Today we drove into Yellowstone again. We left pretty early for us and headed toward Old Faithful, mandatory tourist stop for any park visit. We arrived at the Old Faithful area about 50 miles north of our RV park by about 10:45 and found a pretty good parking space in a lot close to the geyser. By about 11:10 we were safely seated at the edge of the viewing area for this venerable attraction and learned that the 90 minute cycle between eruptions was almost over with the big squirt scheduled for 11:25. Right about on time, the big white hump started spewing steam followed by a great deal of water. This time, the stream of water did not go as high as I remember from the last time I was here. We figured maybe some eruptions are better than others.
We felt compelled to reward ourselves for watching the geyser so we strolled over to the old Yellowstone Lodge not too far away, found the bar and set ourselves up with some nice cold beers. It was a nice bar inside a gorgeous old hotel with an amazing lobby. All the framing is logs and heavy timbers and it is quite striking. Peggy made a quick recon mission into the gift shop but kept the expenditures to a minimum. On the way back to the car, we noted we had phone service and made some calls we were incapable of making from Flagg Ranch where we are camped. Between the beer, gift shop and phone, it was almost time for another Old Faithful eruption so we were treated to another display and the second one was a whopper. Lots of superheated water and foul odors came from the mound and rolled downwind to moisten some of the crowd.
We finally trudged back to the truck and headed northwest to Black Sand Basin where many colorful pools of boiling water, churning mud pits and hydrogen sulfide-laced emanations impressed us. The strange geology of the Yellowstone area offers views (and smells) of the hellfire underground’s effect on the surface and it is pretty amazing. Most of the water that comes out of the ground here flows into the Firehole River so we followed the river to Firehole Lake Drive, home to the Great Fountain Geyser which is a beautiful azure pond of clear water with steam and bubbles erupting from the bottom. They are plainly visible in the pond before they hit the surface and squirt water around and belch foul odors. We continued north on the same section of road to Firehole Canyon Drive which offers views of Firehole Falls and the river as it rips through a rock gorge near Madison Junction, gateway to the west from the park.
We continued a bit further north on the west side of the park before turning around and heading home for the day. Yellowstone is an extraordinary place with abundant big game, lots of little critters and colorful birds, spectacular geology and marvelous flowers and trees. We really have not found anywhere else on our travels that can offer better views of nature than here. There are also many stupid drivers, though, and a dedicated, sharp-eyed driver is necessary here. Brainless, impatient assholes will cross the road directly in front of speedy approaching traffic in order to get a certain parking place even when others are available. Oncoming cars will be noted with half their car in your lane and closing fast on tight corners. We salute this type of approaching moron with abundant horn honking and upraised middle fingers. Some jerks will see one of the thousands of bison here and panic brake to see these abundant creatures, blocking traffic and hope. The park forbids stopping in the road anywhere on Yellowstone’s max-45 mph routes but some arrogant bastards figure everyone can wait on them because they are so special.
We got a few pix and you can see them if you click here