On our second day of Yellowstone awesomeness, we woke up fairly early, so we made a stop at some overlooks on the drive in to watch the baby buffs, and then we took a detour through Madison Campground and knocked off a lot of states in our license plate game, all on the way to meeting up with Grandpa and Grandma at Grand Prismatic Springs. We wanted to hike to the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook, but alas, it was closed because of bear management. Bummer! So we walked on the boardwalk right next to Grand Prismatic, which really wasn't much of a view, especially since it was a crisp, beautiful, steamy morning. But, as usual, it didn't really matter, because we were in Yellowstone and it was wonderful! ;) After our walk, we drove back down the road to see if we could spot any wildlife (just a few bison).
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Before they met us at Grand Prismatic, Paul snapped these
pics of bison at Old Faithful, basically just outside his
cabin door. |
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Lots of baby buffs out there in the field - I think we
counted 11+? |
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| Oh what a beautiful morning! |
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| They say this is Grand Prismatic Spring. |
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| Grand Prismatic boardwalk on a bluebird day. |
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| I just love those colors! |
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| Opal pool. |
We headed back to Old Faithful after watching the bison for a minute. We visited the cabin Grandma and Grandpa were staying in and caught our first (of five! (spoiler alert!)) eruptions of Old Faithful. Then we made our picnic lunch in our car and ate on the patio of the lodge (we were parked right next to it! Perk of being in the park in mid-May before the crowds show up!). After lunch we wandered down toward the Old Faithful Inn and were able to watch our second eruption of OF.
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| The river behind the cabins was so lovely! |
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| Thar she blows! |
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Outside the Yellowstone Tribal
Heritage Center there was a cool
tipi to check out. |
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| Old Faithful #2 of our day. |
We followed the pathway around the back of Old Faithful and continued on through the Upper Geyser Basin, enjoying the pools and rivers and geysers and colorful rocks. And the sunshine! While we were walking, we also saw our eruption #3 of Old Faithful from a great distance. We were hot and tired by the time we made it back to the Inn, where we hoped to get a nice cold ice cream cone, but the deli that serves ice cream cones there was closed! We tried the Lodge (no ice cream there until later in the season) and finally found the long, long line of ice cream seekers in the General Stores. Our legs were beat, but the ice cream made everything better.
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| Hardy little pretty yellow flowers. |
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| Spasmodic Geyser was aptly named. |
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This one must be big when it errupts - check out those
bleached trees on the hill! (I think it's Giant Geyser?)
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| Brave and tough flowers. |
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| Chromatic Pool - such vivid colors. |
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| I think this is Daisy Geyser in the distance. |
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| I just love the colors! |
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| Grotto Geyser is such a cool formation. |
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| Bench break in the shade! |
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Morning Glory Pool - we learned from a sign
that the colors are fading and changing due to people
throwing all kinds of garbage into the pool, clogging the
vents, and changing the temperature of the water
so different bacteria are growing than a hundred years ago. |
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Sam was not really into having
his pic taken, so I said everyone
should just have grumpy faces.
Sam and Gregg are the only
ones who got the memo. |
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| Grotto Geyser again, from another angle. |
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| Castle Geyser |
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| Old Faithful Inn at last! |
After our ice cream, we had about an hour before our dinner reservation, so we sat on a log in the shade, watched one more eruption of Old Faithful, and the kids worked on finishing up their junior ranger booklets. Then they went to the Visitor Center to get their badges and take the oath. Then we ate a delicious buffet dinner in the Inn (what a fun treat, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa!), browsed the gift shop, and relaxed on the chairs on the second floor of the Inn while listening to some live music. So delightful! We headed back out to catch our fifth eruption of the day (there was one more that went off while we were at dinner that we didn't see at all), and then headed
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| Old Faithful #4! |
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Junior Ranger oath takers. (There was a huge
group of kids squeezing in the badge-getting
right at the end of the day before the Visitor's
Center closed.) |
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This bison was hanging around right by the geyser
pretty much all day. |
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Waiting in line for dinner - not a bad
view of the inside of the Inn! |
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| Gift shop shenanigans. |
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I spy Cal and Sam on
the third floor! |
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That lady in the corner was playing cello, but she had this
whole cool set up so she could play her own accompaniment
with her feet. She sang, too! |
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Remember how Kim and I were checkerboard
matchy yesterday? The kids realized they were
checkerboard matchy today, so we had to get a pic! |
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And then Dad photobombed
the picture. |
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| So fun to see the old yellow Yellowstone buses! |
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| These logs were the best playground. |
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| Number 5! Probably a record! |
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| Gregg's version of the tree frame. |
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We were sitting on the logs right in front of the visitor's center
for the last Old Faithful of the day when we heard a boy call
to his family who were walking on the path right next to us:
"hey! there's a bison right behind you!" We turned around, too, and
sure enough, there he was . . . we quickly headed to the car since
he was walking our way. |
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| The sunset was lovely on the drive back to West Yellowstone. |
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Picture doesn't do it justice, but this tree-lined
road and the ombre sky . . . amazing! |
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