Our final day in Yellowstone was entirely focused on thermal features. And boy did we get more than a sampling. After a really good night's sleep, which I needed, we got up around 6:45am. Yes, the Robitussin and the pint of beer I had did not go too well together, but it did make me drowsy enough to get a full night's rest since I've kind of been sick. I still have a cough to contend with, but other than that I'm feeling almost back to normal.
So, after checking out around 8am, we headed towards the first stop of the morning: Old Faithful. It has sort of been a running joke, because Justin has been asking me every day since we've been in Yellowstone if we are going to Old Faithful, full well knowing that we weren't going until our last day in the park. We got to the Upper Geyser Basin, where Old Faithful is located, just before 9am. Within about 2 minutes of walking over there, she began to erupt. Justin didn't even have enough time before the eruption to set-up the tripod, so we both tried to get whatever shots we could with our respective cameras.
After Old Faithful was finished, we went to the Visitor Center to see if we could find out additional eruption times for some of the other predictable geysers in the area. An older man recommended that was go see Grand Geyser which was scheduled to erupt within 2 hours of 10:30am. We figured we would give it a shot since Great Fountain Geyser was such a disappointment from the day before. We walked the 1/2 mile to the seating area while passing some of the other geysers in the Upper Geyser Basin area. A few of them were erupting when we went by, but they were pretty small at 8-10 feet high bursts. We reached Grand Geyser a little after 9:30 and proceeded to play the waiting game - again.
The way Grand Geyser works is that a neighboring geyser called Turban Geyser has small eruptions about every 20 minutes. When the pool from these eruptions does not drain in between each spurt, it means Grand Geyser will soon erupt, itself, during one of those Turban eruptions. We continued to wait for nearly two hours and still no eruption. Another couple who had been waiting it out had been there since around 8am, and they were sticking it out...what troopers! Around 11:20am, I decided to take a walk to see a few of the other geysers in the area. Turban had just erupted, so I knew I had 20 minutes to kill. I took off at a fast pace, while Justin stayed back with the camera. After about 12 minutes I decided to turn around and head back. When I was still about 2/10ths of a mile away, I could see that Grand Geyser was suddenly putting off a huge amount of steam. Uh-oh, it was starting! I started running along the boardwalk, while passing all of these other people milling around who were none the wiser. I reached the geyser just as it began some of its larger shots of water into the air, rising to nearly 200 feet. After watching it for a minute while catching my breath, I went to find Justin. He happened to be on the side of the geyser where most of the excess steam and water was falling, so he told me to watch his tripod and camera bag while he went to the other side where I had been previously. So, I waited..for maybe another minute. I began getting so drenched by salty geyser water that I scooped everything up and moved. In total, the geyser erupted for nearly 10 minutes and was totally worth the wait. Just like the people who go to the park strictly to watch wildlife, we met a handful of geyser experts at this spot. They were basically going to go from this geyser, to another one to stake out a spot for the rest of the day. And they probably spend several days doing that. They even had walkie talkies, so that various people could keep tabs on different geysers. It would be cool to come back one day and do something like that, but we just didn't have time on this trip.
By the time Grand Geyser was finished, it was nearly noon! So, we worked our way back to our car while viewing some other geysers on the way. We watched one little eruption at Anemone Geyser. It was so cute! It resembled a sea anemone and looks fairly quiet and harmless until suddenly it burps up water, begins bubbling, shoots some small spurts of water, and when it's finished, sucks all the water back down its hole. It all happens in about a 45 second time span, so it gives a quick educational tutorial on how a geyser works.
After leaving the Old Faithful area, we checked out a few other spots in the Upper Geyser Basin: one known as Black Sand Basin and the other called Biscuit Basin. Both of these areas had some really colorful springs and other small geysers.
The next area we headed was the Midway Geyser Basin to see one of the most famous and largest springs called Grand Prismatic Spring. It's nearly 300 feet around. Because of its enormous size, however, it's difficult to take a good picture!
The final stop we made was to the Fountain Paint Pots area in the Lower Geyser Basin. This small area sort of gives an overview of all the different types of thermal features that exist in the park including geysers, springs, fumaroles, paint/mud pots and pools.
It was well after 2pm by this time, and we were geysered out. So, we decided to begin our drive to our Best Western hotel for the night in Lander, WY. It's close to halfway between Yellowstone and Denver. Looking back, we are glad we left the park at that time because there was some major construction on our route that delayed us nearly 30 minutes. We also got to see the Tetons one more time before heading out of the area...they are just so beautiful.
Despite the construction hiccup, the drive to Lander was quite pretty with several landscape changes along the way. Once we left the pine tree rich forests of the Shoshone National Forest, the rocks changed to layers of reds and browns. It was almost like entering into the mountains of the Southwest and the Grand Canyon. Then, the mountains opened up a bit to rolling hills of prairie and occasional outcroppings of rocks. Throughout these fields were several ranches or farms with horses, cows, and some wild pronghorn deer scattered about.
We reached our hotel in Lander around 7pm, and decided to keep it simple for dinner tonight - both effort and price considered. So, we went and picked up Taco Bell and brought it back to the room to eat while we watched the Olympics. All that's left to do tonight is reorganize our luggage for the airport tomorrow and get a decent night of rest.
We're really looking forward to seeing Oskee and sleeping in our own bed tomorrow night!
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