Day 30 – Yellowstone National Park

We finally spent our first day at Yellowstone, and what a day it was! We saw so much it was sensory overload. Wildlife: elk, buffalo (dead and alive), coyote, chipmunk, and a bald eagle. We spent most of the day around the Old Faithful geyser area. After we hit the visitors center, wandered through the Old Faithful Inn, watched Old Faithful erupt, we started the 3 mile roundtrip walk to Morning Glory Pool. There were many, many neat geysers, pools, springs. The crowds weren’t too bad which really surprised me. It was a beautiful day with lots of sun and blue skies. The sun got to be a bit much, but the breeze was nice. I loved the neat wildflowers. At the end of the boardwalk near Morning Glory, were body parts of a dead buffalo. I wasn’t sure why they left it right there next to the path. But to counteract that we saw a large elk bull with a huge rack of antlers grazing not too far from the pool.

We got back to the car at 2 and left the area. We went looking for a picnic spot and stopped at Kepler Cascades which was a really neat waterfall. We finally stopped at Whiskey Flats picnic area, cooled off, had lunch, and rehydrated. Refreshed we did the Firehole Lake Drive which was really neat. The Surprise Pool was boiling with bubbles all around the edges. There were neat pools and geysers, and we saw our favorite of the day: Giant Fountain Geyser. It was quiet when we showed up, and we figured it had already erupted (it only erupts every 13 hours or so). As we were getting ready to leave, it started to erupt. It spouted in a variety of ways and heights. We sat spellbound for 15 minutes before we headed off.

At Madison Junction we saw tons of cars pulled off the road. Several female elk were sitting down next to the river, just relaxing. Not quite as impressive as the bull.

I have started a new set of photos called Yellowstone1. You can link to it on the left. I took 107 photos today but only posted 32. You’re welcome!