The Wonders of Yellowstone

While Brittany’s mom was here we were determined to make a trip to Yellowstone since we had lived here for so many years and had not gone. Her mom also really wanted to see it since she wasn’t sure when she would come back this way again.

So we started the journey Saturday morning. It was a nice drive of about 1.5 hours. Thankfully our favorite radio station made it until just before the park entrance. There was also a very nice line to get into the park. People kept trying to change lanes which made the wait even longer. When we finally got through, We decided that we would try and make it to see Old Faithful first and then stop off on the way back to see some of the other sights on that side of the park.

So on the way down we got into a “Bison Traffic Jam”. There were a group of bison at one of the little pullout areas that they have and everyone wanted to park their car there so they could take some pictures. That means driving 20 MPH for a good 20-30 minutes so that people could find a parking spot.

After that little delay it was clear sailing down to Old Faithful. We also had great arrival timing. We got there only about 15 minutes before an eruption. It was nice because we did not have to wait the 91 minutes it would be if we had just missed one. Here are a couple pictures of the geyser and the crowd around it:

Of course we had to make our way to the gift shop to get some souvenirs just to prove that we had been there. After pushing our way through the store and accidentally cutting in the checkout line we were on our way again.

Our next stop was the Upper Geyser Basin which has a bunch of steamy pools of water with lots of cool colors. There were blues, oranges, yellows, reds, and Japanese tourists. It was quite windy as well. You could see several hats of unfortunate visitors lying in the pools of water.

The ground under the water looked cool

The biggest of the pools

The camera does not capture how blue the water rally looks.

After that we went to see the paint pots. They are basically clay bowls that have turned to mud and are boiling. There were also some other small geysers there as well sporadically spraying water.

The Mud Pots

The Spazzing Geyser

 Several hours later, we headed on home. We had one more small Bison delay, but it was nowhere near as long as the first time. We also got a picture of the bison as we drove by it.

The trip was well worth the long drive and hot weather. We ended the day with a stop at Frontier Pies for a great dinner and amazing pieces of pie.