Flashback: Yellowstone, Day Two

Continuing to catch up on what we did while in Yellowstone...

We started our day by visiting the geysers and hot springs at West Thumb (so called because to early explorers, Yellowstone Lake appeared to be shaped like a hand). We had a nice walk around the basin, and saw the painted pools and numerous hot springs. Apparently, there were some geysers there, but nothing erupted during our visit. However, we did see dozens of bubbling and steaming springs which were hot enough to kill a person. We kept our distance and admired them safely.
















Next, we drove from West Thumb over to Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin. Along the way, we stopped at the Continental Divide marker. Christina is a weather buff, so this was an important stopping point for her. (You actually cross over the Divide at several places in the park, but it was still fun.)

We got over to Old Faithful in the early afternoon. We were nervous at first when we saw a geyser going off in the distance, but this later turned out to be one other than Old Faithful. We actually had a little time to kill before the eruption, so we stopped in the visitor center for awhile. We later made it to the main viewing platform in time for the next eruption, which lasted about 5 minutes. Kiersten was interested in it briefly, but decided to play for the rest of the event.




Kiersten started to act up after that, mostly because she missed her afternoon nap. We took a brief visit to the Old Faithful Inn, a 104-year old building where Teddy Roosevelt stayed. It's a fabulous, grand old building which we hope to stay in the next time we visit the park. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the interior; it was too dark and my camera couldn't pick them up.

We finished our day with a walking tour of the Upper Geyser Basin. We saw some go off, and others just stew without event. Some of our highlights included the Chinese Spring (which was actually discovered by a Japanese man), the Sawmill Geyser (which swirls clockwise and sounds like its namesake), the Great Fountain Geyser (we missed the once-every-twelve-hours eruption), the Grand Geyser (hasn't gone off since April), and the Castle Geyser (pictured here; it resembles its namesake). The tour was mostly enjoyable, although Kiersten was still cranky due to boredom and exhaustion. We did learn that we needed to respect her schedule on vacation and remember that she needs time for fun as well.

It was an otherwise fruitful day, but we did cram in a little too much, and were exhausted by the end. Would the next day be any better? Stay tuned....