Day twenty - four, August 1, 2011
Today's agenda was sight seeings, animal watching, and hiking. None of which can happen until I got a very large cup of coffee after last night! Granted our first night camping in the Redwood Forest was cold and in a very deserted area, however, at least sleeping on the sand was semi-comfortable. Here, not so much. Everywhere I moved there was a rock under some part of my body. It's safe to say that I did not get much sleep and when I was able to get some shut eye in it was short lived. So yes, I was in need of coffee and lots of it. Of course the only place to go was about 20 miles away at Old Faithful. Now the layout of Yellowstone is unique and in order to understand why I had to wait 2 hours for my coffe this morning you need to understand this layout. The center of the national park is shaped like a figure eight There is no way to cut through the center of the circles. You must either drive around the whole circle, or drive to your desired destination and then turn around. So if we drove right to the coffee shop, we would be driving past several attractions that we were hoping to see which would not make any sense. Soooo we stopped at each place and 2 hours later got to coffee and breakfast!
Well now let's back track to these beautiful settings we saw on the way to the coffee. Geysers can be found in other parts of the world, however, nowhere are there as many as Yellowstone. Here you can also find many hot springs, fumaroles, and mud pots. We drove to the Lower Geyser Basin where we parked the car and walked along the boardwalks to see Fountain Paint Pot and then a little further down the road to Great Fountain Geyer. Steam was rising continuously from the spewing holes in the ground. Water, mud, and bacteria were bubbling out of some these hot springs. The water surrounding them can reach up to 180 degree F and the smell of sulfur was unbearable at times! We were amazed at what we were seeing because neither one of us has even seen something like this before. We took tons of pictures and even some video clips.
Back in the car we saw steam coming up from the ground to the left and right of us. We also saw many many more elk and bison. Our next stop was the incredible Grand Prismatic Spring located in Midway Geyser Basin. We first crossed a bridge where we had an amazing view of a waterfall. This waterfall was unlike others because of it's color. Due to the heat of the water, the different kinds of bacteria, and the magma, the land the waterfall was flowing over was different shades of brown, orange, and yellow. We hiked up the stairs and saw several different hot springs and geysers. Finally we came across the most famous - Grand Prismatic Spring. In the center of this spring you were able to see bright blue water but the further away from the center (the hottest point) the colors changed. We saw shades of orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. All of which was covered by a thick steam. We asked a park ranger what causes the different colors and he said that the colors are based on types of bacteria that can grow in the spring. The center is the brightest blue because nothing can grow there due to the hot temperatures.
A few more minor stops for bison and quick photo opps we were finally headed to Old Faithful. We immediately headed straight to the cafe for breakfast/lunch and coffee. We realized that as we were eating we just missed Old Faithful erupt, so we would have to wait another 90 minutes or so. This was fine with me because this meant I would have lots of time to shop! We eventually made our way down to the famous geyser where we listened to rangers explain the history and importance of Yellowstone and Old Faithful. This geyser gets it's name from its reputation - she faithfully erupts everyday! Rangers are able to predict an eruption based on the previous eruption. On average, it erupts every 90 minutes or so. But it is based on how long the previous eruption lasted. For example the eruption before the one we saw lasted over 4 minutes and was very powerful, so they predicted the next one for 96 minutes later. Old Faithful only lasted about 3 minutes for us, so they were predicting the next one would occur 80 minutes later. After the spectacular water show we visited the visitors center where we tried to become experts on the thermal levels in the ground in Yellowstone, geysers, and wildlife.
Our next stop - West Thumb. All day we would approach congested areas on the road where people were slowing down to takes pictures, or areas where people abandoned their cars to get a closer glimpse of the landscape or wildlife. And every time we approached these areas it is always BISON. Bison are EVERYWHERE! We have see more bison in these past 2 days than we ever have or will in the future. So it began to become frustrating when we approached this slow traffic. However, there was one particular time when there seemed to be more people and cars on the side of the road than ever before. We couldn't see anything because on either side of the road were very tall trees, but we kept seeing people walking down through the trees and coming back up. We asked someone if something was down there "yeah a moose!" she responded. Other than a bear, Rob was really hoping to see a moose. So we parked the car, walked through the trees to where it opened up and a flat plain appeared. The moose was standing in the center of the plain eating grass. So cool! I just have no idea how anyone could have spotted that from the road.
The closer we got to West Thumb the more bison and elk we saw! We drove along side of Yellowstone Lake and came to Fisherman's Bridge. Rob started the scope out the streams in hopes that the one he choose would be full of hungry trout! We continued around the circle to the Yellowstone River where the weather was finally beginning to clear up and our landscape pictures were turning out much better!
Once again we approached a huge group of people, all with cameras in hand. They were all pointing in the same direction but Rob and I both saw nothing. There were a few trees along the highway and then a stream with more trees behind it. We had no idea what was causing such a big fuss! Once again we had to ask someone. They pointed into one of the trees and said " a bald eagle". We quickly joined the crowd and our photographer started snapping away. Rob was pleading with the bird to take off, he wanted to get a pic of it in flight. But it was getting late and he also wanted to have time to fish. So we headed back to the car and right when we approached Coco we heard screams of joy and saw people pointing to the eagle in flight. It flew down stream a little ways and landed on another tree even close to where we were standing. Of course we went back down in hopes that it would fly again, but it never did!
We drove to Madison River where Rob attempted to fish while I sat in the car and read Us Weekly. He gave it his best shot but it was so windy that his line kept coming right back at him. After about an hour of unlucky fishing we headed back into town for dinner. We chose a local micro brewery and grill. We sat at the bar and tried a few different locally brewed beers. The bar also provided us with several trivia questions about Yellowstone and Wyoming, so of course we quizzed each other! Disappointingly Rob did win!
The ride back through Yellowstone was thankfully uneventful, no wildlife in the middle of the streets! I bundled up and headed to the tent (fingers crossed that this will be the last time!) Peace, love, and happiness, the Nomads.
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