We headed out a little after 8am this morning in the direction of the Fountain Paint Pots (Lower Geyser Basin) area. It’s another walking trail around geysers, boiling mud pots and colorful pools. Before we even got to the walkway we could see a couple of bison just hanging out behind the trees. Pretty cool stuff. All this heat, steam and boiling water and mud is unreal. I took pictures, of course, but you really get the impact from the videos (which I will upload when I get home – the wifi and cell service here sucks.)
From there we went to the Midway Geyser Basin which holds the Grand Prismatic Spring. (Squirreling here – these tour buses are freakin’ everywhere!! It makes parking impossible. You literally have to wait in a line of vehicles until someone leaves to get their spot. And then there can be another 4-5 buses doling out a minimum of 50 people each. And this is off peak!!! We just can’t get over it. So now when we’re looking up places to visit we get really excited about spots that specifically say, “Buses, RVs or trailers prohibited.”) Now back to your regularly scheduled program … This pool is over 300ft wide and 120ft deep. It’s the park’s largest and deepest spring. After a while they all tend to start looking alike (especially in pictures) but this one definitely stands out with its size and colors. They built an overlook to make it easier to really see since standing on the ground doesn’t quite cut it. During the walk a trio of bison decided to relocate and walked right next to the boardwalk much to the delight (I assume anyway) of those beside them. I would have thought it was neat!
Below is a shot of the Prismatic Spring from the overlook. How cool is that?
Our last stop this morning was Black Sand Basin. Here lie more geysers, pools and springs. It seemed like at least one of them was showing off at all times.
Videos from the day:
By the time we finished these three stops it was well past lunchtime. So we came back to find something to eat – not an easy feat around here. The Old Faithful Snow Lodge has a Geyser Grill we had planned to try. Oh hell no. It was worse than a MacDonald’s with 5 soccer teams eating at the same time. We just turned and hightailed it outta there. So we thought we’d try the dining room at the Old Faithful Inn. The line for that wound half way through the lobby. We ended up in the bar called the Bear Pit. It actually was the best meal we’ve had since we got here. It was pint time and bison burger time.
After lunch we walked out to the area where the webcam is right in front of Old Faithful. Called Heidi and waved to them while they pulled it up online. So much fun!! We also did a little shopping this afternoon. Came back to the cabin and chilled until dinner time.
Okay, it’s dinner time. We really didn’t feel like fighting the dining room at either place (Old Faithful Inn or Old Faithful Snow Lodge). The salad we got from the Snow Lodge last night was not enticing enough to give them another try and we were pretty much told at check-in if we didn’t have a reservation for the Inn we wouldn’t get in. We really didn’t want another bison meal at the Bear Pit either – they don’t have an extensive menu. So believe it or not, we went back to that blasted cafeteria. I had picked up a salad yesterday for lunch and put it back, so we were thinking that may be the best choice we’d have tonight. Guess what? They didn’t have any. I ended up with a spinach/bacon/mushroom/boiled egg/red onion/black olives salad. Bob grabbed a sandwich. We walked all over that dining room looking for a clean table to sit at that wasn’t in the sun. It was crazy. The place was completely trashed. I guess they only had one person bussing all of these tables – it’s huge dining room. I mean really, if you can’t have enough people to property and timely buss tables then have receptacles for guests to bus their own tables. This isn’t rocket science. My salad could’ve been worse. But it wasn’t great – not sure how you can mess up a salad. Bob took about three bites of his and couldn’t stomach any more. The entire experience has left a really bad taste in our mouths – pun intended.
You know, our expectations when staying inside national parks is fairly low. It’s all about location, not amenities. I can deal with no wifi, bad cell service, rustic (really rustic) cabins, no tv’s or phones in the rooms, etc. Bad food is not on that list. I totally get having fast food available for people who need or want it. But this? I can say we have checked this box. Not saying we’ll never come back to see Old Faithful again, but I can say we’ll never stay here again. We’re just ready to pack up and hit the road. Heading to Mammoth Springs tomorrow.
Bob’s take on the day:
Today was day 7 of our 12 day vacation. And the word of the day is geothermal. The alarm went of at 6:30am and we were out by 8. Looking for more geothermals. We decided to start furthest north and work back south so we would have less of a drive back to the cabin when we were done. First thing we did was went up to Fountain Pots which took maybe an hour. There we saw buffalo and bus loads of people. After that we drove down Firehole Lake Drive where we saw a buffalo and a coyote. After this we went to Grand Prismatic Spring area and looked at some colored pools with the buffalo. But once we got there it was very crowded. More buses of people. But after that we went and did a hike up to the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook which was amazing. See my picture below. We want to frame this. I’m going to commission an artist to paint it. LOL After that we went to Black Sands Basin – not impressed. They all look the same. At this point we are geothermaled out. To celebrate we went and ate bison burgers and drank local micro brewed craft beer in the Bear Pit lounge at the Old Faithful Inn. We did almost 7 miles today. Onto Mammoth Springs tomorrow.
It's a Wonderful Life! 