2017 - Midwest, There and Back Again
Friday, July 7
Day 1 in Yellowstone NP
Old Faithful
All our friends came to watch Old Faithful. This is half the crowd about 20 minutes before it is supposed to erupt. There is a similar crowd to our left. 90% of the time, Old Faithful erupts about every 96 minutes. But, without warning, it sometimes has a shorter, smaller eruption around 60 minutes just to throw off everything. It is a nice, large viewing area with bench seats.
While waiting for Old Faithful to erupt (currently, just blowing off steam) on the right, we can see another geyser erupting in the distance on the left and a couple of others blowing steam between them.
The rangers are coming around and telling us that the one on the right (close-up in this picture) is Giant Geyser and that it only erupts about every 2-5 years. The last time it erupted was 2015.
Yay! Old Faithful is beginning to erupt. No, it was just teasing us, still sitting and waiting.
Beehive Geyser starts to erupt, the warmup act.
THERE SHE BLOWS!!! We only sat and waited 80 minutes in the sun.
Old Faithful Geyser on the right and Beehive Geyser on the left, erupting at the same time. Also, Giant Geyser is still erupting farther to the left out of frame. I didn’t get all three erupting in one picture; I should have.
Okay, enough geyser excitement. Let’s go find other things to look at.
The Gibbon River and looking out over a small part of Yellowstone NP. Very beautiful scenery and relaxing after the crowds diminish. This was about 5:00 PM.
Looking up river is Gibbons Falls, cascading to the Yellowstone Caldera.
Off to Artists’ Paintpots. A short one-mile hike around a loop to look at other hydrothermal activity.
Bubbling hot mud. Mud bath anyone?
Yucky, nasty stuff. What a hike.
Okay, it is starting to look a little better.
A little more character.
The view from the top of the trail is a little more impressive.
Viewing Artists’ Paintpots from the top and looking out over the valley is a rather beautiful site, you should have been there.