The day after our arrival at the campground, we made our first foray into Yellowstone National Park. After only one trip, we quickly extended our stay here. We told the campground owner we wanted to stay at least a week, but after one trip to the Park, we extended to 12 days. Why? This Park is massive and each trip is going to be a major adventure that we will have to recover from. Yellowstone is larger than the States of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. And as we have over a 60 mile round trip just between our campground and the park entrance, these are going to be big travel days.
So what did we do on our first day in the Park? We went to the Old Faithful area of course. We had heard that the crowds here are huge this time of year. We had a bit of a time finding a parking space the in huge 
parks lots of Old Faithful. And here is a picture of the crowd assembled for one of the “showings” that occur about every 90 minutes. They have built a section of bleachers (well, benches at least) to accommodate the crowds. You also quickly figure out that Yellowstone is not just an American treasure; it is a worldwide one You hear about as many languages being spoken as at the United Nations. Enough already. Here she is – Old Faithful in all her glory.
We also saw the eruptions of Castle Geyser and Daisy Geyser in this geyser field, but we didn’t get to see Riverside Geyser or Giant Geyser, so we will have to go back for those.
The other major feature that we saw in this basin was Morning Glory Pool a beautiful hot spring with many gorgeous colors. These are only a few of the many sites in just this one geyser basin. There are reportedly over 10,000 thermal features in the park.
You're in a beautiful place. Our first trip, we were parked outside the park and had so much driving to do. Second trip, we stayed at Fishing Bridge I the park. Crowded, but so convent. Enjoy and treasure the sights.
ReplyDeleteHoly cr*p guys!
ReplyDeleteWe were at the 12:02 PM eruption of Old Faithful today.
Are you guys following us around? LOL
We determined the exact same thing as you did concerning the size and huge amount of things to see. By the end of each day we are beat. We've decided to just go to the park every other day and rest in between.
get ready to take a zillion photos...
ReplyDeleteIf you go back for another Geyser, try to see the Beehive. It was the most impressive. There are clues as to when it might soon erupt, and i'm sure one of the geyser geisers will tell you.
ReplyDeleteAlso, try to get to what they call Grizzly point by 4:00 one afternoon, if you want a good chance of seeing both grizzlies and wolves.
You'll be glad you extended. We spent 3 weeks at Fishing Bridge, which gave us enough downtime from the driving.
Looks like you are off to a good Yellowstone start. I'm reading another blog (http://gonebyrv.blogspot.com/) and they are visiting the park as well.
ReplyDeleteWe had no idea about the distances involved when we were there either. As an example for those that don't know, from the north gate down to Old Faithful is 50 miles. There may well be traffic jams caused by buffalo and bears also.
ReplyDeleteJC
And buffalo and bear watchers.
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