Yellowstone - Pt. 2

We reached back to the rear of our storage spaces to drag out the small electric heaters for the night. The low was in the 30's at the RV park! After layering our clothes, we piled into the truck for another trip into Yellowstone. We didn't see the snow fall, but we saw the dusting of snow on the mountaintops lining the drive to the park.

With the contrast in the temperatures, the geothermal features were truly spectacular! We were in for quite a drive to see - what else? Old Faithful! One of the main roads through the park and our most direct route to Old Faithful was closed for repairs. Since the park was all new for us, the extra miles weren't really a problem. We were in for new sights either way.

Roaring Mountain wasn't all that noisy, but was covered with steam from geysers and fumaroles. We learned that stagecoach passengers could hear the geysers for several miles before seeing the mountain, thus the name.

When in the higher elevations and shaded by the lodge pole pines, the truck temperature read between 31 and 35 F. Pretty darn cold for August!

The Norris Geyser Basin was easily visible with the rising steam over acres and acres. These pines are naturally reseeded from the major fire in 1998. Fallen tree trunks were still visible in many areas of the park, but were weathered and grey under the newer growth.

This sizable herd of bison seemed to suddenly appear through the fog. They created quite a traffic jam on their way to the Yellowstone River in the Hayden Valley. As mentioned in yesterday's post, many visitors foolishly leaped out of their vehicles to capture close up photos but risked serious injury. Watching the bison for any length of time reveals their spats with one another and very agile movements when motivated!

After the long drive, we finally reached the Old Faithful Visitor's Center. While busy, the parking area was only about 1/3 full. We didn't check the schedule for the day's eruptions, but saw quite a crowd gathered on the bleachers and joined in.

Turns out the geyser was erupting about every 90 minutes on the day of our visit. Craig inadvertently gave a false alarm by exclaiming 'There it IS' when a bit of water spewed. Immediately, dozens of shutter clicks were heard. Fortunately, most were digital cameras so no one wasted any film!

A few minutes later, we and the crowd were rewarded with the geyser's regular performance.

After a few minutes, the geyser resumed it's 'resting' level of steam and the crowd quickly dispersed. We took our time to walk toward the surrounding boardwalk to allow time for the crowd to move on ahead of us.

We decided to take the Observation Point trail up the adjacent mountainside. The trail climbs about 300 ft. in elevation in 1/2 mile, so it's a little steep. We were all warming up and the layers began peeling off!

We hadn't made very much progress when we heard a crowd cheering nearby. Through the tree tops we could seen that one of Old Faithful's neighbors was erupting. We could only see the steam, but it was still quite the sight!

We paused to watch this very entertaining red squirrel. You can see how he's in a full run across the trail. His pace never slowed as he literally raced back and forth across the trail, delivering these tiny pine cones to some hidden stash.

If we have the chance to return to Yellowstone again, we'll definitely retrace our steps to this vantage point for Old Faithful's eruption. The view is truly grand and few are willing to climb the grade to gain these seats!

The entire basin is visible from this vantage point.

After catching our breath and enjoying the view, we returned down the mountain to find this marmot nearby. He was camera shy and difficult to catch from his nook behind the rocks.

After the long drive back toward the north entrance, the big horn sheep met us near the same bluffs as the day before. This time, we were able to photograph a more mature male.

Pleasantly tired and not pushing too hard as one of the boys was suffering some fairly brutal allergy symptoms, we retired to the RV park to rest up for another day of sightseeing.