Yellowstone National Park – Day 2 - Geothermal Features
Extravaganza Day – 7/23/15
Rained through the night on our cozy little tent. Jim and I were up before 6:30 a.m., still on Eastern standard time. Still raining. We’d brought our backpacking stove and fuel for simple breakfasts, but here it was our first morning and we abandoned all intentions of roughing it, jumped in the little red fun wagon and headed out in search of coffee. Would you believe it? Too early. So we made our own breakfast after all under the protection of the Visitor Center roof.
We had roughed out plans for our week, but the daily
itineraries were mostly interchangeable, so today became “get the lay of the
land and visit all the geothermal features extravaganza day.” BTW, we realized we couldn’t do everything in
one week, so I spent untold hours scouring resources and narrowing down lists
of “must-see-and-do” while Jim visited one website for 15 minutes looking for
the top 10 things to do in Yellowstone.
His list pretty much confirmed my choices. [The resources used for our trip are the NPS website, maps, and Hiking Yellowstone National Park by Bill Schneider
and Fodor’s Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks by Brian
Kevin.]
Disclaimer: If
you are looking for descriptions of geology in Yellowstone NP, you will not
find such a thing in this blog. Google, friend.
We drove west toward Norris, stopping to look at Virginia Cascade (our first waterfall!) and the Museum of the National Park Ranger
(still too early, but we visited it later in the week).
The impulse to stop every five minutes was
overwhelming. The vastness of Yellowstone
cannot be captured by a camera, although we tried over and over. Bits and pieces, perhaps. We learned quickly to take a few photos,
sure, but walk through the grasses, by the water, in and out of the trees and
just be there.
Monkshood at Gibbon River
Artists Paintpots, a 1.2-mile loop to whet the appetite for hot pools, steam vents and bubbling mud pots.
Artists Paintpots
Still mildly drizzling, next we hiked to Monument Geyser
Basin, a steep climb and a good leg stretcher after yesterday’s traveling. The fumaroles and sinter cones were a little
underwhelming...
… but there was a very nice view of Gibbon River. Can we call this Ribbon River? Like a piece of ribbon dropped on the ground, it winds through the valley.
- Continuing south along the lower loop road, we saw the crowded parking lot for Gibbon Falls and got sucked into the flow – of people.
We drove past Madison, making note that the campground would
be home for a couple of nights later in the week.
At Firehole River picnic area we made a bathroom stop (those
vault toilets are everywhere). The river
gurgles along a short distance beyond the parking lot. Genius idea of the day: let’s lay down by the river and take a
nap! After all, we had no clocks, no
timetable, no one waiting on us.
Refreshed and ready to rejoin the flow, next we visited the
Fountain Paint Pots, a boardwalk nature stroll past hot springs, geysers,
fumaroles and mud pots. A great little
online tour is here.
Silex Spring looks like a plate of glass laid over a turquoise
geode
Red Spouter acting fumarole-like (all steam, no water)
Spasm Geyser’s power was eclipsed by the drama developing
overhead
By this time Jim and I were fully committed to the
geothermal tour and tourists. Next
overflowing parking lot down the road:
Midway Geyser Basin, home of two of the largest hot springs in the world, Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser (now dormant and considered a hot spring). Read a bit more about them here. It's impossible to photograph either one from ground level, especially with thousands of people trying to take selfies without falling off the boardwalk. Later in the week we found a higher vantage point.
Orange bands around Grand Prismatic Spring. Bacteria thrive at different high
temperatures.
Mid-afternoon and the anticipation was at its peak. What else can be next except the bucket list
item we all know and love: Old Faithful! The Disney atmosphere of the Old Faithful
complex would have been daunting if we hadn’t already been immersed in the sea
of humanity and accepting of the fact that all these people were enjoying their
own national park experience.
Front row waiting for the promised 4:11 p.m. eruption of Old
Faithful
Right on time
Although the sky looked lovely behind the geyser, to the left an apocalyptic storm was brewing. Hoping that it would take a little while to arrive, we walked around the main Geyser Hill trail featuring Doublet Pool
Beach Spring
Blue Star Spring
Old Faithful Inn
Overwhelming beauty – how to take it all in? Well, you have to sit back and ponder the
wonders of this world and express gratitude for the vision of influential
people in preserving such places. On the
deck of the Old Faithful Inn, with beers and huckleberry margaritas in hand we
toasted America’s Best Idea.
Another vantage point for watching Old Faithful do her job
After ordering a second round of libations and settling in on
the deck, we met a couple from Philadelphia and a couple from Myrtle Beach, fun
casual conversation comparing notes of time spent in the park. We got the scoop on wildlife viewing in Lamar
Valley and Hayden Valley. Ultra relaxed,
we were very reluctant to leave (the other two couples were staying in the Inn). After grabbing a bite at the Geyser Grill (basic
fast food) we began our long drive back to Canyon Campground. As we passed the parking areas we had
squeezed into throughout the day we saw that, although there were hours of
daylight left, the crowds were gone.
Make a note.
One last thrill for our first full day in Yellowstone: a hot shower as part of our campsite
fee! In the women’s shower room I met a
college age woman named Kelly who had come to the US from the Netherlands on a
student visa and decided to stay as long as possible. Kelly had spent several months traveling to
national parks throughout the West. She
gushed about her experiences and seemed so happy living life. Why didn’t I think of that when I was a young’un?
"To
lie sometimes on the grass on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the
water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of
time." ~John Lubbock
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