Day 4 in Yellowstone NP

On our final day at Yellowstone, we headed off to see the park's most famous feature - Old Faithful. For those of you who don't know, Old Faithful is located in the Upper Geyser Basin, an area that has a lot of thermal activity and several interesting features. On our way to the Old Faithful area, we stopped at Kepler Cascades.

After three nights of camping, we figured it was about time for showers, so we first headed to the Old Faithful Inn (I wasn't really eager to try the showers at the Fishing Bridge RV park...it looked a little dodgy and expensive for what we'd get). For anyone who's considering camping in Yellowstone and possibly concerned about the shower situation, the Old Faithful Inn was a great place to shower. It was inexpensive, you can buy soap and rent towels, and it was very clean and nice. For anyone visiting this area, regardless of whether you need a shower or intend to stay the night, at least take the trouble to go into the main lobby of this historic inn, as it is really something else. Check out my 360 panorama in Photosynth from the lobby:

Here's another way of viewing the lobby image:

Mike finished showering first and I found him out on the patio, sitting in the shade with a darn good view of Old Faithful. He got there just in time to see the eruption. I got there just as it ended. Oh well, I figured, I've seen it before and most likely will get to see it again...little did I know we'd spend all day waiting and watching geysers, including Old Faithful.

The boardwalk of the Upper Geyser Basin is jam-packed with geysers, and it seems like the only way you could miss seeing a single geyser eruption would require both bad luck and a super quick perusal.

Map of the Upper Geyser Basin from The American Southwest

We walked from Old Faithful to Castle Geyser, as Castle is one of the predictable large geysers, and I wanted to see what time we might get to see it (around 8 pm that day), and then up to Grand Geyser, another large predictable geyser. We got there right at the middle of the expected eruption window, sat and watched for a while, then got restless. We saw Sawmill, Penta, Spasmordic, and Grotto geysers erupting. I suspect during the two hours we decided to wait for Grand, we were also seeing the smaller eruptions of Turbine Geyser.

Penta Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

And then, in the last two minutes of the predicted eruption window, Grand put on a show, spraying boiling water and steam to a height of 180-200 feet for 12 minutes. This fountain geyser looks much different from other geysers in it's eruption because of how it erupts from a pool, spraying water outward in addition to upward. Grand, the world's tallest predictable geyser, performs for a short time, then acts like it's done for about a minute, and then the water shoots out at it's peak.

Grand Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

Photo by Mike Boles

 Grand Geyser, Yellowstone National Park

After Grand's eruption, it was two hours past lunchtime, so we headed off to find some food. After lunch, we went to the "new" welcome center (it's new since the last time I was at Yellowstone, 10 years ago, but I don't know when it was built). We watched an unremarkable introductory video, then felt better about our own abilities when it comes to creating motion media. They time the video to show about 10 minutes before an Old Faithful eruption, so we headed outside to watch. Once again, the geyser waited until the last couple of minutes of the eruption window.

We hurried off to the ranger talk beginning at Castle geyser, and enjoyed that. There was a lot of information given on that talk, though I think we'd already gathered some of it from the previous ranger talk and reading all the signage about individual thermal features. One thing that we got from this talk and nowhere else was why the arid landscape was littered with little mounds of grass...buffalo dung. Perfect picture of a cycle: buffalo eat grass, poop out unneeded nutrients, grass grows in the dung, buffalo eat the grass...

After the talk, it seemed time for dinner, but it was also nearing sunset and another Old Faithful eruption. There were some people sitting out on the benches, none over where the sunset could be seen behind the geyser. Instinctively, I thought, why not sit there with the sun in our eyes, yes, but when the geyser erupts we'll get a very different view of it than what you typically see. On every vacation I try to get at least one time-lapse of a sunrise, and at least one of a sunset. By this point I was 0 for 2. Why not find out what the sunset would look like behind an eruption. It meant missing Castle Geyser's eruption, but I think it was worth it:

 Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park,

Photo by Mike Boles

Unfortunately, it's hard for photographs to really capture how interesting how the light was changing during this eruption, but typically before the sun hits the horizon, it can be really hard to look directly at it without clouds or something blocking it. In this case, it was boiling water and hot steam. And it was really quite awesome.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos copyright Katrina Kouba Boles

Sidenote: If you are interested in any of my puzzle photos, I often get them printed in poster-size and would be happy to sell one to you. I have many more from other vacations and locations as well. Send me a note or post one here and we can chat. Perhaps I'll share more of the ones from previous trips in another blog.

Next up: Sunrise at Yellowstone, Grand Teton NP and a change in plans

This is a series on our 2011 trip. Here are the previous posts:

• Day 3 in Yellowstone NP
• Day 2 in Yellowstone NP
• Day 1 in Yellowstone NP
• Devils Tower and Little Planets
• Hiking in the Black Hills AKA Custer State Park

Day 3 in Yellowstone NP

On June 4 we moved our camp from Madison to Bridge Bay Campground. On our way there, we stopped at the Artist Paint Pots area to walk the boardwalk. From a viewpoint above:

Once we got to Bridge Bay we discovered that our site was under a couple feet of snow, so we had to find one they could give us with a dry spot for our tent. Fortunately we found one:

By this time it was well past lunch time and we chose to drive out toward Yellowstone lake to eat something. Another set of PB&Js... But the lake, also covered in snow, was quite a place to view. The waves of snow were particularly curious, as were the melted spots (from thermal features under the lake).

Sadly, because of all the snow and runoff, the only hiking we realized we'd get to do would be on the boardwalks. So, to more thermal features we went.

At the mud volcano boardwalk we managed to meet up with a ranger talk just after it had started. It was a really engaging ranger talk about change and how this park is constantly changing. The features change, and even a feature that seemed to never change at some point went from a lake that trappers used as a bathtub to a highly acidic "sour" lake. We were also fascinated to learn about the buffalo; and he impressed upon us all that we should not take them to be stupid and slow. They are quite the contrary, able to run at speeds up to 35 mph, to clear a fence in a bound from standing, and people have been killed by them.

After the guided walk, we headed off to see the upper and lower falls of the Yellowstone River. Starting at the Upper Falls viewpoint, we'd hoped to take the trail to the Lower falls, but it was covered totally in snow along the cliff, and it was getting dark. So we took pictures, then drove to another lookout of the Lower Falls.

(this is my first attempt at creating a high dynamic range - HDR - puzzle image)

We had thought maybe we'd be able to return during the day and hike if we decided to stay two more days in the park, but we changed our plans and headed to Grand Teton a day early. Next up...our final day at Yellowstone with the most famous geyser.

All images copyright Katrina Kouba Boles

Up next: Day 4 in Yellowstone NP

This is a series of posts following our vacation. Easy access to previous posts:

• Day 2 in Yellowstone NP
• Day 1 in Yellowstone NP
• Devils Tower and Little Planets
• Hiking in the Black Hills AKA Custer State Park

Day 2 in Yellowstone NP

Day two in Yellowstone was a beautiful day: much less windy though still on the cool side. With a good part of the park still covered with snow (it was the first week of June), we headed North to the Tower-Roosevelt part of the park, where rangers had pointed out a few hikes not under snow or water. One of those hikes was the Hellroaring Trail and on our way to the Hellroaring parking lot, we stopped at Gibbon, Rustic, Undine and Wraith falls.

 Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone National Park

 Rustic Falls, Yellowstone National Park

 Yellowstone National Park

 Undine Falls, Yellowstone National Park

 Wraith Falls, Yellowstone National Park

The Hellroaring trail, used also for backpacking, drops for the first section down to the suspension bridge over the Yellowstone River, then through a wooded area followed by a sagebrush plateau. The 4 mi (round trip)  day hike is intended to end at the Hellroaring Creek, but we turned around early as the signs were not giving us directions to the Creek. We suspect that at the final junction (based on the map) we should head to the left, but a group of bison were in that direction, and with other groups of bison further up from where we came down the plateau, we opted to head back. It felt for the most part like we had the trail to ourselves. We passed a few backpackers and started off behind a group of day hikers, but otherwise it was just the two of us. Since Yellowstone is bear country, we did a lot of talking and fortunately if any animals were around, they were warned off by our voices. The ascent at the end of the hike was a workout for our legs and warm in the sun, but certainly not unbearable.

 View from Yellowstone River Suspension Bridge, Yellowstone National Park

After the hike, we drove to Tower Falls. Unfortunately, the trail to the bottom of the falls was closed, so we were only able to see it from the lookout above. The last time I was in Yellowstone, ten years ago, the hike to the bottom of Tower Falls was one of the few non-boardwalk trails we actually did, but it was later in the summer and the falls were not as full.

Tower Falls, Yellowstone National Park

On our way back, and just a few miles from Mammoth, there were a slew of cars parked along the road, which usually means one thing: bear. So we had to join the crowd, and after much careful searching, we spotted what everyone else was seeing: a bear and an elk acting strange. Several onlookers were certain the elk had a calf hidden in the brush somewhere and she was trying to lure the bear away. As the bear got farther and farther away, I decided I really didn't want to see it catch the calf and we headed the rest of the way back to our campsite.

All photos copyright Katrina Kouba Boles

Next up: Day 3 in Yellowstone NP

This is a series on our 2011 vacation. Here are the previous posts:

• Day 1 in Yellowstone NP
• Devils Tower and Little Planets
• Hiking in the Black Hills AKA Custer State Park

Day 1 in Yellowstone NP

Our first day in Yellowstone it snowed as we drove through the park to Madison campground, which was fortunately not covered in snow. Watching the bison running in the snow was quite interesting:

After setting up our campsite, we headed out to see some of the park. It seemed to be shaping up to be a beautiful day, then I got out of the car and was nearly blown over. I took some panoramas as I tempted the fate of the forceful wind and made a little planet of Gibbon Meadows:

Though the wind was very forceful and the air temperature cold enough to push through our 3-4 layers of clothing, we walked the boardwalk around the fountain paint pots, where we watched Clepsydra Geyser erupt and the wind carried the fog quickly into the distance. I attempted several puzzles and a panorama into little planet of Clepsydra.

We then headed to the Midway Geyser basin, where the boardwalk took us around the Excelsior Geyser Crater and the Grand Prismatic Spring. Unfortunately the wind made it difficult to see much more than fog, but it was still impressive.

Grand Prismatic Spring, Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone NP

The advice of a ranger led us to a walk of more geysers and pools. We took her suggestion, starting our walk on the boardwalk around Biscuit basin, where the sapphire pool was the most beautiful thing we saw (and later found out it's one of the hotter features which accounts for the stunning blue color).

Sapphire Pool, Biscuit Basin, Yellowstone NP

The ranger suggested we walk along the Continental Divide trail to the Upper Geyser Basin, which we did. It was a nice, peaceful walk, not including the momentary panic where we had to pass by buffalo around 10-15 ft from the trail! Yikes. We walked quickly!

By the time we got to Riverside Geyser, it was predicted to erupt within the next hour, so we thought we'd stick around even in the chilled air. But rather than simply sit and wait, we walked to Morning Glory Pool and over to the Grotto Geyser, which was erupting as we were there. Finally, after an hour of waiting and only within the estimate by about a minute, Riverside erupted.

 Grotto Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone NP

Riverside Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone NP

Since it was cold, and the sun was setting, it was time to head back to our campsite, where we had a great dinner and climbed into the tent as the snow started falling.

Stay tuned for 3 more days of Yellowstone, Grand Teton, then a twist in our original plans. To see more on the beginning of our trip, visit my previous two posts: Devils Tower and the Black Hills

All images copyright Katrina Kouba Boles

Next up: Day 2 in Yellowstone NP

This is a series on our 2011 vacation. Here are the previous posts:

• Devils Tower and Little Planets
• Hiking in the Black Hills AKA Custer State Park

Devil's Tower and Little Planets

...a continuation from my last post on hiking in the Black Hills.

Before downloading the Photosynth app on my phone, I was still taking panoramas with my regular camera, which Photoshop was kind enough to stitch together for me. And then I turned them into fun little planets of the Black Hills:

As the Black Hills were only a logical stopping point for us on our way to Yellowstone, we did not stay long. Another "logical" stop was Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming. Though we did not intend to spend more than a couple hours there, we did go a little out of our way to get there. It was an interesting little drive as the most direct route was closed and we found our way via dirt roads and through hunting grounds. A mooing roadblock gave us about 10 minute's pause:

We walked the 1.3 mi Tower Trail loop, watched some climbers scale the tower and then got back into the car to drive to Gardiner, MT.

Here is my little planet of Devils Tower:

All photos copyright Katrina Kouba Boles.

Next installment: Day 1 in Yellowstone NP