traffic jam was gone so we continued north toward Norris. There was some road construction here, but our timing was good and as soon as we got in line the we were moving through. The road crews have a really limited window to do road repairs out here. And this is a hostile environment for roads! It sounds like you never know what you’ll find when the snow melts! By the signage it looks like they are working on this section 24 hours!
Artists Paint Pots
Our next stop is Artists Paint Pots. It might have been one of my favorite spots of the whole day! First off it is a small site so it is not too busy. There is a nice short walk through the woods to get to the thermal area. We passed through a small meadow with this beautiful purples flowers.
When you look at the photo below you can see the path coming out of the woods – that leads back to the parking lot. So this whole site opens in front of you like a book reaching for the sky. You walk around the site and climb to the top to a most delightful surprise…
…mud! Farting, belching, jumping and plopping mud! We could have watched those mud pots all day long! One side had this mud that was being launched into the air fairly frequently. Big burps of steam followed some of the mud missiles. The other side had thinner mud that was like watching water move in slow motion. The bubbles slowly formed and popped, leaving rings that moved out a short distance before they disappeared. As we left we both were trying to figure out how we could set up a mud fountain in our house – this was truly very entertaining!
Bison, bison and more bison!
After this we decide we’ve had a full day and head back to the hotel. It is early and we are hoping that maybe we can show up at dinner and they will have an opening. You’d think we’d have given up on trying to make any kind of eating plan at this point – but hope springs eternal. Just past Norris the traffic comes to a halt. We start to move forward a bit, but then I realize it is just because people are giving up and turning around. We don’t opt for this because then we’d have to go through the construction zone again (and at the end of the day I’m sure it is equally backed up over there). After almost an hour of speculation – first we think bear, then we wonder if there was an accident. Turns out that a herd of bison were crossing the street, slowly – then crossing back, slowly. And everyone was stopping to take photos (OK, we did that the first time we saw them too). But it’s dinner time and now we wonder if we are going to get back in time for an 9:30 reservation. OK, I admit it, when we got up there we stopped and took photos too (it’s not like the cars in front of us were going anywhere fast)! They really are incredible creatures and this was pretty close. Late afternoon is peak bison traffic stopping activity! We made it back with just enough time to shower before dinner – yeah!
