Monday, June 15th, Geyser Day!

What a good day! We started by sleeping in a bit, since we had not had much chance to rest up on the long drive to Yellowstone. We were out the door by 10:00 and off to the park.

Our hotel is very close to the entrance, in West Yellowstone. It’s the Alpine motel, a cute little place family owned and operated. They are very nice, and have added several amenities, but two things we have noticed: the walls are paper thin and there are two young (noisy) boys living just a thin double door away. We were woken by their shower at 7:30! Second, the internet service is very spotty. I think they are using a satellite connection because there are times when there is simply no access , and it coincides with the Direct TV going out. There are lots of clouds in West Yellowstone, and they block satellite connections. But otherwise, it’s a nice place to stay; within walking distance of all the shops and restaurants eager to part you from your money.

After waiting in line to get through the entrance (it did seem a lot like going through the parking entrance at Disneyland), we took a few side roads, and then got caught in Bald Eagle traffic. There is small section of the entrance road with signs saying, Don’t Stop Here: Bald Eagle reclamation area, or some such, and of course everyone stops there. I have yet to see the Eagles but both Amy and Cheryl attest to them.

We took another side road down the Firehole River canyon. That was well worth it! Several waterfalls and cascades (go to the bathroom first, they make you want to pee, and all the rest stops were closed for repairs)! When we came out the other end, I looked back up the road and there was a huge traffic jam that we had bypassed, with flashing lights and traffic. Whew! Turns out there was a large herd of bison walking up the road with their young. Very Cool! We saw the Bison and we missed the traffic, and the word was, it was more than an hour wait. The rangers were actually herding the bison to get them out of the road, but because it was a narrow gorge area, there was nowhere for them to go. We watched as long as we dared, and then drove on. We got some good photos and saw them very close indeed through the binoculars (it was scary close!).
We then meandered through several Geyser Basins: Lower, Mid, Firehole lake, Fountain Paint Pots. We got lots of pictures and saw several of the smaller Geysers going off. My favorite, I think was the smaller Fountain Geyser: it seemed playful.

We eventually made our way to the Old Faithful area. Boy is it ever commercialized with huge souvenir emporiums. The visitor center is under construction and the make-do one is in a portable trailer, and it was not worth stopping at, other to get the prediction times for Old Faithful. I thought we had 10 minutes to go, but then discovered my Cell phone cum watch was still on Central time. Oops. So we walked around the back side of Old Faithful and hiked up half a mile and 200 feet to a viewing platform and watched it from there. That was very cool, and well timed. We had about a 15 minute rest before the Geyser went off, and it was a particularly nice eruption. We have some nice photos from there. We then hiked to the Solitary Geyser. That was funky. It was a little hot springs, that every 5 minutes had a burst of water that went up about 5 feet or so. It was worth the hike. We then hiked around Geyser Hill, and down to Beehive where we sat down and waited for Old Faithful to go off again. Beehive spluttered teasingly every couple of minutes but didn’t really erupt. It’s supposed to be pretty fun to watch. We then hiked down towards Castle Geyser and environs, and by then we were beat.

Side note: There were little geysers going off all the time, all over the place. I do not understand why so many people trek all the way to Yellowstone and then leave quickly after the eruption is half over and go back to the shops and the concession stands. Amazing. You can witness people doing this on the Old Faithful webcam. They don’t even wait for the eruption to conclude. It’s like leaving during the 8th inning or something. If you walk around Geyser hill and beyond, you leave the crowds behind and really have a good time.

We ate at the Cafeteria that overlooks Old Faithful and saw it go off a third time! We were all very hungry and very tired by then and it was a nice end to the day. Amy had Sushi and I had Buffalo meatloaf. It was a bit pricey, but perhaps about what you’d pay for a similar meal at Disney.

On the drive home the rain, that threatened all day, finally arrived and we had a spectacular rainbow! Great end to the day!