Thar she blows
Wednesday – 7/2
I am finishing this on 7/8, and I have really fallen behind on the blog. The past few days have been very busy and at night I was doing work. I had good internet access, but no time to catch up on the blog. I have given up trying to post pictures with the blog as it is near impossible without a fast internet connection.
Back to 7/2…
Today we are heading to Old Faithful to view geysers and do a hike. As usual, we are not on the road until very late in the morning, much closer to lunch time.
On the way down, I pointed out the Bald Eagle’s nest that we spotted the day before. Really not that hard to find as they have “Do not stop or slow down for next quarter mile” signs along the side of the road. The nest is just a hundred or so feet off the side, and they do not want crowds of people stopped as it will bother the birds. It was a very slow drive, as there were people stopping in the road for every spotting of wildlife. This not only slowed traffic, but caused it to come to a complete stop in places. We pulled off and made a stop along the Firehole River to view some elk. This was a fairly large herd, but not an uncommon sight.
Finally got to the Old Faithful area after over an hour (to drive the less than 30 miles) and started looking for parking. It is a zoo here. I felt like I was at Old Orchard Mall at Christmas time. Finally found a spot and pushed the kids to walk the couple hundred yards fast to the visitors center. Our luck would be that we would walk up right as it was spouting.
We must have just missed it as it was another hour and 10 minutes before the next eruption. It blows every hour and 20 minutes or so. It is not the largest geyser in the park, and not the most “faithful” as the times vary by 10 minutes plus or minus each time.
We decided to catch lunch in the cafeteria since we had time. A couple people had told us that the food was expensive and below par. They were correct on both accounts. We waited 20 minutes, paid over $50 and the kids wouldn’t eat it. Lesson learned, take the 10 minutes to pack peanut butter and jelly.
We lined up with the crowd about 15 minutes before the scheduled time for Old Faithful. As it erupted, we realized we were on the downwind side and could only see steam. Most of the view was blocked by the steam. Charlotte said “Is that it?”. Jackson’s comment was “Well that was a dud”.
We decided to do a 3 mile hike around the geysers and some of the basins. This hike was all on boardwalk and returned us to the Old Faithful Inn. The kids did well on the first part of the hike, but lost interest and melted when we were walking back on the paved path. It did not take much to get them back into spirit when we walked into the Old Faithful Inn. What a sight when you walk in. You really must see it to believe it. We grabbed ice creams and went out on the second floor patio that overlooks Old Faithful and waited 20 minutes for the next eruption. This time you could see the full geyser unobstructed. We all felt that it was worth the extra wait to see it from this vantage point.
We drove back to the campsite, and spent some time cleaning up and tearing down. Wendy did 4 loads of laundry while the kids played inside the RV. We had our usual trip to the ice cream shack just before bed, then called it a night vowing to head out early to drive to Jackson, WY for our check-in to the Homewood Suites.
I am finishing this on 7/8, and I have really fallen behind on the blog. The past few days have been very busy and at night I was doing work. I had good internet access, but no time to catch up on the blog. I have given up trying to post pictures with the blog as it is near impossible without a fast internet connection.
Back to 7/2…
Today we are heading to Old Faithful to view geysers and do a hike. As usual, we are not on the road until very late in the morning, much closer to lunch time.
On the way down, I pointed out the Bald Eagle’s nest that we spotted the day before. Really not that hard to find as they have “Do not stop or slow down for next quarter mile” signs along the side of the road. The nest is just a hundred or so feet off the side, and they do not want crowds of people stopped as it will bother the birds. It was a very slow drive, as there were people stopping in the road for every spotting of wildlife. This not only slowed traffic, but caused it to come to a complete stop in places. We pulled off and made a stop along the Firehole River to view some elk. This was a fairly large herd, but not an uncommon sight.
Finally got to the Old Faithful area after over an hour (to drive the less than 30 miles) and started looking for parking. It is a zoo here. I felt like I was at Old Orchard Mall at Christmas time. Finally found a spot and pushed the kids to walk the couple hundred yards fast to the visitors center. Our luck would be that we would walk up right as it was spouting.
We must have just missed it as it was another hour and 10 minutes before the next eruption. It blows every hour and 20 minutes or so. It is not the largest geyser in the park, and not the most “faithful” as the times vary by 10 minutes plus or minus each time.
We decided to catch lunch in the cafeteria since we had time. A couple people had told us that the food was expensive and below par. They were correct on both accounts. We waited 20 minutes, paid over $50 and the kids wouldn’t eat it. Lesson learned, take the 10 minutes to pack peanut butter and jelly.
We lined up with the crowd about 15 minutes before the scheduled time for Old Faithful. As it erupted, we realized we were on the downwind side and could only see steam. Most of the view was blocked by the steam. Charlotte said “Is that it?”. Jackson’s comment was “Well that was a dud”.
We decided to do a 3 mile hike around the geysers and some of the basins. This hike was all on boardwalk and returned us to the Old Faithful Inn. The kids did well on the first part of the hike, but lost interest and melted when we were walking back on the paved path. It did not take much to get them back into spirit when we walked into the Old Faithful Inn. What a sight when you walk in. You really must see it to believe it. We grabbed ice creams and went out on the second floor patio that overlooks Old Faithful and waited 20 minutes for the next eruption. This time you could see the full geyser unobstructed. We all felt that it was worth the extra wait to see it from this vantage point.
We drove back to the campsite, and spent some time cleaning up and tearing down. Wendy did 4 loads of laundry while the kids played inside the RV. We had our usual trip to the ice cream shack just before bed, then called it a night vowing to head out early to drive to Jackson, WY for our check-in to the Homewood Suites.