Retired Nomads: Old Faithful & Upper, Midway & Lower Geyser Basins - Yellowstone NP

August 2

Happy Birthday to my exceptional granddaughter, Erika! Hope you had a wonderful day!

We were up at 5:00 to make the hour drive to Yellowstone. It’s not all that far, but very slow speed limits in certain spots for wildlife watch areas and construction made it a slow but beautiful journey. We followed along the Shoshone River and passed through Buffalo Bill State Park and then the very dramatic scenery through the Shoshone National Park before coming to the east entrance to Yellowstone Park.

Once we were officially in Yellowstone, it took about another hour to get to where Old Faithful is. (the park is huge – it’s larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined.) Each of the 4 major areas require a day to see and additional time to really explore if you want to hike a lot of the trails.

We saw 2 elk up on a hill on our way in. The first thing we noticed was the large number of dead trees both standing and fallen on the drive from the east entrance. Mostly Lodgepole pines that didn’t appear to be burned from fire (we saw some later that were from fire). When fire isn’t the reason it’s usually that they just died of old age or beetles.

We also noticed on the drive that some of the mountains still had snow on the highest parts. While some of the white lower is just the color of the rock, there definitely were some areas in crevices near the top that still had snow.

small waterfalls along the road in

elk - female

both elk on top and you can see some of the dead trees

We headed straight to Old Faithful which was predicted to erupt soon. We oddly got front row seats and in less than 10 minutes she erupted. I’m sure which way the wind blows effects the view you get. The steam was mostly covering the water shooting up, so it looked a lot less impressive than expected. It also doesn’t last all that long. While not the most beautiful or spectacular eruption, it is the most predictable. Back in the 50’s she went off about every hour, it is now about every 90 minutes. We took video, but haven't had time to put even look at it. I'll post it sometime in the future when we get it done.

she's just starting to spit some water and steam

From there we walked the boardwalks along the Upper Geyser Basin. It was a beautiful sunny day so that helped see all the beautiful colors. I was also over-dressed. I haven’t mentioned the temperature, but the mornings have been in the low 40’s and I put on jeans. It warmed up considerably and my jeans were way too hot for the walk in the sun. I had a t-shirt on instead of an SPF shirt I should have had on and got sunburned around my neck and collar area. (I had a sweatshirt on over it earlier and was still cold when we started out)

Foxhole River

at the top of the walk you can look out over the whole area

Beehive Geyser

Doublet Pool

Spasmodic Geyser

Tardy Geyser

American Robin

Beauty Pool

Giant Geyser

Grotto Geyser

Riverside Geyser

Riverside Geyser - erupts for around 22 minutes!

Riverside Geyser

Morning Glory Pool

Castle Geyser

Biscuit Basin

Sapphire Pool

Shell Spring

Avoka Spring

Black Pearl Geyser

bacterial mat

After finishing the walk we stopped into the Visitor's Center and then drove to Midway Geyser Basin. We got off at what we thought was the stop for the Midway Geyser Basin, for the Grand Prismatic Spring. It turned out to be a hike to an overlook of the Spring and if you wanted to hike a couple more miles you could go to a waterfall. No signs explaining how long the walks were. There was an alternate trail that was steeper, but way shorter that we wished we had found first. We heard someone else tell a group that it’s faster to go up this trail. It just said trail with no explanation of where it went. The view from the top was worth the hike. Wow!

Mountain Bluebird

Grand Prismatic Spring

bridge on the way there and back

To save time in the park we packed a picnic lunch. It was windy where we were, so we ate in the car.
We then drove to the next stop which was the boardwalk out to the Spring. Beautiful from both vantage points.

Excelsior Geyser Crater

Excelsior Geyser Crater to Grand Prismatic Spring - Bacterial Mat

Grand Prismatic Spring

We then drove to the Lower Geyser Basin.

Firehole Spring

Surprise Pool

Great Fountain Geyser

White Dome Geyser

Fountain Paint Pots

Fountain Paint Pots - mudpots

Clepsydra Geyser

Plateau of Fire

people swimming in the calm area

Gibbon Falls

Chipmunk

We stopped at the Canyon Village for dinner. It was a diner type place in the General Store. We got a beeper and waited to be called. As we waited the half hour for our stool at the counter, the line grew out the door and was well over an hour wait.

We ordered a Bison & Elk burger and a regular hamburger and spilt them so we each got to taste both. Both were very good, but the Bison & Elk burger was the best. Our server was from the Dominican Republic. We have noticed that in many of these seasonal areas they import people from all over to work there. In ND at the Fondue Steak place one girl was from Cape Town. We said we were going there next year. She asked where we were from and we told her Port St. Lucie area in Florida and she said that’s where I work in the winter. Actually, Stuart which is a short distance from there. Too funny.

lone bison

Canada Geese

lone bison

We almost got to see a bear on the way out. People were stopped and when we got out of the car they said it just moved out of site.

To be honest this part of the park felt like being at Disney World. So many people and lines everywhere. There were areas that you had to wait a half an hour just for a space to open up to park your car. It's a beautiful site and of course you have to see it, but you need lots of patience to deal with all the people that think they are the only ones there, walk right into you or shout loudly at all stops.

It was almost 10:00 when we got home. I made a picnic lunch & dinner for tomorrow and we showered & went to bed for another 5:00 start.

Tomorrow we plan to focus more on scenery and finding animals.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DMiJU8fm1eSKQ2zj6

Retired Nomads

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Old Faithful & Upper, Midway & Lower Geyser Basins - Yellowstone NP – Day 1

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