Day 36 – Yellowstone NP WY

It was another long, but awesome day. We set off at 9 to see the thermal areas from Madison to Old Faithful: Fountain Paint Pots, Midway Geyser Basin, Biscuit Basin, and Black Sand Basin. At the park entrance, more people were coming in than we have seen all week. We had 2 “animal dams” (traffic jams caused by animals near or on the road). Annoying but understandable.

Fountain Paint Pots parking lot was full and crowded, so we went on down to Midway Geyser Basin. The big deal here is the Grand Prismatic Spring. It is huge and gorgeous. We then took a mile hike on the other side of the basin and climbed a hill to get a better photo. Luckily the sky had some big fluffy clouds so the sun didn’t kill us.

We went to the Old Faithful Inn for lunch. We both had a red pepper and roasted gouda soup. Bill had a burger that was almost charred, but my French dip sandwich was good. Fortified we went to Black Sand Basin that had some beautiful springs and geysers. At all the thermal areas, we saw the bacteria the lives around some of the pools and are wonderful colors. At Biscuit Basin we saw one of the prettiest pools called Sapphire Pool.

Finally we made it to Fountain Paint Pots and found a place to park. A bus almost ran over a family as it turned a corner too close. The mom was shouting obscenities at the driver, but he just kept on going. Here we saw Celestine Pool where a guy died trying to save a dog that had fallen into the pool. You can read about it here. We were very impressed with the Clepsydra Geyser that erupts almost continuously. Then right next to it, Fountain Geyser went off for 30 minutes and was amazing. To top it off, a smaller geyser across the boardwalk went off periodically. The whole thing was sort of like a fireworks finale that lasted for 30 minutes. Wow!

We stopped at the grocery in West Yellowstone, came back to the RV, had dinner, and watched a big storm blow through. It has calmed down now and is quite lovely outside.

Today’s photos can be accessed by clicking the Yellowstone 3 link to the left.