hot spots, gushing geysers, and too much traffic

On Day 2 of our family vacation in August (as requested for my birthday), we left Rexburg and drove to Yellowstone. There was some construction just after Island Park, and traffic had been stopped for a while in our lane. There was a considerable amount of vehicles in front of us, and we were one of the last ones in line before the road worker changed the stop sign to the "drive slowly" side. Because it was a two-lane highway, it was impossible to pass the long line of cars after we made it through the end of the construction zone. When we got to West Yellowstone, there was a major traffic jam. We slowly inched our way south down main street, and then turned eastward to the Yellowstone entrance. There was a massive bottle-necking situation there, and we slowly made our way through that as well. Josh was so frustrated at this point due to all the traffic, Who would've thought that a Tuesday morning would've produced such a huge amount of people trying to all get in at once!! Once we entered the park, the traffic situation got better for the first 10 miles. Then, for the 3rd time that morning, we hit a standstill AGAIN!!! Apparently there was a buffalo sighting on the road near the Madison River, and due to the earlier back-up of the highway construction and the entrance bottle-necking, when that one person stopped to see the buffalo, the hundreds that followed also had to stop. By the time we reached the point in the road where it was sighted, there was no buffalo there. We figured there had to be an animal because after going about 5 miles an hour for 4 straight miles, we hit a certain point in the road where suddenly everyone sped up again. It wasn't until we stopped to picnic after the Madison station, that we were informed by someone else in the traffic jam about the buffalo. We wasted about 2 hours total in slow traffic, and it ruined our morning. Josh wasn't happy about it, and he was ready to go home. But since I had non-refundable reservations at a lodge in the park that night, we pressed on. 

We drove past Firehole Falls on our way into the park after Madison Junction. Every time we drive past it, I wish that we could join the people in the water and go for a swim. We debated about doing it this time around, but since we'd already spent so much time in traffic, we opted not to do it again this time, either. 

We stopped for lunch at a picnic sight along the Firehole River. We ate tuna fish/pickle/cheese sandwiches. A big-horned beetle flew onto Kanyon during lunch which really shocked him, and his sandwich ended up on the ground in the process. Then the other boys all went into a commotion about the wasted sandwich, and Kanyon was still upset by the giant black bug landing on him. I think we'd all been sitting in the car too long! Josh was mad about the traffic, and the boys were mad about lunch. So after the boys finished eating (I had an extra sandwich that Kanyon sort of ate), we made them walk around for a bit before we got back in the car again.

Our first stop was the Lower Geyser Basin. I like how it shows 4 of the major water features of Yellowstone all in one location. We walked along the boardwalks, reading signs about the 4 thermal features while observing the natural sights, too:

1. Hot Springs

2. Mud Pots

3. Fumaroles (or steam vents)

4. Geysers

Kanyon was especially excited to see the first geyser of the day!

The second stop was at the Midway Geyser Basin, where we walked on the boardwalks around the Excelsior Geyser and the enormous Grand Prismatic Spring (my favorite hot spring in the park!).

I just loooove the color combination of the Grand Prismatic Spring!

I could not get enough of it! The last time we were at Yellowstone, the wind was so strong in this spot that the steam mostly covered the area, and it was hard to get a good photo of the spring. So this time, I really savored it!

Our 3rd stop for the day was the Upper Geyser Basin. We arrived at Old Faithful about 10 minutes before it went off. While we were waiting for it to explode, we actually witnessed the Castle Geyser to the west of us erupt first. The water from that geyser went even higher than Old Faithful did! I'm glad we got to see both!! We didn't get a front row seat this time around (like we did in 2009--our last trip to the park) because we arrived so late.

After we saw Old Faithful, we went into the Lodge and got ourselves some ice cream and frozen yogurt cones. That was the perfect mid-day treat on a hot day! We ate them as we walked around the boardwalks behind Old Faithful. Josh and I had never been on that walk before. It was a nice loop that showed a variety of thermal features. I got some fun shots of some of what we saw at the Upper Geyser Basin:

the colors of this pool were so unique!

The edge of this hot spring reminded me of the pools at
Mammoth Hot Springs in northern Yellowstone. 

This hot spring fascinated me. I liked the little pebble-looking
things inside the shape that looks like an Eagle Scout medal. 

I liked the shape of this one, too;
 it reminds me of Bear Grass (aka Sperm flower).

At the end of the walk is Castle Geyser--the geyser that we'd witnessed erupting earlier. It only erupts twice a day, about every 12 hours, so we were truly lucky to see it when we did! I'd never seen Castle Geyser before, but I really liked the shape and look of it!

When we finished the walk, which took about an hour, we decided we would stick around for 30 more minutes before leaving to watch Old Faithful erupt again. We wandered around the Ranger Station for a while looking at exhibits, before heading back outside to wait for the geyser to explode. And I'm glad we did! It was even better than the one we'd seen 90 minutes earlier. It went higher, lasted longer, and the angle we were at was a much better view of it!

The lodge we were staying at in the park was at Grant Village, and there's not a whole lot between the Upper Geyser Basin and Grant. We didn't want to get to our hotel too early and be bored (because there's no TV or swimming pool!), so we decided to back-track and go back to the Midway Geyser Basin again. While we were walking around the Grand Prismatic Spring earlier that day, we'd spotted some people up on the hill overlooking it. We figured there had to be some way to get there ourselves and have a different viewpoint of my favorite spring in the park, so we looked on the park map and found a trail to Fairy Falls that would also walk past the Spring. It was over a half mile walk on the trail to a the spring, but there was no marked hiking trails to go up into the hills from there. There were several pathways where it was obvious that others had used, and we finally picked one of those and started hiking. It was very steep, but so worth it! The views were spectacular! Josh and the boys made it to a great spot overlooking the hot springs, but I didn't get as far as them. 

At a certain point, I decided not to go any further. After a while, I could see where they ended up from the place I had stopped at.

I was already so far behind them, that it didn't make sense for me to take more time to get to them since I was already content with the views from where I was at!

Have I already mentioned how much I love this natural color combination?! It's just so breathtakingly beautiful!

We all enjoyed the hike immensely! As we all started making our way off the hillside, Josh was sweet enough to come back over to where I was to make sure that I descended safely. Ever since my knee surgery 2 years ago, going down stairs is the hardest and hurts the most for my knee. Going down that steep hill felt just the same as going down steps, so I was so grateful and thrilled that he thought of me and came to assist me!

We decided we'd had enough walking and hiking for one day, so we drove to Grant Village and checked into our hotel room. We ate chicken ranch wraps for dinner, then Josh and the boys lounged on the beds reading books they'd brought from home. Kanyon had been working on getting his Jr. Ranger badge at Yellowstone, and one of the requirements is to go to a Ranger program, so I took him to one that night at the Grant Village Ranger station. It was very informational and quite fascinating. I learned all about the caldera that comprises Yellowstone park. Caldera means a sunken volcano. The ranger had a demonstration for us on how that works. She had a box of flour, and at the bottom of the flour was a whoopee cushion. She pumped some air into it using a tire pump, and we could see how cracks were formed in the flour, then with more pressure, it completely gave way, and the flour was depressed into the shape of a circle.  I enjoyed learning about how Yellowstone was formed, and the history of the park.

The ranger's program lasted almost an hour, and when Kanyon and I got back to our hotel room at the Lodge, the boys were getting restless and tired of reading. So, I brought in the DVD player from the car, and we watched "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" on the tiny screen (sometimes when we're on vacation, we like to show the boys classic films from when Josh and I were young!). They fell asleep peacefully while watching the movie, thus ending our 2nd day of vacation. Our experience that day hadn't been what we expected it would be, but we were flexible and persevered, and I was glad to be visiting the park again (it had been 5 years since our last trip there!).