Monday, June 4, 2018
By The Way this is our “back-note” on day two of our visit to Yellowstone National Park.
We were all packed up and ready to move from the Adler’s to the Madison Hotel in West Yellowstone. Once again, we had breakfast and picked up our lunch at The Hungry Moose and for the last time drove along the Gallatin River to Yellowstone.
Today we followed the Madison River and took Firehole Canyon Drive. It was a lovely drive without too many other tourists for a change and took us to Firehole Falls. After that detour we headed to Fountain Paint Pots. The area was full of dead trees and hot pools of water in various colors putting off the usual luscious Sulphur odor. The walkway took us to Spasm Geyser, which we saw spasming in all its glory. The Great Fountain Geyser wasn’t too active when we were there and was just giving off steam. White Dome Geyser, on the other hand was interesting because steam and water came out of a cone that shot high into the air. For hundreds of years thermal water has been building a cone by depositing silica.
After all of that geyser watching we were ready for lunch and for some fresh air. There are plenty of picnic areas in the Park and we picked one with unexpected guests. There were two happily grazing buffalo about 30 feet from our table. Fortunately, they paid absolutely no attention to us or we would have had to leave. We were more bothered by the tourists who came by to take buffalo pictures, thus disturbing our tranquil lunch. Buffalo are massive creatures and you really would not want to get in their way.
Not far from our picnic area was the Midway Geyser Basin. It was interesting in that streams of hot boiling water poured directly into a running stream. The Excelsior Geyser Crater looked like a blue pond that was steaming inside a crater. Many of these hot pools of water were an attractive aqua color. The water was very clear so you could easily see down into them. The Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest and one of the Park’s most colorful hot springs.
Finally, we are headed to the most well-known feature of Yellowstone National Park – Old Faithful Geyser. It isn’t the tallest or the most predictable geyser, but it erupts the most frequently, about every 90 minutes –give or take 10 minutes. Thus, making it one of the premier sites in the Park. It was late afternoon when we saw it and the crowd was manageable. Old Faithful didn’t let us down and gave us an impressive show.
Next we visited Old Faithful Inn which is a place I would love to stay at one day. Built out of logs back in 1904 its seven-story lobby rises an impressive 80 feet. The central fireplace and chimney is immense and made from 500 tons of rhyolite rock. It is a very impressive place and offers tours which unfortunately had already ended for the day.
On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a few more pools and geysers. Our hotel, The Madison Hotel was built in 1912 out of simple log construction. It reminded me of the Old Faithful Inn on a miniature scale. In the lobby, the log support columns, beams, light fixtures and stone fireplace are the original. The room we got, however, was your standard motel room at an inflated price because of location, location, location.
Tomorrow we return to see the Yellowstone Lake area, but look for it on By The Way With Wendy & Dan (Blog) dated June 5th issued last month.
BY THE WAY WITH WENDY & DAN 