Back to Yellowstone

On Wednesday, I went back to Yellowstone. This time, I went to the geyser part of the park (Old Faithful, et al). I had worked at the Old Faithful Inn (a very large log cabin) which is at the side of Old Faithful.

The first place I stopped was at Midway Geyser Basin. I tried to take pictures, but the steam was so heavy, I couldn't see the pools and small geysers. It was almost cold out, so the steam was probably heavier than usual.

The runoff from the geysers/pools went into the river (Gibbon I think) and made gorgeous patterns. Here's one.

In the pools that weren't covered with steam, gorgeous growths showed. There were miniature hoo-doos (different from the real hoo-doos) and lily-pad shapes floating in the pools. All in that gorgeous iron color. Comes from the various minerals/chemicals in the water.

While walking along the wooden boardwalk leading around the area, I saw a bison. Took his pictures. I must have made an impression on him, because he started following me, as if asking to have his picture taken.

After I walked away from him, he stopped and climbed over the walkway to get to the other side. Glad he didn't do that when I was at that spot!

When I got to the Old Faithful area, I walked around the trails to the various geysers and other water features. This one is called Grotto Geyser. There are holes throughout the structure that water comes out of. All these geysers are very noisy when they are spitting and sending out steam.

By the time I had gone a couple of miles around the circle, my left knee was almost non-functional, I had a blister on the bottom of my foot, and my left hip didn't want to work very well. I was going from bench to bench to get to Old Faithful with about 20 minutes to spare before it went off.

I am so happy that digital cameras have come along. When I got home, I saw that I had taken 208 pictures. If I had to buy that much film, I would be broke!

Although the day started out without any clouds, by the time I left, I looked like it was going to rain - cold, cloudy and windy.

But it was good to get back to semi-familiar territory. I guess things do change (not necessarily for the better) in almost 40 (!) years. On the boardwalks, they are replacing the old, worn-out, chemically eaten wooden boards with either manufactured "wooden" boards or concrete "boards." Much sturdier and longer lasting, One of the places I was visiting had a couple of broken boards (wood) or the boards were totally missing.

One thing about going to visit in the "off" season is that there were much smaller crowds. The parking lot at Old Faithful had enough parking space that a couple of football stadiums would envy. And probably 50 cars in the whole area.