Wanda’s version of the day:
All packed up and excited to continue the adventure to Yellowstone we were on the road a little after 8am. Even with a few stops for pictures (cuz you know we had to stop at Oxbow Bend again – and take more pictures, see below) we were at Old Faithful by noon.
Finding a parking spot was a bit of a challenge. This place is a flippin’ zoo! And it is HUGE! Eventually we did find the Snow Lodge, which is where we’re staying (not really – we were in one of their cabins) and wouldn’t you know Old Faithful started spewing. We could see it behind the Lodge. So we figured we had roughly and hour and a half until it did its thing again. We checked in (room wasn’t ready but that was okay) and walked over to the cafeteria to grab some lunch. On the way to the cafeteria we decided to call Cari and see if she could bring up the Old Faithful live webcam so we could wave to her. It worked!! That was so cool! Back to the cafeteria … I won’t go into the details but suffice to say it wasn’t great. Expensive and not great. We both got chili – it tasted like it came from a can. Bob got a BBQ chicken sandwich he thought was shredded like BBQ – it wasn’t. It looked like a highly processed chicken patty. We didn’t even touch that thing. Nasty Asty. But as my husband once said many years ago – after we had a nasty asty spaghetti dinner at a Friendly’s, “it’ll fill a void and make a turd.” Yup, that’s about the best thing we could say about that meal. Check that box! (Damn, I just did details anyway didn’t I?)
Moving on, we had less than a half hour to kill before Old Faithful was due to erupt. There was a deck outside of the cafeteria with big ole rocking chairs calling our names. We planted. We had watched the webcam a couple of times and honestly felt like this could be anti-climatic. It wasn’t. It was pretty cool. And the people? THIS is off peak? Wow. It was carazy! Actually the majority of the people came from bus tours. We sat there and just watched as they filed in to watch the wonder.
Upper Geyser Basin trail is a 3.8 mile loop around a ton of geothermal features (geysers, hot springs and pools) including Old Faithful. Over half the world’s geothermal features are in Yellowstone’s Geyser Country, concentrated in 1.5 square miles – over 200 spouters as they are called. The Upper Geyser Basin holds 180 of the park’s 200 to 250 geysers. You may think it would get old walking around all the spouters (and most of them are just steaming, some boiling or spouting more than others) but it really didn’t. It was fascinating.
We were so excited to make it to the Grand Geyser eruption. Grand Geyser is the world’s tallest predictable geyser. It spews every eight hours or so, 150ft – 180ft in the air, for about 12 minutes!! I can tell you, it was majestic! Way more impressive than Old Faithful.
As we continued our walk around the loop, we saw more and more of these things. Nothing as grand as Grand Geyser, but still fascinating all the same.
On the long stretch back to the lodge we found a bench and took a breather. There’s creek that runs through the basin providing even more opportunities for beautiful shots. I get so tickled watching the Japanese in particular. They are so into posing and staging their pictures. There were a couple of guys doing just this across the walkway from where we were taking a break. When they finished I asked if they would like a picture together. Oh yes!! Thanks you!! Immediately afterwards, they insisted on taking one of us together and then one of them with us. It was so cute!
By this point our steps are painfully slower than when we started. Both of us were feeling this nearly 4 mile walk. It was about 4:30 and we were so done. We had to walk at least another 1/2 mile to our car. I was dragging. So we got our cabin number and proceeded to move in for the two nights we’re here. The cabins are rustic, which we knew. That’s fine. We’re here for the location, not accommodations. After unloading the car and resting up a bit we drove over to the lodge for some dinner. Ended up getting some salad to go and eat them in our cabin. I won’t go into details again (promise) but that’s another box we can check. Not impressed. At all. And that, folks, is another wrap for this day.
Videos from today (because sometimes a still image just doesn’t tell the whole story:
Bob’s version of the day:
We left Jackson Hole at about 8am. I decided to let my wife test her skills in the Tetons. She got lost. She couldn’t not find her way. We stopped at several places along the way which we did not take pictures. We then drove up to Yellowstone and we ran into some slow asses (he means slow drivers). We arrived in old faithful at noonish and decided we need to eat lunch and watch old faithful spew into the air. We ate our gourmet chili and went outside and sat in some rocking chairs. And waited for the geyser to erupt. And waited. And waited. And finally it came. And the people came. Buses and buses of people came to see the geyser. They paid a lot of money to see this geyser. After that they left and we decided to do the upper Geyser Basin loop. We walked and we walked and we walked. But we did see some good geothermal features, such as springs, geysers and pools. About half way through my wife called me Peanut because I guess I was slowing down. The high altitude was beginning to take it’s toll. But I struggled through. We saw the Grand geyser erupt which in my view was better than Old Faithful. After that we continued to walk and take various pictures of geysers. On the way back we ran into some Chinese people who took our pictures by a rotted stump. We walked and walked and walked. About 6 miles. Stick a fork in me, my a$$ was done. We then went and spent $38 on box spinach salads with chicken. And we have planned the day tomorrow. Tootoloo.
It's a Wonderful Life! 