Monday, June 3rd was our much-anticipated trek down to the Lower Geyser Basin and Old Faithful. We tried waving at the webcam so Aunt Tracy, Uncle Tommy and Uncle Skip could spot us, but I'm not sure they ever did!
We had to check out the famous Old Faithful Inn.
Chris and I would love to stay there sometime!
We grabbed some seats to see the world's most famous geyser erupt.
Then, antics from Papa and Pandy. #dadjokes
The kids wanted to earn their junior ranger badges as quickly as possible; the last part Noah needed to complete was timing Old Faithful's eruption and predicting the next one. As soon as he finished, he made a beeline for the visitor center to earn that patch!
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| Noah earned the highest level, the bison patch with the red trim. |
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| Audrey earned the geyser patch with the blue trim! |
Noah's prediction for Old Faithful's next eruption exactly matched the visitor center's prediction!
Old Faithful is just one of many geysers and other geothermal features in Yellowstone, and even in the Lower Geyser Basin.
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| Blue Star Spring |
As we began to walk the path to see more hydrothermal features, we spotted some bison. Unfortunately, some other tourists who were unenlightened saw them as well, and wanted some photos with them. We were kind of thinking we might see quite a scene, but a park ranger yelled at the tourists not to get any closer just in time.
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| Castle Geyser was steaming |
We sat down near some geyers that weren't doing much, but we were treated to a show by the yellow-bellied marmots that lived there!
Another geyser we were lucky to catch was Riverside Geyser. It is beautiful!
One of my favorite sights, Morning Glory Pool.
Ominous rainclouds rolled in as we were finishing up in the Lower Geyser Basin. We really hoped to stop and see Grand Prismatic on our way back up to camp, so we tried to wait out the storm in a parking lot but finally gave up. After driving maybe 45 minutes north, the skies cleared and I talked Chris, Jamie and Drew into going back to see Grand Prismatic, since it would really be our only chance. We turned around and headed back to see it! The parking lot was packed so we parked off the road and hiked to the boardwalk, only to find that we could not see ANYTHING due to the steam. Literally, could barely see the person in front of us. Both Excelsior Geyser Crater and Grand Prismatic were completely obscured by the steam coming off of them. I didn't get my camera out in that moisture, but I had to snap a photo of Drew!
Here's what we "saw" that day through all the steam... aerial view, of course. So bummed that we couldn't actually see this!
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| Grand Prismatic Spring |
Still, returning back to camp, we made a stop at Roaring Mountain, covered in vents and constantly steaming.
We also drove through the Hoodoos of Yellowstone, massive boulders and columns of rock that have fallen from Terrace Mountain over the years.
Back to camp we went for a good night's rest after a full day!
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