Sunday July 10
Sun morning we head to the 10am IMAX show of Yellowstone. We loved the Grand Canyon Imax and figured Yellowstone would be just as good. It was disappointing. I was hoping for more pictures of Yellowstone itself (and esp. the wildlife) but the movie focused on the exploration of the park. We decide to come back and shop at the Yellowstone Trading Post (where the IMAX is) after a day at the park. We head towards the park ranger station at Madison in the park to listen to a program for Isabella’s junior ranger program. We get there in time to listen to the end of a program on bison. They can live up to 13 years. Our program is led by a young woman discussing animal communication. We learn about the 3 ways animals communicate: vocally, body language and scents. She plays some fun games where the kids have to act out an animal instinct or desire- such as hungry or needing Mom. Then we play a game where we have to match the scents inside our film canister with another person; just like a baby and Mom would do. I asked about the lone bison we see over the park and find out they are the males. The females and babies (up to 2 years old) live in herds of about 50. They are beginning to migrate to Hayden Valley for mating season. In 1995, the park introduced 5 wolves back to the park and today there are 93 living in the park. They have learned to stay within the park or they will get shot once they leave the park.
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| Old Faithful! |
We continue on to Old Faithful, where Lexi wanted to go again. We get there about 1:30 and the eruption is predicted for 1:48 +/- 10 minutes. We park in the last row of the parking lot and book it to the geyser area. We are almost there when Old Faithful erupts. It is still beautiful the 2nd time around. I don’t think the eruption is as high this time around and it is about 12 minutes early- not so predictable. I am amazed at how quickly people leave the area, even before she is done erupting. We had front row seats before and this time we are standing in the back so I noticed this a lot more and it really bothered me. We run into the visitor’s center so Lexi can buy something. We head back up to Madison now; stopping at Firehole Lake Drive, where Scott wanted to go again. We stop at several geysers along the way to take pictures. There are people congregated around one geyser that does not have a predicted time to erupt today but I overheard the park ranger tell people that if they saw steam coming out of it, there was a 1-2 hour wait after that before it erupts. We don’t feel like waiting for it so go onto Artist Paint Pots.
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| A close encounter! |
Artist Paint Pots is advertised as a .3 mile walk so we head on. The walk is a lot longer than that and people along the way tell me “it’s not worth the walk” but we continue. There are several geysers shooting steam up and once above the area, you notice all the colors and “holes” that truly do look a painter’s palette. The most exciting part is on the boardwalk above where mud is boiling. It is a very light color mud and keeps gurgling up. You can see where it has jumped onto the boardwalk in several spots and left stains.
From there we continued on to the Norris Geyser area, the only other area of the park we have not been to. A lady told us in the parking lot that Norris Geyser is erupting after no activity for 2 days so we are anxious to see it. We later find out this is Ledge Geyser which has not had a major eruption since Aug 2009. It spurted water for 20 minutes and then the steam will keep going for 24 hours. We saw the steam and could hear the geyser! We also walked up to Steamboat Geyser (the tallest in the park) and it was spraying water about 20 feet high. The tall eruptions are infrequent but the smaller ones like what we saw are more frequent. By now it is getting late and we return to West Yellowstone. Along the way we see a herd of bison along the road with babies! The babies are about the size of a calf and much lighter colored than their Moms. It is so neat to be right next to them. We also see 6-7 elk along the river. We took a scenic drive by the river.
We have been on the road for 4 weeks now and seen so many new things. The girls have begun to talk about going home more and seeing their friends. I have told them they can spend Mon with their friends while I unpack and do laundry and they loved this idea. We have traveled some 5300 miles. So far Scott and I love Yellowstone the most and we’re glad we had so much time there to explore. He is talking about making another trip and returning to the area so we can take a vehicle (not towing the camper) through Bear Tooth Pass in Montana and then going up to Glacier and over to Yosemite. Not sure we will be able to get the kids enthused for another trip anytime soon.
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