Day 25: Yellowstone!!!

Wednesday July 6

The day I have been waiting for has finally arrived.  Yellowstone!!!  We pack a picnic lunch and head together in Ed and Cheryl’s van to the West Entrance of Yellowstone.  We get there fairly early and still there is a lot of traffic.  We decide to do the lower loop today and the upper loop another day.  We drive down Firehole Canyon Drive and see the Firehole River which is flooded and raging past us.  At Fountain Flat Drive we spot our first two bison of the day; grazing not too far from the road.  They are immense creatures and so majestic to see in the wild.  We stop at Fountain Paint Pot, even though there is a huge line of cars in the parking lot waiting to park.  We walk the boardwalk and spot our first up close thermal experiences of the day.  Lexi was really excited to see the boiling mud- this particular one was the result of a 1959 eruption.  We get our first distinct sulfur odor of the day and try to turn every time the wind blows it towards us.  The colors of the geysers are such a rich blue color and stick out amongst the grayish sand/dirt fields.  Mixed in are bright orange bacteria mats.  One can only imagine what is growing in the mats to give off the brilliant orange color but it adds mystic to the area.

Geysers, geysers, everywhere!

We really like Spasm Geyser at the end of the boardwalk.  It is constantly shooting steam into the air and very spread out.  We leave this area and drive to a less crowded part of the park; Firehole Lake Drive and find a few more geysers.  We stop at Midway Geyser Basin and walk the boardwalk.  We come to 2 huge geysers; Excelsior which does not actually shoot off steam anymore but does flow into the nearby river at a rapid rate (500+ gallons per minute).  We continue on to the next geyser and I notice it appears to be shooting colors up like a rainbow.  Come to find out it is Grand Prismatic Spring which is Yellowstone’s largest hot spring.  The deep blue color of the pool and the rings of yellow and orange thermopiles surrounding it give off a prism affect. 

It is nearing lunch time at this point and we head to Old Faithful and decide to eat a quick sandwich in the car (rather than taking the time to find a picnic table far away and miss the eruption that is predicted for 20 min away).  We easily spot Old Faithful as there is a huge sign announcing it AND all the people are congregated around a thermal vent.  There are benches surround Old Faithful almost ¾ of the way around.  We pick a spot and wait.  When we drove in that morning the park rangers estimated the first eruption around 10am.  With eruptions almost every 90 minutes that would put the next one at about 2:30.  Scott predicted 2pm while I figured it was closer to 2:30 but we hadn’t checked back in to find an official time but sitting at the benches, we overhear people talking about 2:20. 

Snow in July!  We had to have a snowball fight!

There is a ton of steam coming out of Old Faithful and we wait patiently.  There is a little activity and a few bubbles of water sprout from the vent.  And then we wait more and more until finally she blows!  It is breathtaking and I find it hard to focus on taking pictures instead of just enjoying it.  Scott is taking video (for the first time on our trip we have brought the Camcorder along).  The show lasts a good 3 minutes at least and there is round of applause at the end.  I sit totally mesmerized by the show and tear up as I realize just how lucky I am to see this.  This is the tops of the trip for sure!

We continue along the Lower Loop road and come to the Yellowstone Lake.  Never have I seen such a beautiful blue green color on a lake.  It looks even better with the snow capped mountains in the background.  We spot snow on the ground and stop at the Continental Divide sign to take a picture and have a snowball fight.  We stop briefly at Kessler Cascades and it is such a pretty waterfall.  Realizing we have little time now before dark sets in and a huge amount of park to cover, we decide to skip some sights along the way.  We stop briefly to see a lone bison standing about 10 feet from the road!  We enter Hayden Valley and the spotting of bison is more common, often groups of 20 or more but none more close than the lone one by the side of the road.  We near the Canyon area and find a road closed to the south rim (we later find out that a male hiker was killed by a bear that morning while protecting her cubs).  We decide to hike into Brink of the Upper Falls Canyon and are rewarded for it.  A gorgeous waterfall with a brilliant rainbow is there.  It is perhaps one of the prettier spots in the park.

We book it out of the park, still some 40 miles away to avoid the wildlife in the park after dark.  We see a lot more bison on the way and still some fishermen in the rivers trying to catch their fish.  We arrive into West Yellowstone just as everyone else is and find a place for dinner.  Earlier we had seen a brew pub so we went there for dinner and enjoyed some pizza.  By the time we got back to the camper it is 9:30 and bedtime.  It has been a great day and we are all tired.  We look forward to returning tomorrow and seeing the Upper Loop of the park.  This part of the park is not as long and encompasses the Mammoth Hot Spring area and we will spend time at the Canyon.  I hope we get to Lamar Valley to the northeast which is great for wildlife viewing.  So far we have seen lots of bison, chipmunks and some birds.  Saw an osprey dart into the river and capture a fish- very cool.